5 pages essay

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

The Communities in the past An individual is formed majorly by the ways of the people they find when they are born,

parents, siblings, religious institutions, academic institutions they attend and even the social

activities they find upon being born. Although I studied in America for about 5 years, I still love

my country and my family in China. I came to this country at the age of 15. I was born in China

in Shenzhen, where my father was owner of a real estate company while my mother was working

with father and doing accounting work which means organizing the money. I grew up speaking

both English and the Chinese language and adopted the ways of English children who I had

formed close friendships with. My parents then sent me to school in the United States, although I

occasionally visit Chinese especially during summer to visit our other relatives in China. Life in

China is so different from how people live in this part of the world especially on the aspect of

socialization. In the Asian country life is fully communal and everything is done nearly by the

whole society contrary to the individualistic culture of Americans. My Chinese upbringing has

shaped who I am many years even after leaving China although a few aspects are gradually

changing to mirror the American society and their ways of doing things, something I noted last

summer when I visited Shenzhen.

In China, there is little of an individual life. Most of the things are done collectively and

the society has values which enhance this kind of living. A collectivist culture drowns the

specific aspects of the individual and smoothers them with a common pool of values which

makes the person inseparable from their societies. When a child is born, it belongs to the parents,

the school and the locality. These parties instill moral values and perspectives towards life. When

I was in primary and secondary schools, I was at school, home and tutor every day. It’s kind of

boring and dull for me, but my parents wanted me to do it and said: “is good for you”. According

to the article Home at Last: “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” ( pages 125). These quotes can represent my confusion and

helplessness towards life at that time. I follow every step that my parents plan for me, I don’t

have any thought or choice to do what I want to do.

After I came to America, 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” (Home at Last and 124).

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.