The Chinese view the state, not just as an intimate member of the family... but as the head of the family.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My grandmother, my mother and my aunts and their friends were all of southern Chinese ancestry, and they were all strong figures. Though if you asked them who was the head of their families, they would have said their husbands; and yet it was the women who ran everything.
No matter how American I become, I'm considered part of the Chinese community by my own family.
I would not call my family 'traditional Chinese.' We were more what I would term the Colonial Chinese.
Chinese society is organised around the family unit.
Clearly, the Chinese know that we want a good relationship with them.
However, when my parents married in 1945, China was in turmoil and the possibility of returning grew increasingly remote, and they decided to begin their family in the United States.
The Chinese people have only family and clan groups; there is no national spirit. Consequently, in spite of four hundred million people gathered together in one China, we are, in fact, but a sheet of loose sand.
The Chinese culture belongs not only to the Chinese but also to the whole world.
My mother has a very big family in Shanghai, so I have, like, almost 40 cousins, so we stayed together all the time. So by the time I get to Hong Kong, I become the only child and the only one surrounded by adults, you know.
There's so much emphasis on the economic might of China, of Southeast Asia, Asian 'Super Tigers' and things like that. But nobody was really looking from the perspective of a family story, of these individuals.