Family SacrificesPub Date : 2019-07-25DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0005
Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim
{"title":"The Yi of Family Sacrifice","authors":"Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 5 details Chinese Americans’ highest values and the central narrative by which they make sense of their lives: family sacrifice. Those under 30 tended to be “maximizing world-changers.” They desired to make a difference with their opportunities and careers. Those over 30 desired to be “expressive balancers,” seeking fulfillment by balancing work, community, and family. Both groups tempered these individualistic Americanized tendencies by expressing family sacrifice in three ways. First, they venerated the past, showing respect and honor to their ancestors and immigrant parents. Second, they gave back to their parents in culturally appropriate ways: hard work, good communication and food, and by including family in major decisions. Third, they centered their dreams for the future around family. The yi of Chinese Americans is an ethic of maintaining right relations with those whom one considers family.","PeriodicalId":308488,"journal":{"name":"Family Sacrifices","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116132474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family SacrificesPub Date : 2019-07-25DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0006
Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim
{"title":"The Li of Chinese American Familism","authors":"Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 6 identifies how Chinese Americans maintain the value of family through rituals, including rites of passage, ethnic routines, and table traditions. Rites of passage such as the wedding tea ceremony provide individuals with distinct responsibilities within the family. Ethnic routines, including family meals, transnational visits, and reunions, inculcate the norms of hospitality, reciprocity, and face/shame. They also teach the cultural scripts of familism through table traditions, such as pouring tea. Traditions and rituals change over time, however, and second-generation Chinese Americans pass on their liyi values and ethics differently than their immigrant parents did. The second generation lack a migration story of family sacrifice and have an attenuated knowledge of Chinese liyi traditions, and racialized multiculturalism further reduces ethnic traditions to what is marketable and consumable. Chinese Americans therefore hybridize and Americanize their ethnicity, which results in a new liyi Chinese American identity that consists of food and fun.","PeriodicalId":308488,"journal":{"name":"Family Sacrifices","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115631707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family SacrificesPub Date : 2019-05-23DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0002
Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim
{"title":"Ancestral Roots","authors":"Russell M. Jeung, Seanan S. Fong, Helen Kim","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190875923.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 2 offers a genealogical exploration of how Chinese traditions have shaped Chinese American religious affiliations and familism. Chinese adopt a plurality of beliefs for utilitarian purposes through their religious repertoire based in Chinese Popular Religion. Given their mixture of beliefs and practices that have no names, Chinese tend to identify as “nothing in particular.” Another factor contributing to the high rates of Chinese American religious nones is Confucian thought, which oriented Chinese society toward religious skepticism and an agnostic, symbolic interpretation of religious rituals. These twin approaches toward religion are the roots of modern-day Chinese atheism and agnosticism. Both reinforce the primacy of familial relations. These two traditions have undergone changes through modernization, migration, and the religious context in which they take root. The chapter ends with a survey of how these traditions have been transformed by Chinese state modernization, acculturation to the American context, and racialization.","PeriodicalId":308488,"journal":{"name":"Family Sacrifices","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125320171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}