Tan Yui Hain B0301656
Comm221 Intercultural Communication
Individual Paper One: Cultural Autobiography
Due date:27.08.2004
I am a Chinese girl in Malaysia, I always feel happy and proud to be a Chinese.In my life, my culture has been formed predominately by my family. I grew up in a very small rural town of Johor. I stay in Yong Peng, most of the residents are Chinese. So, the people around me are Chinese. I studied atChinesePrimary School as well as ChineseHigh School.
Since I was a small girl, my family had told me a lot of things about the Chinese culture. And I have practiced this culture for about 20 years. For example, during Chinese New Year, the elders will give “Ang Pow” to the younger. I receive the “Ang Pow” every year during Chinese New Year and I know that after getting married, I have to practice this culture also.
Once, when I was about 10 years old, I went to Malay’s house to have a visit during Hari Raya Puasa. I was so shocked that a Malay lady gave me an “Ang Pow”, but it was green in color instead of red in color. (Chinese believes that red will bring good luck for them while Malay likes green. I felt happy to receive it, that was my first time to receive the “Ang Pow” from Malay. She also served me with a lot of delicious Malay food. The foods were made by her. I think, maybe the Malay was influenced by the Chinese culture; they give the green paper bag with gift money.
In my opinion, Chinese culture is not so open-minded compared to western cultures. Maybe not all the Chinese, but my parents are quite traditional and they are not so open-minded. I still remember, when I was in secondary school, my parents did not allow me to have boyfriend. They did not even allow boys to call me or find me. They think that girls are not supposed to find or call guys. Girls must stay at home and waiting for the calls from guys. Also, they didn’t allow me to go out at night, if I really had to go out, they wanted me to go back home before 10p.m.
Now, I am no longer a small girl, I think something has to be changed. I found out it was quite tough for me to communication with other people since I moved to KL to study. People in KL are open-minded compared to the people in my hometown. The lives are totally different. I started to try to communicate with them by using their communication style. At the beginning, I found it difficult because I come from a strict and traditional Chinese family. But I enjoy the life of KL, I can go out with my friends without my parents’ permission, I have more freedom. The most difficult thing that influences my communication is the language. Most of the people in KL use Cantonese and English to communicate with each other. I found it difficult because I seldom speak these languages. I studied in Chinese school in my hometown; almost all of the Chinese in my hometown speak Mandarin. I used to speak Mandarin, but after I came to KL to study, I have to use other languages which I seldom use to communicate with others.
But one thing that I cannot deny is I learn how to communicate with others when I help my parents to look after the shop (Medical Hall and Trading). My father is a businessman and my mother is a businesswoman. When I am serving the customers, I try to communicate with them with warm and smiling face. Since small, I have practiced how to serve the customers. I feel happy that I have this kind of chance to communicate with others who are different races, such as Indians and Malays. Besides, I also took part in speech contest, it helped me a lot, I learnt how to be brave to speak in front of people.
I live in Malaysia, a multiracial country; my culture is influenced by other cultures. For example, Malays think that left hand is dirty for them, they never use left hand to have their meals. So, I respect them, so I never use left hand to receive the money or give them the change by using left hand. I will be very careful when being together with Malay friends.
Education plays an important role in Chinese culture. The parents spend a lot of money on the education and they hope that their children will become educated people.