Jiajing and I have talked about writing some entries together. As we have conservation she tells me things I find rather interesting; things that we would like to share with you. One of those comments that caught my attention occurred when we visited a Chinese church during her Thanksgiving break with us. Nearly everyone at the church was Chinese and as we mingled among them she said, “I feel rather strange here.” I asked her if she would explain.
The church we attended is located in Plano, TX and is nearly 100% Chinese. It has two services; the first is in English and is mainly a younger generation raised in the US and the second is in Chinese and consists mainly of those who migrated from China. Because of my extremely limited Chinese we decided to attend the first service, but stayed through the music of the second service.
As we entered the church Jiajing felt she was among her own people until she started listening to some of them talk. That is when she realized they were very different because they were American born. In the states we refer to them as ABC’s or American Born Chinese. In China they call them banana people because their skin is yellow but on the inside they are culturally white. Jiajing said she felt strange because they looked like her – yellow skin, black eyes, and black hair – but did not talk, think, or behave quite like her. If they were in China you would at first not see any difference from real Chinese people, but as soon as other Chinese spoke to them they would know the difference.
America is a country that contains many distinctive cultures; including Chinese. These ABC’s have grown up in the western culture and have become quite different from those growing up in China. One wonders how much of the cultural traditions of China have been passed on to them.
Before coming to the US Jiajing had an opportunity to talk to an ABC from Los Angeles who was visiting in Wuhan. Even though he was educated in English language schools and graduated from an excellent university as a medical doctor, he was still knowledgeable in Chinese tradition. Both of his parents were from China and did an excellent job of teaching him Chinese tradition, but since his heart language was English and not Chinese he found that he was looked down upon by other Chinese while in China. In a way this is what Jiajing was feeling at church that Sunday. She felt she was pure Chinese, but these who were born in the states were different. They were different on the inside and it left her with a strange maybe uncomfortable feeling.
Her comment to me then was, “Do I talk to them as Chinese or Americans, because there is a difference?” How much of a cultural difference is there with people who look just like her? How different is an ABC and a white fellow?
