generations of Asian women

[kimpossible]

Tell me about the generations of women in your family. How has Americanization affected the generations? Is there a culture special to the women in an Asian family?

How is it different for those of us who are monoracial versus multiracial? Do we have enough in common to relate to each other?

[John0101]

This is a really board question, I suggest you ask something more specific like "relationship dymanics of differences in generation of AA women" or whatever...

The two major AA female influences in my life are my sister and my mom. My mom is an immigrant from China while my sister is a first generation ABC. There is clearly a difference in culture and generation as if any family would have. Yet even though they have their differences they have very similiar traits, both are hardworking and aggressive in getting what they want. There is clearly a mother-daughter bond between them two. My sister tries to protect and take care of my mom which is an act I respect very much. My mom centers her life around my family (me and my sister) while my sister centers her's around her career and friends.

I don't know if these traits are uniquely AA, inherient in females, or just unique to my family.

I hope this gets the converstation rolling because this thread has the potential to be a very interesting topic.

[kasia]

there really aren't too many differences between my mom and me, and then between my mom and her mother. my personality pretty much mirrors that of my mom, and she picked up a lot of her habits from her mother, so we're all pretty much the same. for example, my maternal grandmother is buddhist, my mother picked this up from her, and because of those influences, i'm very curious about the buddhist religion and follow some of their practices. my mom is probably a little bit more materialistic than my grandmother - probably because she was able to work in the u.s. since she was young, has more spending money, etc. my mom's all about nice cars, gucci and l.v. purses, cartier watches. my grandmother is not like this at all, but she'll ask for a set of pearl earrings or a ruby ring every once in a while. because i'm aware of what my grandparents had to go through to get here, and because i was never deprived of nice things like my mom was when she was younger, i don't really care to have the brand name stuff. i'm probably more politically involved than my mom and my maternal grandmother. my maternal great great grandmother - she's in her late 90's now - is more of a simple woman. she came from china when she was in her 70's, so she speaks only chinese, eats only chinese food, wears chinese-style clothing. she's soft-spoken, but we have no problem communicating.

my paternal grandmother came when she was in her 40's. she's still very chinese, but my mom and i have no problem communicating with her (as a result of culture) either. my mom and her would have their little spats, but i actually think this is a part of the culture rather than a result of cultural differences. my paternal grandmother is christian and, at church, they teach all about cultural differences, being open-minded, etc., so we rarely disagree about anything, because they've already taught her about my thought process. i've found this to be a very useful practice of chinese churches - because it makes it easier for the younger generations and helps facilitate understanding and communication.

[moser]

Hmm, with the women in my immediate family ((paternal) grandma, mom and me), the differences have to do more with personality than culture (although culture may have affected preferences in personality traits).

While both grandma and mom are immigrants and are "traditionally" conservative, they differ in personality - grandma is more worldly and somewhat more open-minded while my mom is more...prissy and girlishly idealistic (for lack of a better term). Mom's big into Chinese culture, while grandma's more into the politics.

Meanwhile, I'm almost the exact opposite of my mom and am more independent and standoffish. The parents think the personality differences between mom and me are culturally and generationally influenced ("Chinese family woman" vs. "American career woman"). I think it's more related to personality than culture, though, since we have relatives and family friends who are of mom's generation who immigrated to the US who are closer in personality to me, while I know ABCs who are like mom.