Hi all,
Chinese New Year is coming close, just wonder how you guys to preserve your culture, especially if you have children in your family?
I bought a baked rice cake from T&T yesterday but my daughter just ate it as a normal cake. I try to explain what happen during Chinese New Year to her, but for her, it is no meaning. In fact, she is more aware of Valentine Day!
In Vancouver, there is a Chinese New Year parade on SUN at Chinatown, but I am too clumsy to take her out as she will run around every where. Last year I took her out, she was bored ! Besides, we dont have much celebrations as we are not close to Richmond where most Chinese gathered.
May be join the Intercultural Centre to have a celebration this Sat night in order to show my daughter what is Chinese New Year about.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
Hi xother,
it's a very interesting topic. Since your the other half is Indian, do you celebrate some Indian festival as well?
For myself, I don't really celebrate CNY, so I won't really focus on it. But I will dress her up with the Chinese style outfit. Since they are sent from grandma from HK, I don't wanna waste it.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
my god children were all born and raised up here. CNY to them - just like x'mas... a time for them to have lucky money, and lots of food to eat...
we did once told them about putting the lucky money below the pillow during the CNY eve, but they never remember.
once telling them abouth the myth of the breat -> why we need to do the lion dance, dragon dance... guess they forgot completely.
we now only telling them. CNY is the first day of the year, in the lunar calendar, which will be diff from the western new year - which will always be Jan 1...
this year, godchildren's grandma wrote us a "fai chun" which we stick on to the front door.... and since my 99 is in town, we did bought few more CNY decorative to hang around inside the house...
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
Before we have kids, CNY is just another day, perhaps get together with the parents for dinner etc.
Now that we have kids, I will dress them up in traditional chinese clothings, buy some candies and put them in "Chuen Hup". We will prepare "fai Chun" ourselves. I cut up some red paper and write Chinese on it with golden color paint, or sparkling pen, and stick the fai chun on the wall.
My elder daughter loves lion dance, so I probably will bring her to the civic centre again this year and let her watch.
She understands CNY is the first day of Chinese New Year and that's it. Lucky that in her school, they also recommend students to dress up for CNY, so even the local canadians do that too, though only 30% of her class are Chinese.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
PoohPoohMaMa / Doggie
My husband is Indian, but he is Christian. He studied in American school since young age and watch American channels, so I dont count him as Indian as he doesnt even speak Hindi or any dialect. Besides, India is similar to China which has many different cultures but most of them are Hindu and he doesnt follow it at all. The biggest celebration for him is Xmas but since I am not, we dont really do any celebration.
Since my husband doesnt has any culture except his American culture, I try to add something to my daughter as she knows she is Chinese....interesting that she doesnt recognised herself as Indian at all, but she knows daddy is Indian.
At 4years old, even I gave her lucky money, it has no meaning. yesterday I put her in Chinese church which she studied Chinese class before, but they turn up celebrate valatine day!
As a mother, I wish my daughter can understand Chinese culture especially she recognised herself as Chinese, but just dont know how to start.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
YukiMommy,
Unfortunately we dont have any relatives here. Chuen hop, it sounds a good idea but I know at the end, it is going to be waste as no one will like to eat anything from there. fai Chun is good idea, but we dont like anything stick on the wall as it may damage the paint. Eating out, 3 of us, not much variety and my daughter is a picky on eating.
Traditional outfit...I didnt buy any as it is too cold to wear it here. Normal T-shirt and pants will be easier for her. Daycare, they are all mix, so they dont really know Chinese culture as even the owner is not Chinese.
I dont have Chinese TV channel and other than that, I dont see any Chinese celebration.
May be once she is older, I will take her to Chinatown as even my husband is intertest about those dragon dancing....but CNY always come with the time when he has assignments or test and he wont have spare time for us...next week he has test again!
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
my girls are not as excited to celebrate CNY as celebrating X'mas - - - my younger one hang on late on x'mas eve to wait for santa, checking out the window (and even ask me we have no chinmey, how can santa come) - - - busy on hanging her x'mas socks, excited to see what's in it the next day. CNY to them, is just like a normal day as they still need to go to school. they are only excited on the red packet money and food, no special meaning to them.
xother
i am just by chance to watch an indian channel yesterday. the music is nice (although i don't understand), but i can guess the story of the song - MTV. i watched part of another movie later, the clothings are very beautiful; and of course both the artress and actor are very attractive.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
ckkwkl,
It seems very hard for us to maintain Chinese culture in Canada as the majority society is not Chinese. I feel bad if I dont pass that tradition to my child as I know it will be lost if I dont preserve it. Yes, it is just another day for us but just try to find a way to do something.
