征集关于中国家庭和美国家庭的相同点与差异（the similar and the differences between Chinese family and American family）的英语文章或短文，包括家庭组成、观念、教育、婚姻等，越详细越好，要真实符合中国与美国的文化。
參考答案:1 most American family are richer than Chinese family
2 American family have more than 1 child
3 most American family have cars while most Chinese family do not
1. Almost children do not say Father Mother to their parents, just name their name. But Chinese children say father mother to their parents.
2. American parents never beat their children. Chinese parents do.
3. Most of American parents pay more attention on the education of their children's ability and independence. While Chinese parents pay close attention on how many scores their children got.
4. American parents give more freedom to their children than Chinese parents do.
The difference in Culture: A Comparison of the United States and China
Culture is based on many things that are passed from one generation to the next. ... When it comes the cultural difference of people there are no right or wrong. People should be aware of other culture and respect the differences that are between them. The United States and China are two very large countries that have culture that are well known through out the world. There are many difference between the United States and China, but there are many contributing factors that shape the cultures of these two countries.For example, in China, we celebrate our holidays with all family members and all relatives, but American people celebrate their holidays with their own family. They don’t care so much about other relatives. There is one thing that is a very good point to show the culture difference between America an Taiwan. The Chinese New Year and the New Year from the west are quite different. The New Year from the western side is always one month before Chinese New Year. The day before New Year many people will get together in the same big place to count from the end to celebrate the new year coming. Chinese New Year will give the red envelopes to their children and people will get together for a nice dinner.
Those two New Year celebrations are showing the culture differences between China and America
to be continued
ThedifferenceoffamilyeducationbetweenChinaandAmerica.doc
American Family and Personal Relationships
Research Shows FCC and Chinese American Families Share Similar Issues
By Donna Coble
What is Chinese cultural heritage? How do we pass it on to the next generation, particularly as it changes in the context of U.S. society? These are issues shared by many adoptive Chinese families and Chinese American families.
Since 2000, Dr. Andrea Louie, a cultural anthropologist from Michigan State University, has been interviewing St. Louis area families who have adopted from China. Her research focuses on whether, how, and why adoptive families teach their children about China and Chinese culture. She conducts her research by participating in adoption-related events, such as those organized by local adoption agencies and by the St. Louis chapter of Families with Children from China. She also interviews adoptive families about their adoption stories and attitudes toward China and Chinese culture.
Louie first became aware of the adoptive community in St. Louis in 1997, while on a postdoctoral fellowship to teach Asian American Studies at Washington University. Since then, she has made numerous trips to St. Louis, ranging from a few days to two months, to carry out her research. In 2002, she accompanied a group of adoptive parents to China to receive their children through the St. Louis adoption agency, Children's Hope International. To date, she has conducted approximately 30 interviews of adoptive families, adoption professionals, and community members in St. Louis. In the process, she has grown to know and respect adoptive families, who are breaking new ground as they deal with issues relating to adoption, family, race, and cultural heritage. At the same time, she has come to recognize that adoptive families are in most respects like any others who juggle work, school, church/temple, and other daily activities.
Issues of Chinese cultural identity are not new to Louie, whose previous research in the San Francisco Bay Area focused on American born Chinese American identities, particularly in relation to China. A third generation Chinese American with ancestry in Guangdong Province, Louie participated in a cultural heritage tour called "In Search of Roots" (xun gen) in 1992. The trip, which was jointly sponsored by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco and the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs (Qiao Ban) in China, brought Chinese Americans, ages 18-25, to visit their ancestral villages in China. The trips were intended to not only encourage Chinese Americans to trace their ancestral roots, which extend from villages in China to the U.S., but also make them aware of China's new economic development in the wake of the Open Policy and Economic Reform.
Louie has observed that adoptive parents have complex concerns when it comes to building a relationship to China and Chinese culture for their children. Most of the adoptive families she interviewed placed heavy importance on teaching their children about China and Chinese culture. During the adoption process, both the adoption agencies in the U.S. and the Chinese government emphasize the importance of maintaining a connection to China and Chinese culture for these children. While many parents did not know much about China and Chinese culture prior to adopting, most made admirable efforts to learn about these issues and to expose their children to them after returning from China.
