Are we Chinese American... or American Chinese? (original) (raw)

AZN	[28 Apr 2005\|02:43pm]
ay... im new and just checking out the place. Just wanna say hi...Thats all.
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hi	[26 Jan 2005\|11:45pm]
[ mood \| tired ] hey thereI know that I haven't posted in awhile. It's been so busy lately in school, and this year has just been the strangest year. I feel so out of sync with the world around me. Most of my friends are off in college, and I'm left here, still in high school. Senior year is tough. Chinese New Year's coming up... and I just don't feel happy happy joy joy. Lol, actually, I'm too busy to let the joy sink in.Hey npb_101, my parents have kept me well grounded in my Chinese roots too, though I can't read or write Chinese. But they've never mentioned anything about holding chopsticks any certain way. I know that my uncle on my mom's side is the only one in the family who crosses his sticks when he eats, but no one cares. My family's not really into superficial stuff like that I guess. Although, my parents were shocked when they found out I was a lefty. They made me switch writing hands when I was like 3. Now I write with my right, and use chopsticks with my right, but I'm definitely left-dominated still. Though I have become slightly ambidextrious, so I guess some good did come out of that superficial belief.
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[26 Jan 2005|11:45pm]

[ **mood** |

tired ] hey thereI know that I haven't posted in awhile. It's been so busy lately in school, and this year has just been the strangest year. I feel so out of sync with the world around me. Most of my friends are off in college, and I'm left here, still in high school. Senior year is tough. Chinese New Year's coming up... and I just don't feel happy happy joy joy. Lol, actually, I'm too busy to let the joy sink in.Hey npb_101, my parents have kept me well grounded in my Chinese roots too, though I can't read or write Chinese. But they've never mentioned anything about holding chopsticks any certain way. I know that my uncle on my mom's side is the only one in the family who crosses his sticks when he eats, but no one cares. My family's not really into superficial stuff like that I guess. Although, my parents were shocked when they found out I was a lefty. They made me switch writing hands when I was like 3. Now I write with my right, and use chopsticks with my right, but I'm definitely left-dominated still. Though I have become slightly ambidextrious, so I guess some good did come out of that superficial belief.

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Respectful	[19 Jan 2005\|01:54pm]
[ mood \| thinking ] In my journal, I've written about my family before and about its diverseness. A couple of memories were brought up these past few days. One is that one to belong somewhere, you should respect that somewhere's rules and customs. My brother's girlfriend, who is White, has put chopsticks vertically downwards into the rice a few times. My mom saw this once while we were all eating dinner, and she wasn't happy with what she saw. Later on while my bro's gf wasn't in the living room, my mom told my brother that she needed to stop doing that because it was VERY disrespectful; it symbolized death or something similar. A 同學 from Hong Kong and I had lunch once. He commented on the way I used my chopsticks. For me, I used to (until he commented) have the sticks cross each other at the tips, but now I've corrected that. He told me his father used to hit his hand everytime he held it wrong. The cross is also disrespectful I found out. I asked my other brother's girlfriend, who's Korean, and she holds it the correct way, explaining the same reason. I asked my mother why she never corrected me. She didn't know about this tradition, so she didn't try to change the habit. I ate phở with some Vietnamese friends a while back, and one girl said to me" Hey, you hold your chopsticks like I do! See!" she held it the way where it crossed at the top. "Look, T holds it like an old man" (the way you're supposed to hold it).
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Respectful

[19 Jan 2005|01:54pm]

[ mood | thinking ] In my journal, I've written about my family before and about its diverseness. A couple of memories were brought up these past few days. One is that one to belong somewhere, you should respect that somewhere's rules and customs. My brother's girlfriend, who is White, has put chopsticks vertically downwards into the rice a few times. My mom saw this once while we were all eating dinner, and she wasn't happy with what she saw. Later on while my bro's gf wasn't in the living room, my mom told my brother that she needed to stop doing that because it was VERY disrespectful; it symbolized death or something similar. A 同學 from Hong Kong and I had lunch once. He commented on the way I used my chopsticks. For me, I used to (until he commented) have the sticks cross each other at the tips, but now I've corrected that. He told me his father used to hit his hand everytime he held it wrong. The cross is also disrespectful I found out. I asked my other brother's girlfriend, who's Korean, and she holds it the correct way, explaining the same reason. I asked my mother why she never corrected me. She didn't know about this tradition, so she didn't try to change the habit. I ate phở with some Vietnamese friends a while back, and one girl said to me" Hey, you hold your chopsticks like I do! See!" she held it the way where it crossed at the top. "Look, T holds it like an old man" (the way you're supposed to hold it).