In BC, the NDP want to push the govt to make the CNY as a public holiday as they try to get favour from Chinese vote and their excuse is we dont have any public holiday in FEB...but not sure if they can succeed??
yes, Indian culture is very interesting but as I said, my husband is brought up with American and he doesnt really know much. Grandma and grandpa are in India and they are not planning to come anyway. I have told my husband to introduce Indian culture to my daughter but he seems more interested to watch his space channels.
I dont really know will my daughter end up understand that she is half Indian and half Chinese as she seems only aware of herself as Chinese now.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
YukiMommy,
just wonder if your daughter attend any Chinese class?
I sent my daughter last semester but I stop this semester as I think she is too young for that. Although she did learn some basic characters, eg, 1-10 in Chinese, I think she is too young to put so many characters and the main issue is that Chinese class has conflicted with other classes which I want to put her in.
Sat morning has all different classes and in the mean time, I signed her up for a swimming class and ice-skating. She loves both of them and she also asked me to put her in gymnastic class. I know it is hard for her to learn Chinese but understand basic Chinese is enough. I saw kids at older age can absorb better and even the teacher agree that my daughter is too young to learn.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
xother,
I put my daughter in Chinese class (Mandarin) every Saturday. I am also planning to put her in Chinese Class during the Summer too.
She also has lots of other activities such as Ballet, Piano, Swimming and Church (both Sat and Sun). I tried to schedule very thing such that there is no schedule conflict. I also share the "driver" responsibility with my husband so that they can have some 1-on-1 time too. It worked out very well.
I think it is better to send her to Chinese school early because the best time for kids to learn language is before 5. I have a friend who did not send his son to Chinese school until 6 years old...after 6 months, they give up because the boy completely lost interest, worst, he could not stand learning with a bunch of 4s. You know, in Toronto, kids started to learn Chinese as learn as 3, mine started at 4. So, if they start late, they will be embarrassed. The public school board and the Catholic school board BOTH offer FREE Mandarin Classes here at the age of 4 on Saturdays. No reason not to take advantage of that.
After all, a lot of public schools in US begin adopting Mandarin as the "second language" as oppose to Spanish. If so, why not send them there early.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
Thanks yukimommy,
Please dont get offended, just wonder if Mandarin is your mother tongue? I was thinking Mandarin is most useful but since my Mandarin is very bad, I know I cannot help my daughter, so I only put her in Cantonese class.
In BC is different, there is no free Chinese class. Most run by Chinese church. Yes, I know some schools offer Chinese as second language for study, but it is not common here. I put her in the nearby Chinese church, but I dont really like the way of her teaching method...no interactive and I dont think my daughter has learnt alot from her. I have to spend lots of time to help her in order for her to understand Chinese.
In my mind, learning language should come from her heart, not by forcing. In her class, there is 12 of them, but only 3 of them are age 4 and most of them are 5 or 6yrs. One of the girl has repeated the same class and she is now 5yrs. The teacher has mentioned she was doing very well but I dont want my daughter to repeat it if I know she will miss other activities. I know one of the mother who told me that her son in the class for 3 yrs, but he cannot speak at all, so basically he just sit there every Sat morning. You know Chinese is famous for that, just sit there and pretend to understand.
May be Toronto has more options, in here, most classes are on SAT morning and none of class on SUN. My friend told me the Chinese class in Chinatown is much better but it is very far from my house. If I put her in weekday for swimming and ice skating, it will mess up our dinner schedule.
One more obstacle for me, my husband do speak some Spanish as his personal interest and my daughter also pick up some through watching Dora, she seems more interest on Spanish as it is easier compare to Chinese.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
xother,
no my mother tongue is Cantonese, but I do speak a bit of Mandarin as I enjoy learning languages.
I guess Vancouver is different than Toronto, as there are soooo many different options here, BUT same here, all chinese classes are Sat, no Sun for sure. So Sat morning is Chinese classes, and the afternoons are for other stuffs.