Many parents that Louie interviewed felt that a connection to China is one thing they can provide for their children in the absence of knowledge about their birth parents. They would also like to give them the tools to fit into the broader Chinese American community and perhaps return to China someday for a visit. Unlike Korean adoptees of an earlier generation who were raised with little acknowledgement of their Korean origins, today's Chinese (and other) adoptees are growing up in an era where cultural and racial differences are celebrated. Most adoptive parents Louie spoke with wanted their children to be proud of being Chinese, and hoped that this pride would help them handle teasing from other children or other racist incidents as they grow older.
However, parents choose to emphasize different aspects of Chinese or Chinese American culture. While some feel that having their children learn Chinese language is of key importance, others focus more on exposing their children to Chinese arts such as dance and calligraphy, and on celebrating Chinese holidays. For many parents, being around other families like their own is of key importance, as is connecting with the local Chinese American community. Other families have taken their children back to visit China.
While some parents try to incorporate as much information about China and Chinese culture as they can into their family's lives, many parents Louie spoke with have found it increasingly challenging to maintain these activities after their children enter school and become involved in extracurricular activities such as sports, music lessons, church or synagogue activities, etc. In addition, adoptive families are often multicultural, with familial influences from a number of ethnic and sometimes racial backgrounds. Like many other multicultural and multiracial families, they work to balance these various influences in the context of daily family life.
Louie has come to recognize that there are both similarities and differences between adopted Chinese Americans and the American born Chinese Americans she studied previously. Like many children in adoptive families, the American born Chinese Americans in her first research project did not have much firsthand experience with China. Having been raised primarily in America, many did not speak or read Chinese. and did not comfortably fit into Chinese culture and society. In fact, while in China, the American born Chinese Americans Louie interviewed in many ways identified more with the icons of popular culture they were familiar with from home, including Japanese comics, kung fu movies, and Hong Kong pop stars. Though they were proud of being Chinese and happy to make connections to their ancestral villages, they felt that their experience of tracing their ancestral roots from China to the U.S. ultimately brought them closer to their fellow Chinese Americans and their families in the U.S. In fact, it was the ritual and traditions practiced in the context of their Chinese American families that were most meaningful to them, whether or not they understood their origins or practiced them in "authentic" ways.
In speaking with adoptive parents, Louie has come to realize that many assume that children raised in Chinese American families maintain a close relationship with China and Chinese culture. She hopes that as adoptive families learn more about the variety of ways that Chinese Americans practice Chinese culture and relate to China, they will realize that there is no one way of being Chinese American. From her perspective as a cultural anthropologist, culture is constantly changing and taking on new forms, and it is important not to become overly concerned with issues of authenticity. The forms of Chinese culture practiced in mainland China vary widely, not to mention the various forms that Chinese customs take in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and in other Chinese communities around the world in Latin America, Africa, Australia, etc. Thus, the question of what defines Chinese culture is complex and ever-changing. Should karaoke, ever popular in China and other parts of Asia, now be considered part of Chinese culture? Louie also encourages adoptive families to look toward the vast resources produced by the Chinese American and Asian American communities, which reflect the experiences of living as a racial minority in the U.S. Despite their unique connections to China, children adopted from China will share much in common with other Asian Americans, particularly the feeling of being in between cultural and racial groups.
Louie has been asked on numerous occasions by adoptive parents whether she thinks they are "doing the right thing." She usually responds by saying that the best thing that parents can do is be aware of the issues and make efforts to expose their children to as many resources as possible, related to both China and Chinese-Americans. Speaking as a Chinese American daughter, she also reminds parents that when children grow up, they will almost inevitably criticize their parents for something the did or didn't do. Just as there is no right or wrong way to be Chinese, there is no one way to be Chinese American.
Louie can be reached by e-mail at louie@msu.edu. Her recently published book (Duke U. Press 2004) based on her first research project is titled "Chineseness Across Borders: Renegotiating Chinese Identities in China and the United States."
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