Oral History: My Taiwanese Family Through the Generations

In my Taiwanese family, one strong, connecting thread has always been the need to respect one's elders and to honor the family traditions. While in other cultures, individualism is stressed as an important value, in the Taiwanese tradition the individual is only as great as the generosity and respect he or she shows to relatives and loved ones. This is reflective of the Confucian system of values which stresses the need for children to show respect to their parents and to fulfill their obligations to them. Both my mother and my grandmother stated that outright disobedience as a child would not have been tolerated even though I, as part of my awareness of American cultural traditions, have been more apt to question and challenge what I have been told to do. Still, I do so in a respectful manner: I cannot imagine...
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