sometimes, being chinese is "different". i dont understand my peeps.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by jluetjen

3) Education is important, primarily because it leads to money, but also because it earns respect from people. Scholars are always respected in the Chinese culture.

Pretty good understanding, for a gwai-lo.

Education is important, because that's one of the fairly consistent ways you can earn a good living, in America. When you're immigrant Chinese (or most any other immigrant), you don't have a lot going for you. You don't have money. You don't have connections. You don't have parents that can get you cushy jobs.

So if you want to "make it," a fairly solid way of doing so is to become educated to allow you the opportunity to get a job that pays well. That's one reason why medicine is highly regarded in Chinese-American (and most Asian-American) culture. In the sciences, if you are smart enough and study hard, you can do fairly well. A lot of advancement is based upon knowledge and accomplishment, as opposed to connections or how slick you can sell yourself. And lacking English fluency is less of a hindrance in the sciences than in other fields.

Education is something that you, yourself, master--as opposed to something that gets determined by people and circumstances out of your control. (To a certain degree.)

[Rufblackbird]

Originally Posted by Moses

Seems all my daughters friends are Asian. She has a Chinese friend, Christie, who is a complete dynamo. High School senior. She's smart. Excellent student with a HUGE personality. She really lights up a room.

She could go to college anywhere with her 4.3 GPA but her parents insist that she go to University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA to become a pharmacist! I'm not kidding! This girls personality is poorly suited for that type of work. She's a people person. She has done extensive work at a local hospital pharmacy and HATES the work, yet she is dutiful and will honor her parents demands without complaint.

What the hell?

Interesting...my g/f's cousin (cantonese family) is in the same hell, except she's already in pharmacy school (Stockton as well, I believe). G/f says her cousin is hating life, but it's what the parents want.

growing up, my parents wanted all of us kids to become doctors, none of us did, so there's nothing to show off with their siblings...