Integration of Chinese into Canadian Society

The motivation for writing this topic stems from an article in The New York Times that featured a second-generation Chinese student who just attended college was accidently killed alive in joining the Asian-American college fraternity. Why this happened?

Recently, I was fortunate to have talked with Dr. Tong, a Chinese colleague who has lived in North America for many years, on this topic. Dr. Tong calls this phenomenon “die for belonging,” meaning that the child is willing to pay a great price for finding a sense of belonging, including even death.

In North America, the students’ peer stress is so great that children sometimes do silly things to cater to their classmates. In this case, what kind of role parents can play to help their children gain a sense of belonging is a topic worth exploring. One of my friends has proudly said that she and her daughter shared everything. She said the first time when her daughter was drinking outside, her daughter called her and told her the feeling of drinking. I believe that being a close friend with a child may be the best way to cultivate children’s confidence and find a sense of belonging.

Dr. Tong emphasized that integration into the local community does not mean that people should completely abandon their own culture. Such “fusion” is likely to be the worst, because once they can not be accepted by the local community, they will completely lose their identity. The best social integration is to take the essence of the two cultures, not only simply integrate into the local community, but also bring new ideas and vitality to the local community.