I will start talking about my ancestors on my father’s side. My grandmother’s family was from Guangzhou province, and according to her, almost everyone lived within the radius of 100 kilometers in that area had the last name Tang. My grandmother left Guangzhou Zhuhai when she was 18 years old to join the army voluntarily and ended up in Beijing after she retired from service.
The migration path …show more content…
A part of my culture was being an only child. And after I came to Wisconsin, I lived with host families and had to learn how to behave and interact with “siblings.” It was a very interesting process and I am very glad I had the chance to experience it. For the first time, I had playmates my age within the household and someone to split the chores with, however, at the same time, I was no longer the center of attentions in a family and I had to accommodate others’ ideas when deciding on a shared event and I lost the privilege of being able to do all the activities I wanted if there were any schedule conflicts with my siblings. It was a learning process for me and I think the experience shaped me into a better person in terms of communicating with others. The biggest assimilation I went to through was speaking a different language. Despite the fact that I didn’t want to be an outsider, I wanted to have friends, I didn’t want to be picked on as a weirdo, I had to be able to communicate with people in my surroundings, therefore I was forced to speak a foreign language. However, I also refused to let go of certain traits in my culture. I celebrate traditional Chinese holidays, speak Chinese with others from home, eat Chinese food, etc. In a way I also advertise my cultural. I would teach Chinese to people who are interested in learning, I went to classes as a guest speaker to introduce my country to people who have never been there, I showed a lot of people the techniques of traditional Chinese painting using brushes, ink and water