Chinese Culture and Identity - Essay Example

Taking the analogy of the body and its parts, we can clearly understand how the family problems or joys also become the joys or problems of the society. The body is a whole and it has units such as a hand, leg, head, etc which coordinate their functionalities to aid the body function as a whole. If a leg is hurting, there are changes that will be noted in the whole body's functionality even though it is only one part (the leg) which is affected. Similarly, the family can be likened to the leg and the whole society, to the entire body.

If the leg (family) is experiencing problems, then the entire body (society) will automatically feel the impacts of the leg's problems because the two are connected (family builds up society just the same way the leg is part of the structure of the body). This paper seeks to pay particular attention to the Chinese culture focusing on the cultural aspects such as marriage practices, family formation and family structure. The paper also highlights the challenges the culture is likely to face or actually faces in multi-cultural environment such as Canada.

Gender, ethnicity, and culture are very str. Individuals are different because they do not share the same culture, ethnicity or gender. If this was the case, then the people world offer will think, behave and even act the same way. This is not possible because we, world over, can never share these factors. It is important that we understand what these factors are before we move on to understand the effects and influences they have on an individual. Culture refers to the values, beliefs, symbols and meanings which are common and distinct to a given society and are passes on from one generation to the next.

Ethnicity on other hand refers to the common ancestral linage and sense of belonging. It is and is a key factor in community identity (and consequently individual identity) which communities use to develop a common value systems which beach member subscribes to. Finally, gender is the concept of being masculine or feminine and the associated roles. Therefore, gender roles are those roles assigned to individual by virtue of them being male or otherwise. Such roles, in the absence of the individual can tell us whether the individual is male or female.

These factors have the potential of shaping one's thoughts, behaviors, attitudes and belief systems (Dolores et al, 2005). Since this is possible, a strong implication is put forth which pre supposes that the same factors, consequently, will have and impact on how one relates with people and deals with things, issues and even problems. For instance, these factors can have a very far reaching, either within the positive or negative territory, effects on an individual's handling or working with a family.

Chinese CultureThe historical development of Chinese culture has been handled by a number of researchers but one thing that predominates is