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Chinese Culture
Family Life
In traditional Chinese culture, men controlled the family. This is true in some households today, but the situation has changed in many other families. As more women work outside the home, they find that they have more power in their families. Children need to absolutely listen to their parents. Physical punishment is common, but it is not as bad as people might think. Parents want their children to follow the proper way of life. They encourage them to become involved in extracurricular activities with the goal of getting into a good college. Chinese parents want their children to be above average. Of course, this puts pressure on the children, but sometimes this is not a bad thing. High grades mean a better future. American children are allowed to be more self-centered, but Chinese children feel a strong responsibility to their families.
Beliefs
The modern Chinese government does not support organized religion. Still, there are many Buddhists, Daoists, and even some Christians in China. Contrary to what many people think, Confucianism is not a religion, but rather it is a philosophy that teaches respect for elders. Many Chinese are atheists. However, many people wear special necklaces or charms of traditional gods and goddesses for good luck.
Language
There are more than 235 different languages in China. The major dialects include Mandarin, Cantonese, Wuhanese, and Fujianese. People who come from different parts of China are often unable to understand each other. In school everyone must learn Mandarin, which is the national language. For some people, English is actually their third or fourth language. Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the inflection of the speaker's voice changes the meaning of the word. However, the writing system is generally the same for all these languages, with one imoprtant exception. People from Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional characters to write, while mainland Chinese use a simplified version. Each character is made up of several strokes which have to be written in a specific order. A person must learn thousands of characters in order to be able to read Chinese. While we are fortunate to be able to take certain New York State exams in Chinese, these exams are printed in traditional Chinese, which is somewhat challenging for us to read.
Dress
People in China dress very similarly to people in America. Children wear jeans and t-shirts to school, although some schools require students to wear uniforms. In the countryside, China's 55 different ethnic minorities have their own traditional styles of dress.
Food
In our opinion, Chinese food is healthier than American food. Chinese people eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Although people in cities have modern technology, many people in small villages do not have refrigerators so they must buy their food fresh everyday to prevent it from spoiling. Rice is the staple of the Chinese diet and it is eaten with every meal. Different parts of China have different styles of cooking. Most of the Chinese restaurants around Albany are owned by Fujianese immigrants. American people seem to like a lot of fried food, so the food in the restaurants is also fried. At home we never make dishes like General Tso's chicken and we don't eat fortune cookies. We use chopsticks to eat and we learn to use them as soon as we start eating solid food. On special holidays like Chinese New Year we eat dumplings stuffed with rice, meat, or beans. Many of our holiday foods have special lucky meanings.
Recreation
Table tennis and badminton are very popular in China. Basketball is becoming more popular now because many students play it in school. Gong fu (kung fu) is not as popular in China as people think. Americans watch a lot of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies so they think that all Chinese know martial arts, but this is not true. Many Chinese like to play Chinese chess. Some American movies like Harry Potter, Spiderman, and Titanic reach China. Chinese movies often focus on historical dramas and romance. Chinese teenagers listen to popular music, watch videos, and download mp3 files just like our American peers.
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