Cultural Adaptation and Change Paper
Part I
My aunt’s life goal was to travel the world to see what elements of Chinese culture have penetrated and impacted various global regions and to assess the similarity of Chinese culture to other cultures of the world. My aunt was born in 1960 Beijing in China, a major town at the centre of China’s economic, social, and political life. At the time, China was experiencing the Cultural Revolution, a sociopolitical movement characterized by upheaval in the attempt by Mao Zedong to regain power over the Communist party (Phillips, 2016). However, she asserted that during that time, the area was safe for them, adding that her family never farmed or owned a ranch. She noted that Beijing City was not heavily populated as it had around 2 million people, which allowed her family to enjoy the various special landmarks in the city, such as Ditan Park. Their home was adjacent to the Wangfujing shopping centre, which had a movie theatre and a department store. Further, a bookshop was built on the street, which became a highly popular spot renowned around the country as people from all over the country would flock to buy books due to the strong reading culture at the time. Regarding physical landscape, her neighborhood had urban buildings that housed the theater, the shops, and the bookstore. The area had good climate because it was not polluted by company effluent, smog, and vehicle exhaust fumes.
She noted that her neighborhood had different kinds of housing arrangements, including apartment buildings and commercial buildings housing the movie theatre, department store, and the library. There were no major farming activities in her neighborhood, although she said that some people farmed on a small scale on their home compounds. Additionally, the prominent park around the area was Ditan Park, which was a good place to take a stroll. She quipped that their neighborhood was generally safe and averred that some of the voices she can remember include birds chirping early in the morning and much chattering from people. Despite the busy nature of the neighborhood, her family did not move often. Her neighborhood had diverse groups of people, and since their neighborhood was relatively safe, they were allowed to visit their family friends and were not severely restricted to move all over the neighborhood. In light of this, her favorite memory is about the interactions she had with children from the diverse families, and her least favorite memory is when their family friends moved from their neighborhood.
My aunt averred that they lived in a two-storey apartment concrete building adjacent to the Wangfujing shopping centre. Her parents had rented that apartment and the family stayed there for over twenty years. She loved this home because it was located in town and they could access almost everything they desired. Their apartment had a sitting room that was decorated with fresh flowers and with portraits of her family in different settings. It had three long couches and a red carpet, along with red drapes that covered the moderately sized glass windows. Their kitchen had an oven and usually had two basketfuls of fruit on the counters. It also had shiny cutlery and utensils. There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms that she shared with her siblings and that would also host guests whenever they came to sleep over. Her parents had a master bedroom that had a huge bed and a bathroom, in addition to beautiful wardrobes. The house had a moderate-sized basement in which her dad kept his work tools. Their apartment had a small-sized porch that her parents would use to relax whenever they were at home. However, it lacked a garden and only had a small yard, part of which her mother used to farm and part of which they used to play. Their house was generally warm and did not have air and heat conditioning and it was almost 2000 square feet, which was almost similar in size to their neighbors’ houses.
My aunt stated that their household had five people, her parents and two siblings and the interactive nature of her parents contributed much to the many people they knew in their neighborhood and the frequent visitors. The family always got up at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and had breakfast together at around 7:30 a.m. They would often have bread, sausages, fruits, and tea, after which her parents would set out for work. She and her siblings would have fish and rice for lunch together and in the evening, they would have larger meals in the evening. She asserted that she loved having fried fish and rice as her mother often bought fresh fish every time she went grocery shopping at the department store on Wangfujing shopping centre. As a family, they would usually congregate in the sitting room and talk, and they played in their yard for fun. They also loved taking leisurely walks and going to the theatre to watch movies. They played soccer and volleyball in their yard, where they and their neighbors spent most of their time playing. They avoided going to town to play because there were a lot of people, in addition to the occasional political flare up. Her mother did the laundry and the dishes and cooked because they did not have a housekeeper as her family was moderately sized and well manageable to her parents. They usually played football at home and school and belonged to the girl scouts, although her parents did not belong to any club. My aunt still maintains contact with her parents and her siblings despite living far from each other.
