The hustle bustle of the crowds, the traffic, the decay of contemporary culture, drugs, loud music, crime, garbage — New York is Cathy’s town, and it always will be (Yes, a horrible mimicking of the wonderful opening lines in Woody Allen’s movie Manhattan). But the choices are different for Cathy’s father Ken, as he links Cathy back to the slow, quiet of the villagers, the muddy roads, the insistence of traditional filial piety, the underdeveloped — Cathy’s foreign hometown.
Cathy, my new friend and a Macaulay freshman at Baruch College, was born in Jiangxi, China.
Jiangxi is a relatively poor Chinese province where most of the cities are still underdeveloped. Cathy’s Chinese name is Anqi, it means angel. She immigrated to the United States with her mom when she was 10 years old, grew up in New York and went to Bronx Science for high school, Cathy proudly describes herself as a New Yorker.
Although Cathy was born in Jiangxi province, she does not really have a city that she calls it ‘home’ in China. When asked about things that she left behind, Cathy affirmatively replied, “Nothing. I often moved around in China, so I did not have much attachment to China”. She continues to explain, “I moved three cities in ten years: Beijing, Jiangxi and Guangzhou, so I did not have an attachment to any city. Except New York because I have lived here the longest”. The constant moving experience has shaped Cathy’s ability to adopt environment in New York.
“I did not mind all things about not being accepted into the community or school. I like changes. New York is like Beijing, nothing surprising”.
I found Cathy’s answer relatable as I also moved often while in China; I did not have a familiar neighborhood. Therefore, I decided to dig further about Cathy’s opinion about her cultural heritage.
While Cathy spent most of her life living in New York and plans to work on Wall Street, Cathy’s father Ken made a different decision in desiring for Cathy to be more connected to her Chinese cultural roots. Having scored the regional top five in mathematics and science in China’s National Matriculation Examination (similar to the SAT), also commonly known as Gaokao, Ken was the first person in his family to receive higher education and attend college. Ken graduated from one of the most selective and leading universities in China — Peking University.
Different from the urban life that Cathy has, Cathy’s father Ken experiences a mix of both modernized metropolitan culture and traditional ways of living in his village. Ken is the transition from the complete traditional life to the newly revolutionary modern life. In evaluating the future of Cathy, Ken decided to immigrate to the United State for economic and educational purpose. Yet on the other hand, he believes Cathy should still have some connections to her family in China.
Upon Ken’s suggestion, Cathy visited her father’s hometown in China last year summer; and Ken’s intention to bring Cathy closer to her family in China had seemly failed. Cathy fled away after one week living in the village. As a person growing up in mostly the metropolitan areas, even when she was in China, Cathy had rarely visited where her family came from — a poor little village. Cathy felt extremely uncomfortable regarding the strange environment.
“They spoke a different dialect and expected me to do the same, in the same tone. An old lady once came up to me, started talking to me in the dialect and I was like ‘what’?”
The experience in the village was completely different from what Cathy had lived her entire life. She counted her fingers as she was listing the things she hated about the village, “there was no even air conditioning, I could not get used to the foods and ended up not eating much for the entire week”, Cathy sighed, “At least there was WiFi, that was the only comfort”.
Although Cathy is an excellent Chinese speaker, it was still hard for Cathy to build a connection to her family because she did not know how to speak the dialect.
“My grandfather talked to me in the dialect, but I was only able to understand a few words. I meet him for only five times, so we were not even closed”.
Cathy paused a second and she reminded of something important,
“And I did not like my grandfather told my dad that a girl should not hang out too much. He said I should stay home more and that I have deviated too much. My dad was not happy about my grandfather’s comment”.
A journey to China did not remind Cathy of her childhood memory in China.
“I was rather surprised when I visited China this time, all of the people are Chinese. In New York, we do not have the concept of foreigners”.
Due to the lack of cultural attachment, Cathy felt rather neutral and objective to Chinese culture. She offered an instance to describe her position, “A friend of mine in high school came here even earlier than me, 8 or 9 years old, and she still could not get used to New York, even now. She hated here and wanted to go back. I am the opposite of her”. Cathy wished to merge into American popular culture, in that way will make her life easier.
“I intend to keep some Chinese cultures, but not willing to get too involved. I view my Chinese culture, such as my Chinese language ability, as an advantage. Not for the purpose of keeping so-call originality”.
Indeed, a gap has appeared between Cathy’s generation and her grandfather’s generation; Cathy tended to make her cultural heritage more universal while Cathy’s family in the village wished her to maintain reserved traditions for girls. However, Ken’s generation, which represents the transition between the modernized one and the traditional one, plays a vital role in influencing and shaping their family’s cultural heritage.
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