5 pages essay

Tracy Zhou EAD 1 Section 10 Mr.Akey 2 - 11 -2019

Different Community and Different Person

An individual’s life is influenced by several objects in his life ranging from the area they

were born in, his family, his academic institution, and his religious institutions to his friends and

the people around him which form the overall community. However, migration to some other

place and spending some years in the foreign environment changes the perspective of an

individual in several ways. The community around an individual can be evolved or rebuilt which

produces a significant amount of impact on the life of the individual. I was born in Shenzhen,

now the metropolitan city of China, where we used to speak Chinese and English both. I love to

speak Chinese and I love my country very much, which is the common feeling of Chinese. China

has a socialist and communist system i.e. single party system which promotes the common

ownership of the resources and the shared community space. It is also visible in the lifestyle of

our culture and community. I had a very close relationship with my family and we were so

close-knit that we would not even think of spending life outside of our family and community.

We had a collective lifestyle in which everyone would help each other in all the tasks ranging

from preparing food to visiting the market together for home shopping. We would share

everything, even with my extended family. We learned to be dependent on each other, which is

usually a culture in Asian households and all the decisions are taken mutually. I moved to

America when I was sixteen for my studies because of the better opportunities here. Since then, I

have been living with the host family. The lifestyle of America is quite different than what I was

used to. At first, it was quite difficult for me to adjust here but with passing time, I have accepted

the reality and community has accepted me because “community accepts us for who we are”(

Mengtus, pg125). Sometimes, when I visit back, I feel like an alien in that community but at the

same time, a sense of belonging makes me miss what I was used to at some point.

After moving here, I have learned to do everything by myself which was hard for me at the

start but then I realized that everyone here, no matter, they live with their family or not are

self-dependent and do their chores. I learned to do my laundry. I started washing my dishes and

cleaning my room. At first, it was hard for me because when I used to live in my home in China,

everyone used to help each other with tasks, mostly my mom used to prepare food for us and we

would take turns in cleaning the kitchen after or we would help each other in doing laundry

together at the weekend. Now on vacations, when I visit my hometown I do my work i.e. setting

my room and washing the dishes myself because I have learned it from the changed lifestyle

here. America has an individualistic lifestyle and culture which is different from how we manage

things at our place. It seemed like a whole different world to me at first because people here have

different priorities and perspectives towards almost everything than what I learned in my early

sixteen years. Asian countries have a communal lifestyle that is collective in nature where

everything is done collectively by the whole society and our near community. I still remember

my first days here in America, when everything and everyone seemed alien to me and I did not

know where to go for simple necessities. At that point I realized ​“what it meant to lose and be

alone”. Gradually with the help of my host family, I got familiar with the neighborhood. I used

to visit this small coffee shop often in the evening where I started to know people and I preferred

talking to Chinese fellows at the start. Similarly in my institution, Chinese people had this

community where we would visit Chinese places and restaurants and inform each other of good

places to visit. Sitting with them, remembering our country and culture there, it used to feel like

home in that place within these people. It felt like a safe place for me where people understand

what I am going through and this feeling of being alien was also familiar within the circle.

However, gradually I started making more friends in my institution and my neighborhood as well

from different backgrounds and locals. Knowing more of society started to reveal this new

culture and community here. I have adopted several aspects of American society as well. “could

stake my own claim to it, and in doing so, no one could tell me who I was or that I didn’t

belong”. ( Mengtus, pg 124) My upbringing as a Chinese is the major aspect of my personality

but I have accepted and learned new ways of doing things and I feel that my personality also

mirrors American society because I am now part of it and I believe ​American culture and

community are now a major part of me and I have developed and evolved my perspective in

several ways. I feel like I'm at home here now. Whenever I pass through the streets of my

neighborhood or I go through the hallways of my institution, I feel assimilated with it. I see

familiar faces that are kind and are now part of my life. The street vendors and the shopkeepers

of my locality know me by my face and when I pass their shop, I greet them. I have a community

where I am recognized and where I know what others are doing. I find myself at peace here

because this community has accepted me as their part. In our culture, the concept of tattoos is not

acceptable and whenever we see someone with a tattoo, we find him sketchy or a bad guy but

here, getting tattoos are so common. I remember back in my hometown when the older brother of

my friend got a tattoo, his family made a big deal out of it to remove it. Here I got a tattoo when

I was 18 because this perception has been changed by the lifestyle here. Before I cannot do

anything against chinese culture, such as tattoos. InChina,when somebody gets big tattoos on

their arm, they are the bad person. Right now, I do not feel that getting a tattoo has to do

anything with how a person is. I am starting to accept the new ways here. Homosexuality is not

acceptable in China. Before I came here, I also considered it unacceptable and I thought that it is

impossible to love a person in a sexual way of the same gender and on some levels, I found it

unnatural. But coming here has completely changed the perception of homosexuality. It is

common here and I have learned and accepted that love has nothing to do with the gender, age

color or anything like that. I have friends and people around me who practice it and we accept it.

I find this aspect of individualistic lifestyle fascinating that people are free to do whatever they

feel right and no one does or can object to what we choose for ourselves.

America is a capitalist country which is also reflected by their individualistic and private

lifestyle, which is different than how I am brought up but I am now the part of it and I accept its

attributes as well. It has changed my perception about several things. I have learned to respect

the choices of people in different ways which were not known to me before. I have learned to

make myself dependent on me and I have learned to be self-sufficient in this new lifestyle. My

Chinese upbringing has shaped who I am for many years, even after leaving China. It is part of

me and the values that I learned will always stay with me but the changed community of

America is reflected through my personality. I have learned several things that were

unacceptable in that part of the world. The place which used to be my home feels unknown to the

version of me which I have become here. I feel like home at this place now which has accepted

me as well. In a nutshell, communities play a significant role in shaping the personality of

individuals.