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Hey All	[16 Jan 2005\|12:00am]
[ mood \| calm ] 1st post for me. My name is James, and I am American Chinese. I would call myself Chinese American if I wasn't born in the States. I joined this community because I thought I might have some commonality with a few of you. Its kind of funny in that, people look to others with similarity to feel more at home; more comfortable. So there are tons of Chinese dialects; the most common being Cantonese and Mandarin. I speak a dialect that comes from both China and Vietnam. They call it "ai". Its similar to Cantonese but there are subtle differences. I'm taking a Mandarin class at my college, and its going quite well. I feel that I'm getting in touch with my heritage. Back in high school, I was shunned by the typical azn Chinese crowd, because I couldn't speak their language or I refused to speak to "prove" my Chineseness. I didn't feel like I fit in, always felt like an outsider, a minority within the minority. My parents, had the chance of teaching my siblings and I Cantonese, but they chose to teach us this "dying" dialect (I say dying because there aren't a lot of us around). When my parents took me to Chinese school back when I was like in 3rd and 4th grade, I had good and bad experiences there; mainly bad though. The good was that I met some really interesting students there, but the bad was that I was made fun of when I tried to speak to the other kids (mainly Cantonese) in my dialect. I felt like I was lower class just cause I couldn't speak their dialect. I can pretty much understand them, but they can't understand me. Perhaps the effect of all this has had affects on the way I view myself. Now that I've gotten older and see things differently. I am more appreciative of where my parents are from, and where my heritage is from. I am glad that my parents taught me this language; I'm proud to speak it. I eventually plan to learn Cantonese (shouldn't be too hard...).
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Hey All

[16 Jan 2005|12:00am]

[ **mood** |

calm ] 1st post for me. My name is James, and I am American Chinese. I would call myself Chinese American if I wasn't born in the States. I joined this community because I thought I might have some commonality with a few of you. Its kind of funny in that, people look to others with similarity to feel more at home; more comfortable. So there are tons of Chinese dialects; the most common being Cantonese and Mandarin. I speak a dialect that comes from both China and Vietnam. They call it "ai". Its similar to Cantonese but there are subtle differences. I'm taking a Mandarin class at my college, and its going quite well. I feel that I'm getting in touch with my heritage. Back in high school, I was shunned by the typical azn Chinese crowd, because I couldn't speak their language or I refused to speak to "prove" my Chineseness. I didn't feel like I fit in, always felt like an outsider, a minority within the minority. My parents, had the chance of teaching my siblings and I Cantonese, but they chose to teach us this "dying" dialect (I say dying because there aren't a lot of us around). When my parents took me to Chinese school back when I was like in 3rd and 4th grade, I had good and bad experiences there; mainly bad though. The good was that I met some really interesting students there, but the bad was that I was made fun of when I tried to speak to the other kids (mainly Cantonese) in my dialect. I felt like I was lower class just cause I couldn't speak their dialect. I can pretty much understand them, but they can't understand me. Perhaps the effect of all this has had affects on the way I view myself. Now that I've gotten older and see things differently. I am more appreciative of where my parents are from, and where my heritage is from. I am glad that my parents taught me this language; I'm proud to speak it. I eventually plan to learn Cantonese (shouldn't be too hard...).

