Narrative Essay About My Chinese Culture

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Living in China was everything I expected it to be, and more. It was late on a Friday night and I decided to go out with friends for a change of scenery from my boring apartment. They decided that we were going to a bar to relax. While there I met a guy named Shan, we had met before at school we just never really talked. He did not speak much English, and I spoke little Chinese. Through the use of little words and a lot of hand gestures, we began communicating with each other fairy well.
After that night we had planned to meet up at a local coffee shop on campus. He began teaching me more Chinese as I began teaching him more English. We had a lot of fun learning about each other and our different cultures from personal experiences.
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His father said he would rather have a foreign daughter-in-law than lose his tie to his eldest son. We proceeded to get married which was very hard for us because we did not know what kind of wedding to do. My American ways or his Chinese ways. We decided to incorporate both to please both mine and his family, but mostly his. After a year of being married I had a daughter, and then twins, a girl and a boy, three years later. His father was very upset at this and thought it might bring shame to his family because his wife only had one son also. He thought his family name would be lost forever. Luckily his wife conceived once more and bore a son, this calmed him and brought him hope in having a traditional marriage with one of his children.
His father complained about how I was raising the children and how we were living. We chose to live our lives separate from either one of our families. This is traditional in the US but not in China. Normally the woman moves in with the male’s family. His father would not have it. To please his father I wound up quitting my job and being a stay at home mom. Which it was quite nice to not have to work anymore, but due to my upbringing I did not see it as a

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