After being in college for 4 years and is about to graduate Brooklyn College to attend medical school, Sherilyne Zhang takes a walk down memory lane and reminisces on her cultural upbringing. Ms. Zhang touches upon her childhood as a second generation immigrant and how her parents’ dream to give her a better life came true.

Family in the Motherland
“I would say that we are close and it definitely got easier because technology advanced in that area, and now we can call each other and stuff. They have Wifi and stuff like that, which is kinda weird. We try to call each other either every two weeks or once or twice a month”
First Generation immigrant vs. Second Generation Immigrant
“All the time!, They just looovveee to talk about it. You can’t even complain to them because they always say we had it twenty times worse back at home, and you have nothing to worry about it. I complain about public transportation and how it takes an hour to get back and forth or just walking somewhere for fifteen to twenty minutes. And they’re just go off about how they had to walk to school and then walk back home for lunch and then walk back for afternoon school…”
The Dual Life
“So I guess I would say it was a mix, it was fifity fifity. It was more Chinese at home because my grandparents and my other relatives wanted to keep the traditions and customs we had going on so we would pass it on to the next generation. They wanted me to remember the things about my heritage and culture… I guess it was more American, because my parents stressed about adapting to American culture and assimilating. They didn’t want me to stick out as much. They would tell me to lay low and not stick out like a sore thumb”

Culture Clash (individual vs. Family)
“Having two different sets of morals and values is difficult on someone to figure out when to apply what…for example one thing would be the American value of being independent, individual and being unique versus the Asian value of being focused on your family. Every decision you make has a decision on family, and everything you do has to be for the betterment of the family. Even though I ventured out, and I am my own person, at the end of the day I have to also remember that my family is my base and that is what makes me, me.”

Sense of Community in Flushing
“I would say that in my opinion, culture is what made it tight-knit especially the immigrant population. Because everyone has similar cultures and striving for the same end goal- The American Dream. But I would say that the first generation is much more tight-knit compared to the second generation because we don’t associate with each other because we are Asian, it is usually cause we grew up together.”

Culture Shock
“It’s not like I didn’t know other people existed, but to be actually surrounded by different people is like a different aspect. They have such different experiences and different backgrounds and different values and different beliefs and different belief systems. Which really places the importance of recognizing that there are other people in the world, and you’re not just in your little bubble.”

The Future
“I definitely want to the instill the Chinese values that I grew up with, because I do value a lot of them. I think it is important for people to experience other cultures from a young age, and to understand that there is another side of the world. Not everything is just about you and your culture.”