A short YouTube panel discussion ("Embracing My Culture For My Kids") in which multiple speakers describe how having children changed their relationship with their culture. Speakers say parenthood motivated them to learn about and actively pass on cultural traditions and language (one speaker began taking Mandarin classes to teach children). Concrete details include living in New York, a mixed-race marriage (husband Caucasian), children ages three and five, and Lunar New Year customs (giving oranges, hong bao/red envelopes, avoiding sharp knives and washing hair). The overall theme is intentionally reconnecting with and teaching cultural heritage to the next generation.
Chapters
So how much did it. Did it change your perspective, having your own kids?
Hugely.
Can you describe it?
It's. There's some. It just changes, you know, I.
I just think of all.
How does it change your relationship with your culture internally?
Well, this is interesting you asked that.
Because that is exactly what kind of. That's when I became ready to.
Learn about my culture, embrace it, and really invest in it. It was when I had my kids, something special.
Was it when you got pregnant or was it when you had them?
When I had them.
When you looked at them.
No, they were older. They were three and five. And I remember thinking, well, you know, here we are in New York. My husband's Caucasian.
I'm Chinese. They're half.
And wait a minute, I don't speak Chinese. So how am I going to pass on the language? I can pass on some of the culture, but I was really starting to feel like it could be lost. And I was starting to feel like.
It was my responsibility to learn about my culture, connect with my culture, so that I can instill it in my kids.
Because then I started thinking back to my parents, and I thought, wow, they really did do a lot to teach me about my culture, to continue traditions. And I felt like that's kind of what you do as a parent. You want to teach your children about.
Where they come from, to know that.
They'Re special, to embrace it.
And I did not embrace it early on, and I really feel like I missed out. I wanted my kids to connect with their culture early on. And so that's what kind of sparked my whole journey with wanting to teach them Mandarin.
I didn't know Chinese. I started taking classes to just te. Teach them. And then that sort of sparked this whole journey, wanting to connect.
What traditions do you want them to appreciate?
You know, I could say this real.
Traditional things of, oh, you know, we. During Lunar New Year, we give oranges, and you give.
The. The parents give the hong bao, and you eat special lucky foods and you wear certain things and don't use a sharp knife because you'll cut away your good luck.
And don't wash your hair.
You'll wash away your good luck. Those are all, you know, kind of fun, silly superstitions. But what I think is more important.
Are the underlying things that are written.
So beautifully in here. It's the underlying things that we don't say, but they're just.
They're just done. Like when you go to someone's home, you bring them something. When they leave, you give them something.
