Week2_Harry Kang_A01

The research result from the article Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices somewhat resonates with my own situation or experience when I was making choice of my college. Similar as the statistics from the article shows, both my parents and high school counselor played a pretty big role in my college application process, but fortunately, not like many of others, I was able to make my own decisions during the whole process. That means I chose my major and college all by my own will. If you grew up in a modern Chinese family or society, then you would know my case don’t happen so often. It is just kind of a cultural thing.

Eastern Asian, especially Chinese culture has existed for thousands of years, and obviously many of the traditional thoughts or concepts have been deeply planted in our mind, including the education. If you know about Chinese history, education is always a sacred topic. In all ages when it comes to education, Chinese parents, no matter how genial they usually be, will become extremely serious and strict. And they want their children to succeed so well that for most of the time they choose life path for their children by their own will. Same things are still happening in modern eastern Asian families when parents help their children to choose their futures. It not only about just college education but actually the whole education system/process.

Question: Do most of Asian American family take learning Asian culture a necessary?

References:

Poon, O. & Byrd, A. (2013) Beyond Tiger Mom Anxiety: Ethnic, Gender and Generational Differences in Asian American College Access and Choices, Journey of College Admission.

Tam, L. (2018) Tiger parents, don’t sacrifice happy childhoods for long-term comfort – it’s about striking a balance, The Naked Truth. Available at [Online]: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-relationships/article/2165229/tiger-parents-dont-sacrifice-happy-childhoods-long