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	[24 Oct 2004\|07:05pm]
[ mood \| contemplative ] HiI just joined this community because i needed some information on how chinese people act.. I do not want to use this term.. but what are the typical characteristics of "fobby" chinese females? I am mostly familiar with Koreans because I come from that background, but I made my first chinese friend, and I want to know a little about how they act. Is it normal to talk about relationships? Is it true that only couples in China hold hands? What about eating and other things? She is from Shanghai (if that makes any difference).. Sorry if i said anything strange.. I just do not know anything about China!!! ^^;;Thank you for any help~ ^^
6 comments\|post comment

[24 Oct 2004|07:05pm]

[ **mood** |

contemplative ] HiI just joined this community because i needed some information on how chinese people act.. I do not want to use this term.. but what are the typical characteristics of "fobby" chinese females? I am mostly familiar with Koreans because I come from that background, but I made my first chinese friend, and I want to know a little about how they act. Is it normal to talk about relationships? Is it true that only couples in China hold hands? What about eating and other things? She is from Shanghai (if that makes any difference).. Sorry if i said anything strange.. I just do not know anything about China!!! ^^;;Thank you for any help~ ^^

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中国诗社	[21 Oct 2004\|02:43pm]
xposted from yangjiejie 中国诗社由旅美诗人蒋品超发起成立.中國詩社啟示中國詩社(http://www.chinesepoets.org/)﹐由幾位網絡熱心詩人于海外成立﹐並將與海內外有志之士攜手推動中國文化在詩歌領域的發展﹐激濁揚清﹐擯棄當今中國詩壇偏安靡亂的腐敗之風。中國詩社主張“反思歷史﹐關注政治﹐悲憫民生” 。中國詩社現已多位漢詩翻譯人員﹐及如在美國大學教授漢語詩歌的奚密教授與漢學家梅丹尼博士加入﹐並已與美國詩人協會(http://www.poets.org) 取得聯係。中國詩社願為將中國詩歌向國際推展作出自己的努力。中國詩社剛剛成立﹐力量幼小﹐真誠期望您的幫助與參與﹐殷切渴望各大媒體的推介與扶持﹐我們將無限感激﹗﹗中國詩社
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中国诗社

[21 Oct 2004|02:43pm]

xposted from

yangjiejie 中国诗社由旅美诗人蒋品超发起成立.中國詩社啟示中國詩社(http://www.chinesepoets.org/)﹐由幾位網絡熱心詩人于海外成立﹐並將與海內外有志之士攜手推動中國文化在詩歌領域的發展﹐激濁揚清﹐擯棄當今中國詩壇偏安靡亂的腐敗之風。中國詩社主張“反思歷史﹐關注政治﹐悲憫民生” 。中國詩社現已多位漢詩翻譯人員﹐及如在美國大學教授漢語詩歌的奚密教授與漢學家梅丹尼博士加入﹐並已與美國詩人協會(http://www.poets.org) 取得聯係。中國詩社願為將中國詩歌向國際推展作出自己的努力。中國詩社剛剛成立﹐力量幼小﹐真誠期望您的幫助與參與﹐殷切渴望各大媒體的推介與扶持﹐我們將無限感激﹗﹗中國詩社

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	[02 Sep 2004\|12:00am]
[ mood \| blah ] ok now... i think it's about time that somebody posted in here. i feel so alone! talking to myself in here! somebody, please, come and keep me company!! (Ah!)alright, that's enough spasing from me. i see that we have 4 members... i think. if that's the case, then let's get talking! ok ok, i'm sick of talking to myself all the time... i'm starting to feel alittle mentally out of balance.ttyl.
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[02 Sep 2004|12:00am]

[ **mood** |

blah ] ok now... i think it's about time that somebody posted in here. i feel so alone! talking to myself in here! somebody, please, come and keep me company!! (Ah!)alright, that's enough spasing from me. i see that we have 4 members... i think. if that's the case, then let's get talking! ok ok, i'm sick of talking to myself all the time... i'm starting to feel alittle mentally out of balance.ttyl.

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j/k	[06 Aug 2004\|10:40pm]
[ mood \| amused ] justing kidding about the whole "Fat Family" thing. but in all honesty, i hope i can make this community feel like a family. talk about anything you want, and we'll see what happens from there. there's kind of a theme here, but it's not set in stone. feel free to talk about anything, with anyone! :)
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Welcome!	[06 Aug 2004\|04:24pm]
[ mood \| happy ] This is still a baby community,... no one knows about it at all. However, I'm hoping that doesn't last for long. Come on in! Join this Chinese version of "My Big Fat Greek Family!" Only, it is now "My Big Fat Chinese Family!"LoL.
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