Being Stuck Between Two Cultures

This memoir can be targeted mainly for Chinese-Americans, who can empathize with it. Those who can share those feelings and emotions of frustration. It is hard to continue following those restrictive traditions while living in The United States Of America, the land of the free. Being Chinese- American must not be easy. They are two extreme cultures, so different that being part of both must be like feeling you don’t belong in either. The sense of lost of identity. We can see these in the book when Kingston feels different from her American classmates and also from her own relatives. She can’t seem to find a place where she belongs, this causes frustration. The crush of cultures and traditions is the main reason. For there are many things which have different meaning depending on the culture. Also since Kingston has never been to China, she doesn’t seem to be able to sort out fiction and nonfiction stories she is told. She is expected to believe what she is told. It must be very frustrating.

I can relate to her a little, but not quite as much for my mom is American and my dad is Colombian. I have a multicultural background, and I have lived in both countries. Yet, I found these two cultures to be quite similar or at least my family’s traditions and I do feel a sense of belonging, for they are not so different.