My aunt stated that loved listening to her dad’s cassette tapes, especially because he was a fan of rock music, a music culture that characterized her neighborhood. She also sang for a short time in Sunday with other choir members and also played the piano in church. They did not have a piano at home and she only accessed it in church. Further, she said that she always loved music by the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Just like many others in the urban setting, she enjoyed movies and had a particular liking for the Godfather (1972) and La Dolce Vita (1960) films. Her family had special holidays that saw her parents treated them to new toys, and new clothes. They enjoyed the Easter holidays, Christmas, as well as their birth days and during birthdays, her mother would bake cakes for them and invite family friends to celebrate the day. At midday, they would visit places such as Ditan Park and then eat out and later go to theater. They also took family vacations to strengthen the family bond family bond. My aunt’s family also had special wedding traditions that she learned about when her older sibling got married. They visited her sister’s husband’s relatives and spent the night talking, bonding, and celebrating. She got inspired by this occasion and got married when she turned 35 years old, after which she was blessed with three children.
She said that her parents were religious Christians and her family went to church accompanied by their neighbors on Sundays and regularly shared spiritual insights during the week. Her family mostly spoke English and Chinese, and they learned both languages from their parents. Considering that her neighborhood was a mixture of different ethnicities, she said that there was a mixture of languages, for instance, Arabic, English, and Chinese. She said that English was the prominent language because it allowed them to interact with everyone, and some of the words they used at the time include “you dig?” asking if someone understood. Her parents also valued education and they sent the children to a school near their home where they studied for nine years. My aunt loved studying mathematics, Chinese, and English in school and often enjoyed doing the much homework she got in these subjects in the sitting room with her parents as they shared a lot of insight.
She said she enjoyed school because the students were well behaved and after completing primary school, she attended college and specialized in Mathematics. She averred that college education was a vital educational achievement as the qualifications she obtained helped her get a job. Further, her family loved discussing politics at home and focused majorly on local, regional, national politics. They obtained political insight from reading a daily newspaper, which we they would talk about during their free time. Politics was an important subject of conversation, although it was not a point of contention in their household. My aunt said that she always loved working because her parents influenced her to have a good work ethic from a young age. As such, she got a job at the departmental store to arrange and dust items on the shelves and even contributed to her family budget, although it was not mandatory. She also worked as a young adult teaching lower-level students mathematics and English and said she did not have a least favorite job because the jobs she did developed her in different ways. Her jobs were all in Beijing, implying that she walked to work, although her parents had a car that she would use occasionally.
Part II
I notice that there is a cultural consistency between my life and my aunt’s life. I also grew up in an urban setting in a home with two parents and three children. Just like my aunt’s family, our family lived in a peaceful area despite the intricacies involved in living in urban places in the contemporary times. Just like was the culture in my aunt’s time, our family and many other families in our urban neighborhood do not farm on their yards and only use them to play and farm vegetables on a small scale. My home is also structurally similar to my aunt’s, although it has more rooms. I also have that culture of interacting with my neighbors and often have visitors because I am highly sociable person. I also love having meals with my family and we often hold discussions on a range of subjects such as politics, different cultures, and on the economy. My parents also embraced the same culture of being providers and our mum was in charge of ensuring that the household was running smoothly, just as my aunt’s mother. I have also experienced different recreational activities to interact and strengthen our family, which we also do when celebrating birthdays and specials holidays such as Easter, graduation, weddings, and Christmas.
My aunt and I also share similar religious cultures as I go to church on every Sunday and participate actively in church affairs. I also enjoy rock music because it examines the intricacies of the contemporary culture I live in, such as drugs, crime, and other aspects of modern life. I also play different kinds of musical instruments as I take part in karaoke and sing in various events. I also appreciate language as the gateway to any culture and travel widely interacting with people from different cultures. As such, I believe that our family shares the same work culture my aunt’s family had because we are all driven and highly ambitious. Although the work culture in my aunt’s time was strict, the contemporary work culture is highly engaging and considering that we all work, we actively make time to be together because we believe that the beginning of love, peace, understanding, and self-discovery is the family.
As such, we have different reading cultures because people rarely buy books from the library as they access them through the internet on their computers, kindles, and smart phones. I would say that these gadgets have also affected the socializing culture because people spend most of their time on their gadgets even when there are in public and still avoid physical interactions with people, instead preferring chatting online. This tendency has eroded the importance of establishing robust social bonds which is gradually eroding cultural beliefs and values. Further, the contemporary work culture has empowered more people to own vehicles, which has affected climate and impacted health negatively. Thus, in as much as there are many similarities between my aunt’s culture and my culture, the differences are also highly tangible.
Work Cited
Phillips, Tom. The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China’s political
convulsion. 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/the-cultural-revolution-50-years-on-all-you-need-to-know-about-chinas-political-convulsion. Accessed 6 May 2020.