Comparison of Danish and Chinese Family's Traditions

For my final project, I have decided to write a short story comparing the Danish family life with the Chinese family life. My idea was inspired by a book called East Meets West, it is a book written by a graphic artist Yang Liu. At the age of 13, she moved from Beijing to Berlin. After exactly 13 years there, she started to illustrated project to document her dual experiences in China and Germany. Originally created as 47 simple blue and red posters, Yang Liu’s nonjudgmental series playfully captures the difference between cultures: from workplace hierarchy to restaurant etiquette. It has since been shown at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Germany and was published in 2007 by art book authority Taschen with the title East meets west. “This project reflects very much my personal way of seeing things,” Liu said. She said that moving as a child gave her the habit of comparing situations and interactions. “Many situations are better to understood if they can be seen in relation.” (Merelli, 2015)

The main theme of the story would be the cultural differences between China and Denmark in terms of parenting style and family life. Since I have lived in China for 20 years, I am familiar with Chinese culture and the Chinese traditional idea of family life. So it was definitely an interesting thing for me to observe the different idea of family life when I study abroad in theU.S. and now in Denmark. As a result, I have decided to write a story about a Danish girl and a Chinese boy. In the story, they are penfriends since the age of ten. And by presenting their conversations throughout the years, I would like to display a culture difference between Denmark and China. I tried to describe the different situations in Denmark and China in terms of parenting, education, and also family life in general. When Chinese parents emphasized supervision and control over children, Danish parents, on the contrary, get them outside as much as possible to the sociology of the family 3play in nature. They find safe areas where parents are not afraid to let the kids be free and explore the environment (Alexander, 2016). From my perspective, the one thing that is difficult for Chinese parents to do is to let go, “Let your kids do things by themselves. When you feel the need to ‘save them’, step back and take a breath. Remember that they are learning some of the most important skills to take them through life.” (Alexander, 2016, pg.42)

When I was young, my parents always told me that I was not independent enough. They did not let go until I went to college, I consider this period of time to be a good experience to both me and my parents because it would be a time when I learn to be independent and they learn to let go.Regarding education, Chinese parents always ask their children to attend extensive extracurricular classes after school; population in China is relatively large, as a result, students inChina would have to compete with limited resources. Not everyone is guaranteed in term of a college education.When I interviewed L for my interview assignment, she described to me how much trust her parents had on her when she grew up, “I played outside all day and my parents just trusted that I would be safe and as long as they knew what friends I was with- whether I was on the playgroup or in the forest, they just knew that I would be safe.” I consider this to be an opposite situation when compared to a Chinese parenting style.To conclude with, my final project aims to analyze the different parenting style and family life between Denmark and China. As a result, I realize that the two actually stand almost a completely opposite position in term of parenting style, Danish parents offer much more independence and trust to their children when compared to the Chinese parents; while the idea of family is strong and emphasized in both cultures.