Cultural Gap

Throughout the chapter At the Western Palace, the narrator often hints that she does not consider her children to be Chinese or to even understand their heritage when the narrator is Chinese herself.  She says, “ Her American children had no fallings or memory,” and  “What do you know about Chinese business?” (Kingston, 134,175)  the pervious quotes demonstrate cultural gap between Chinese immigrants and American born Chinese.  I believe the mother who has had a hard life living in china who immigrated to America making her life easy for the children while the children do not understand their heritage and the mother who does not understand American society may cause the gaps. The mother’s struggles are hard in comparison to the easy life of the American born Chinese. The mother constantly talks about how lazy, and ungrateful her children are. Compared to the life Brave Orchid had to live growing up in her village the children seem lazy because their lives are easier making the mother constantly remind them to not take their lifestyle for granted. Another reason for the cultural gap is the way the mother and the children were raised in different countries. For example the mother notes that it was impolite to play with toys or gifts in front of the giver, but, in American culture, it is common for the receiver to open the gift in front of the giver to show their gratitude to the giver and for the giver to see the joyous emotion of the receiver. She also calls her children vein when they aunt complimented how beautiful or smart they were but did not deny it instead saying thank you. In our society, the simple thank you is enough to show modesty and gratitude to a compliment. To deny it is like insulting oneself. The cultural gap is shown when the children look into the Chinese aunt’s eye and it scared her. It seems that in Chinese culture it is a sign of respect to lower your gaze however, in American society to look into a person’s eyes is to show respect and that you are listening. The stereotype of how Asians hound their children to being the best and constantly criticizing where shown in this chapter when the mother talks about how her children are nothing special and lazy. Does she say these things because her sister complimented her and as in Chinese culture, you are supposed to refute that compliment to seem modest or does she simply believe that her children are capable of more than what they think they can do and she wants the best for them that she pushes them? Because the aunt was not used to this, she was frightened. The children have been influenced by American teachings through their friends, teachers, and media giving them a different culture from their mom who knows that they were not raised in the Chinese culture. At times the mother seems to get frustrated because her children do not understand the Chinese ways creating a misunderstanding between children and mother. It is most interesting that these differences are clearly outlined that Asian Americans act differently then the Asians from Asia that people in society do not realize how Americanized the Asian Americans are.