Culture identity

I am a nineteen year old Taiwanese, mandarin speaking, Asian with Maitreya Great Tao as my beliefs. I came from Taiwan, a small country in Eastern Asia with come a culture deeply connected with China. The people in my country are mostly Han Chinese who came from mainland China before 1949 or have ancestors that were. They are divided into three group based on the Chinese dialect they speak: Taiwanese, Hakka, or Mandarin. The traditional values that we have are based on Confucian ethics which are now challenging to industrialization. However, some traditional values remain strong, including piety toward parents, ancestor worship, a strong emphasis on education and work, and the importance of saving face. And these are also my values, beliefs and practices.

I was born and raised in Taiwan which is Home Island. I consider myself Taiwanese no matter where I live because I am descendant from a long line of Taiwanese who came from a small village in Kaohsiung city. I know that China prefers to view Taiwan as an inherent part of China going back to “ancient time” and China wants to claim sovereignty over Taiwan. I do not consider myself to have a shared Chinese identity because I am one hundred percent Taiwanese.

The communication styles of Taiwanese are in front of words, gestures and facial expression. Mandarin, the official national language of Taiwan is my main language. It has allowed me to share my way of life with others and allows me to connect with my culture, roots to my ancestors and to my cultural histories. People in Taiwan are very indirect in their communication and are concerned with the effect of their words on others as they are with the content of their communication. They take great care to avoid communicating anything directly that would hurt or offend a colleague as it would cause a loss of “face”. They will gently push their ideas forward and wait for other to respond. If they disagree with an idea, they will simply remain silent. Taiwanese value the language and the Chinese character because it reminds them of the cultural spirit of our holidays and festival activities.

The aspects that make up my identity are of my relationship between my country and I. To be Taiwanese means to have the aspects and traits of Chinese culture within me which are grounded and shaped by my Taiwanese experiences of my own indigenous culture with the influence of Japanese, Western, South Asian, and Polynesian cultural experiences as well.

I identify with my ethnicity through my race, national and cultural group, and the observance of my customs, beliefs and language. My self-conception, self-perception, and feelings of belonging are due to my connection with my Taiwanese culture.

My traditional and modern Taiwanese culture is import to me because it identifies and defines who I am. Our popular art and crafts awe basketry rattan work, wood carvings, jewelry, and carved jade. We are possibly the friendliest people in the entire world, as most foreign visitors are impressed by the often staggering level of hospitality. My cultural identity is the result of my various characteristics such as my Chinese race, history, nationality, ethnicity, religious beliefs, social values, and the Taiwanese food that I love to eat. All of these are shown and built by my social network with the people doing the same thing and following the social norms.

Taiwan is the foundation for my ancestor’s identity and mine. Religion, beliefs, class, education, profession, skills, language, skin color, family and political attitudes are all factors that influence and create my cultural identity. Kaohsiung city has had strong affect in my culture and continues to influence its people, surroundings, and environment.

The culture, customs and etiquette that I practice are to respect others when I meet someone by a handshake, addressing people by their professional, honorific and surname which are the best way to greet someone when I first meet them. It is more common in my culture that men and women slightly nod instead of shake hands. People should not touch anyone, especially on top of their head because it is considered sacred area.

The five common norms that I follow is the Confucian teaching, which is a system of behaviors and ethics that stress the obligations of people towards one another based on upon their relationship. The basic tenets are based upon five different relationships: ruler and subject; husband and wife; parents and children; brothers and sisters; friend and friend. Confucianism stresses duty, loyalty, honor, filial piety, respect for age and seniority, sincerity. I learned Confucianism in school as a child and have adopted, follow, and put high value in the beliefs and values in his teaching. I have a large family who has lots of serious rules to follow. I am not allow to call people who are older than me by their first name, instead I have to address my grandparents, uncles, aunts, niece, nephew and my younger brother correctly. This is a way of respecting and honoring the people who are older than me.

As I was growing up I learned and saw how my parents value their hard work, patience, humility, friendliness, respect for others, punctuality, friendship connections, and personal relationships for success. They are motivated and centered on our extend family. We dislike loud, showy and unrefined behavior. We are discouraged from bringing shame to our family which would cause loss of face. I have gained more interest in my culture as I have grown up. I ask my parents about my heritage, read about my culture and have attended some cultural events. Knowing more about my culture will be helpful to me because it will be an important part of raising my children, dealing with discrimination and also to have positive perceptions about my culture.

