Gender is always a controversial topic when anthropologists and sociologists talk about inequality. For most of the female immigrants, who came to the United States pursuing American Dreams and brighter future for their family, the first but not last challenge they needed to overcome may be gender conflicts while integrating into a society. Yinyi Zhong, a 41 years old Chinese woman who immigrated to California with her family in 2012, challenged the gender role of traditional Chinese value but faced the dilemma of balancing her social identity between a Chinese and an American. Her experience as a Chinese immigrant woman in the United States demonstrated Takaki’s concept of twice a minority and the transition of challenging her gender role,
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By choosing immigration, Yinyi experienced separation from her Chinese cultural structure; she abandoned her social status and lost the identity as a citizen of the place she lived. Immigration was a rite of passage process to Yinyi, “a rite which accompanied every change of place, state, social position and age.” (Turner, 1969: 94 ) Her experience as a Chinese immigrant demonstrates Turner’s concept of separation, liminality, and aggregation in the ritual process. Starting from the moment in the airplane, Yinyi entered the phase of separation: she lost her identity as a citizen, the social circle she established with her friends and the properties such as housing and the store she had owned for more than ten years. The removal of her social status prepared her for becoming a U.S citizen and enjoy any benefit for her family, especially for her daughter. The ritual process continued as she entered the land of America and forced her to enter liminality, a transitional phase that makes her identity became an ambiguous and blank state. (Turner, 1969: 95-96) Everything she had established in her society was destroyed. She was not able to communicate with others in fluent language; she was not familiar with the streets in her neighborhood; she moved from an owned house into the one rented from her brother-in-law. Yinyi was just …show more content…
After living in San Francisco for 2 years, Yinyi began to adapt to different kinds of western culture and had the intention of negotiating American culture. At the same times, she continued to maintain and practice her traditional Chinese habits as a part of her daily routine. For example, she used knives and fork when she had dinner in restaurants but accustomed to the use of chopsticks while eating with her family at home; she introduced herself as Eva when interacting with native-born Americans but reacted faster when someone called her Yinyi in the street; She was invited to a party to celebrate Christmas by her neighbor but found out that the Chinese Spring Festival was more attractive to her. Although she wanted to be assimilated by the American cultures, she found the manifest barriers between her friends and herself; she felt like an outsider. The process of learning western culture was a process of collectivity that might influence their identity shift (Zhang, 2008: 8). While many of the Chinese immigrants chose their working environment that corresponded to their own culture, they lost the opportunity to experience cultural variations between east and west. In fact, many immigrant women worked in low-prestige jobs such
By choosing immigration, Yinyi experienced separation from her Chinese cultural structure; she abandoned her social status and lost the identity as a citizen of the place she lived. Immigration was a rite of passage process to Yinyi, “a rite which accompanied every change of place, state, social position and age.” (Turner, 1969: 94 ) Her experience as a Chinese immigrant demonstrates Turner’s concept of separation, liminality, and aggregation in the ritual process. Starting from the moment in the airplane, Yinyi entered the phase of separation: she lost her identity as a citizen, the social circle she established with her friends and the properties such as housing and the store she had owned for more than ten years. The removal of her social status prepared her for becoming a U.S citizen and enjoy any benefit for her family, especially for her daughter. The ritual process continued as she entered the land of America and forced her to enter liminality, a transitional phase that makes her identity became an ambiguous and blank state. (Turner, 1969: 95-96) Everything she had established in her society was destroyed. She was not able to communicate with others in fluent language; she was not familiar with the streets in her neighborhood; she moved from an owned house into the one rented from her brother-in-law. Yinyi was just …show more content…
After living in San Francisco for 2 years, Yinyi began to adapt to different kinds of western culture and had the intention of negotiating American culture. At the same times, she continued to maintain and practice her traditional Chinese habits as a part of her daily routine. For example, she used knives and fork when she had dinner in restaurants but accustomed to the use of chopsticks while eating with her family at home; she introduced herself as Eva when interacting with native-born Americans but reacted faster when someone called her Yinyi in the street; She was invited to a party to celebrate Christmas by her neighbor but found out that the Chinese Spring Festival was more attractive to her. Although she wanted to be assimilated by the American cultures, she found the manifest barriers between her friends and herself; she felt like an outsider. The process of learning western culture was a process of collectivity that might influence their identity shift (Zhang, 2008: 8). While many of the Chinese immigrants chose their working environment that corresponded to their own culture, they lost the opportunity to experience cultural variations between east and west. In fact, many immigrant women worked in low-prestige jobs such