Since my daughter was a baby, I put on many mandarin cartoons like Strawberry shortcakes and Maisy which my husband bought from HK and I let her listen to many many mandarin children songs. So, she enjoys learning additional languages. She speaks french as it is mandatory in school and she is very proud she speaks 4 languages (Cantonese, Mandarin, English and French). From time to time I also teach her a tiny tiny bit of Japanese and she thought she could speak 5 languages, so silly.
But I agree, learning (whatever the subject is) has to be from the heart. So far, because of all the exposure, she seems to be ok with it.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
YukiMommy,
I assume you are good on languages and hope your daughters can pick up this from you.
My husband is similar but in French, Spanish and other European language, so I am reluctant to put my daughter in Chinese as it may affect her other language skills.
yes, we have less option, if I put her in Chinese class till 11.30am, there is almost nothing left or we have to skip lunch to fit in the class. We do have SUN Chinese class but I dont want to get up so early on weekend.
My daughter doesnt really speak other language, but she will know if I speak Cantonese to her. However, her English is very good as she can even correct my grammar and pronunciation. She can fully understand the TV and understand the instruction from other classes. Since she is more interested in swimming and other activities, I think I will try this summer for her to enjoy and try again Chinese class next year.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
yes, we stick the "fai chun" on to the closet mirror, door, and cabinet panel.
hang the decorative over the kitchen cabinet lock... so no messy around the wall paint..
guess it has many way to preserve the chinese culture. you could buy some CNY food and share with your neighbour, your daughter's day care... that's what we did with our badminton group..
we will buy those thing and bring to the badminton court and share with others, so that every one know it is chinese new year... won't cost that much.. only $15-20.. but to "promote" the chinese culture to non-chinese people...
my personal thought, if you don't do those thing yourown, it will be hard for you to pass the culture to your next generation.
same as if you don't send her to chinese class, little chinese at home, then the kid will loose the impluse to learn the other language. also, to master the language and the culture, they need to practice...
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
doggie,
Adult and kids are different, kids are picky eater and many of them have allergy issue, etc no nuts. Personally I dont like to give candies to kids as even I limited my daughter to eat 1 candie per day. Yesterday, her classmates birthday and give a bag of candies, she throw half of them away as she doesnt like it. Sometimes it is not just money to spend.
I understand it is good to preserve Chinese culture but since she is only half Chinese, I dont want that Chinese culture dorminate her too much. If she doesnt say, no one will say she is Chinese due to her last name. It is different from you and me as we are 100% chinese without doubt.
I dont send her to Chinese class as I think it is too young to do too much writing and the main issue for me to stop is the class conflict other activities. I put activities as first priority as this is the Canadian culture. I may put her again next year and currently there is free SUN school in the church to do craft work and she seems like it. I wont stop her to learn Chinese but bottom line is I dont force her.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
these are all my thought as you question how to preserve the chinese culture... but seems most ideas and suggestions not really applicable to your situation, so just wonder is this really necessary for your to preserve the chinese culture to your daughter who is just half chinese?
or may be as you said, wait till she is getting older, if by then she is eager to learn, she may find her way out. From what I see, you are an open mom, don't force the kid to do something they do like... so... just let the time drive..
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
doggie,
It is hard to say if my daughter likes Chinese culture. She knows she is Chinese, but not Indian. She doesnt mind to go for Chinese class or SUN Chinese class to do craft work. She doesnt refuse to go to Chinese class but she also want to go for swimming and ice-skating.
As a mother, I wish she understand Chinese culture more as Chinese is going to influence the whole world in the next 50yrs. She has her HKID and she may want to work in HK one day. As she is similar to a plain paper, parent can put everything we want on her in such young age and that's why I try to find someway to add on that. Thanks for your suggestions and I think as long as she understand CNY is good enough. I just look back to myself, even I am in HK, I dont really practice any CNY cutlure. I still wash my clothes, wash my hair and clean the house on CNY. I dont like those CNY food, rice cake, deep fried stuff and the only thing I do is just have reunion dinner.
Yes, I am the mom who gives my child freedom and it is her choice and I can only assist her if she likes.
Re: How you preserve your Chinese culture in Canada?
HI all,
I have found my way to teach my daughter about Chinese culture.
On Monday, the daycare requires all of them dress up in red, so I will put her in all red, from shirt, pant to socks.
Then I will pack "lai-see" with one chocolate coin inside. If possible, I will try to get a forture cookie for each kid. Try to think if I should write something inside the "lai see"...may be just simple word- Happy Chinese New Year and come with Chinese writing as translation and with my daughter signature.
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