The cognitive structures of role norms in my country firstly are nuclear family relationship, to love and care for each other. Secondly, the norm for status- differential relationships such as father-son or supervisor- subordinate, which is to behave in accordance with one’s status. There are clusters of role relationships, of which the hierarchical family cluster is the most important. I am as a college student among other Taiwanese adults who have similar cognitive structured and we use relational models to contract our system of role norms. Freedom, a high social status, individual creativities is equally important as social conformity, acquiring material goods and recognition of women. These relational models include harmonious, communal sharing, authority ranking, and equanimity.

Politeness and public pride is a common reality in Taiwan. Throughout my travels, I have seen many Taiwanese, particularly in urban areas being extremely accommodating to foreigners and often granting them general amnesty from the Taiwanese nuances of saving face. No one should lose their temper in public because this could cause huge embarrassment and show others that one is uncivilized, undeserving of further attention and assistant. Taiwanese people don’t get angry instead there is a general belief in the virtue of self- control when dealing with others. A smile or a nervous giggle can be seen when Taiwanese are embarrassed or upset, which can be confusing and annoying for foreigners.

Taiwanese value seven import festival activities throughout the year. Chinese New Year is one of the most important days for me. It is a very fun day to celebrate and as I remember growing up, I value the red envelopes given to me by the elderly. I always remembered to thank them and open my red envelope after I got home. This is another form of respect. My mother always tells me that I have to refuse to accept people’s gifts until they force me to take them.

The second important day is the fifth of April, the Tomb Sweeping Day. During this day we will visit our ancestor’s grave, offer foods, fruits, flowers, burn incense and joss paper, and then clean the area. My uncles told me that burning the proper paper could help my ancestors with a better life in the under land. Some other important days are Happy Mother and Father’s Days, Dragon Festival, Ghost Festival, and Independence Day.

My traditional Chinese’s beliefs include religion, be or do good, cause no harm, and do not state any warning statements that possibly could result in bad events. I have a strong belief in God and Maitreya Buddha and believe that all religions are to teach people to be good. My beliefs have given me love, kindness, courage and the power to continue my journey, although I still have a fear of being in deep water over my head. There is a saying that discontented ghosts lurking beneath the surface could possess us as our bodies are believed to be particularly vulnerable while submerged in water. Traditionally, it is believed that ghosts haunt my island for the entire seventh lunar month. Ghost Month is a time to respect the dead, where I traditionally show filial piety towards my elders and ancestors even after their deaths. My parents do not like me to travel during this month and we avoid the sea altogether. Instead we make ritualistic food offerings, burning incense, and burning joss papers which are paper form of material items such as clothes, gold and goods for our deceased ancestors, visiting ghosts and spirits.

I had been told it is honor to be a Taiwanese by the elder in my family because we show great respect to everyone. I am proud of being a Taiwanese because this is what my family told me to value. Taiwanese value the spirit of family. We always celebrate important days of our all the family members. We take the relationship between family as the most important part in our life and my family will try their best to help other family members when someone is in need.

A life experience that shows how my culture has influenced my identity is one that I will never forget. Several years ago, I joined a youth team. The youth team attracted me because when I saw the performers in the group with their happy faces and how they brought happiness to the audience during their performance, I wanted to join them.

After joining the youth team, we went many places to perform. We went to a sanatorium and an orphanage where we did warm up activities and performances. We taught children in elementary schools, recruited teenagers from high schools and taught them some dance. I felt happy and wanted people to be happy in their life.

After I had been with the youth team for two years, they nominated me as their leader. I thought I was not ready to become a leader because there were others that were more skillful and had joined the team long before me. However, I was excited, nervous, and extremely happy to embrace this challenge to become their leader along with the huge responsibility that it placed on my shoulders.

The youth team voted for me because they said I always had a good attitude and a happy smile on my face no matter how things turned. My dance was said to be exceptional, and I had the most wonderful, calm, kind attitude towards others. It was very challenging as I had to join in all the youth activities and take care of other group members. I needed to have good leadership skills when some teenagers were not under control. I felt tired but happy to be the leader of the youth group.

As a leader of a youth group, I had to communicate with other people before performances and help with the performances until the end. I was the group leader for three years and all the people who knew me liked my form of leadership.

As a leader of a youth team I learned many skills that I could use for my future experiences. One of the most important skills that I learned was that of gaining confidence in myself and the ability to lead.

In conclusion, from this experience I came to realize how much my cultural heritage had influenced who I had become as a person. Although I was nervous about taking on a leadership role my culture and family values created a strong personal identity for me.