My first identity is Chinese opera, is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in my culture. It has a very long history. There are numerous regional branches of Chinese opera, Beijing opera is one of the most notable. When I was a little kid, my grandpa listen to it a lot, we always have fight on watching TV, he always choose to watch Chinese opera.
Next is tradition Chinese painting, Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. We called “Guo Hua”, meaning 'national' or 'native painting'. Traditional Chinese painting is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink. I start learning to draw when I was 6 years old. I used to study Chinese painting every weekend.
Chinese Tea and tea set is another identity for me. In China, people drink tea throughout the day, including during meals, as a substitute for plain water for health or simple pleasure. My family loves all different type of Chinese tea, mostly we drink green tea. At night, we will sit together drinking tea by using tradition Chinese tea set while we are watching TV.
Chinese food is the next. I don’t really go out to eat a lot, same as my father, because my mom can cook really tasty Chinese food. So many friends admire us. There is several different types of regional cuisines in China. The Cuisine I used to eat is the Shandong Cuisine, Shandong Cuisine once formed an important part of the imperial cuisine and was widely promoted in North China. It isn't so popular in South China, is featured by a variety of cooking techniques and seafood. The typical dishes on local menu are braised abalone, braised trepang, sweet and sour carp, Jiuzhuan Dachang. Our snacks are also worth trying.
Finally my last identity is the Chinese book store in China, called “Hanjing Bookstore”. This bookstore was same age as me, my father opened the year when I was born. Right now, we just open our 5th store. The bookstore sells a lot of Chinese history book. A lot of the book is not for reading but more for people to keep it. We called that the Your collections.
In this unit, I learned about the four characteristics of culture. First, it’s passed from one generation to the next through the process of inculturation. Second, culture is shared, for examples, the most members of a given culture share many basic, beliefs and attitudes. Third, culture is symbolically expressed and transmitted. One of the most important symbolic systems that every one of us beings depends upon is language. Finally, culture is adaptive. I also learned about some of the important terms, I know what are culture shock, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. I learned the three type of iceberg model of culture, technical, formal and informal, I know the rules for each of them by given examples.
Before each class we had, we have to read on our own about the chapter we are going to talk about and learn in class, so first, I learn how to read textbook better, not just high lights the words I don’t know or the important text, I learned how to surmised one paragraph and write down the important things. In class, we did a lot of group discussion, this leads us on how we think and talk. From doing group discussion, I know a lot about different classmate’s idea about how they think about culture, because we are all from different culture. I think this is a great way to study, since everyone has different view. After the group discussion, I learned from the teacher and start to seek about each of the term related about myself, for examples, my own culture identity and the culture shock I had, by knowing and finding better on my cultural identity, the first project is the cultural identity poster, and this is the first time for me to use glogster, I learned a lot of different culture from my classmates and had a chance to know them better now.
When I was learning about culture shock, the four reactions, which are the honey moon, culture shock, adjustment and acceptance is exactly happening on me, this is a aha moment for me, I think about it and it is makes sense with unexpected clarity. I think my bumper sticker would be “I am on the way of finding my culture identity and knowing who am I”. I thing I learned how to use is glogster, this is a very great tool and useful tool for me, also is very easy to use.
