Chinese-American Culture in Understanding Bone

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Recommended: A comparative analysis of culture between China and the USA

What culture they had was to be forgotten – a difficult and practically impossible feat. The Chinese-Americans faced a wall of cultural difference that could only be scaled with the support of their parents and local community. The book review of Bone by Nhi Le stated clearly how “ … the first generations’ struggle to survive and the second generations’ efforts to thrive … ” made the transition into American culture possible. Overcoming barriers such as language, education, work ethic, and sex roles was just a beginning to the problems that all Asian – Americans faced.

The most obvious and one of the most difficult walls to climb was the language. First generation immigrants rarely became fluent in English and more often than not learned so little that they were entrapped in a society of working in very menial jobs and job conditions. Jobs ranging from sweatshops, dirty factories, shipyards, and railroads are prime examples of the conditions they were forced to live and work in. Fae Ng described the difficulty very well by taking a look at her mother’s job in the clothing factory and Leon’s Job on the ships. They had very little advancement in the work force because they couldn’t communicate well enough that they actually had skills. Trials in the work place helped the immigrants impress upon their children the importance of education.

Education in Asia was and is completely different ...

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