Fifth Chinese Daughter, Hong Wong's Parenting Philosophy And Practice - Essay Example

Hong Wong’s parenting philosophy is not Hong Wong’s own parenting philosophy! The philosophy was transmitted to him and it was the way of life in a traditional Chinese family. How did the philosophy mould into that shape? A scientific answer to this question is impossibility. It is so because it has been so since times immemorial! The parents loved the children; they punished them severely as well. Punishment and love were alternative beats of the same heart for the parents. The story is about Jade Snow Wong’s upbringing in such a family in San Francisco’s Chinatown of pre-World War II times.

Women were looked down upon, not with any individual malice, but their inferior status was taken for granted. Corporal punishment was part of the manual of family governance. Family business was conducted along with home life just like a train that moved on two parallel tracks. Certain fixed Chinese values were taught to the children whom they were expected to follow scrupulously. Jade Snow Wong writes, (1989, p.2) “Even at this early age she had leaned the meaning of discipline, without understanding the necessity for it.

A little girl never questioned the commands of Mother and Father, unless prepared to receive painful consequences.” Absolute dictatorship in the family!. Jade Snow’s admittance to college education changes her perspectives, and she begins to understand the merits of freedom in a woman‘s life. She is on head-on collision with the clash of cultures and values. She begins to assert her identity, but she is aware of the essential dignity of the Chinese traditions. Jade Snow was also exposed to racism in her life.

To mention just two instances of racism, when the family moved into the basement, her father “hired Negroes to chisel out part of the brick walls.”(p.51)In school a boy name Richard used to harass her and she reports it thus: “With malicious intent in his eyes, he burst forth, “Chinky, Chinky, Chinaman….Chinky, Chinky, no tickle, no washee, no skirtee….” (p.68) Sex discrimination was an important part of the Chinese traditions. Women were mostly confined to the kitchen jobs and the boys were given more care and attention.

But Jade Snow’s father faced a great moral/cultural dilemma over the male-female issue. According to the popular Chinese opinion, daughters would eventually get married in another family, so why to invest in their education? His further observations have great significance. Jade Snow writes thus: “But my answer was that since sons and their education are of primary importance, we must have intelligent mothers. If nobody educates his daughters, how can we have intelligent mother for our sons?

If we do not have good family training, how can China be a strong nation?”(p.15) My personal thoughts: The book shows how the assimilation process of two cultures is arduous and slow. For the first generation of the Chinese Americans it was the toughest