Life History Interview

Dance and Culture 1010

Yukari Jewkes
February 28, 2015

I interviewed a Chinese woman who is in her 40s. She was born and raised in Beijing
until she decided to go to a university in Japan where she actually lived for 16 years. Then she
got married to a Japanese man and because of his job, they moved to Utah seven years ago. The
interview was conducted at her house, and she also answered to some additional questions
through e-mails. I chose her as my interviewee because she has experienced three cultures, and
she was not a part of privileged groups in both Japanese and American cultures. She is also
knowledgeable about Chinese culture, it is partly because she is a master of qi-gong. She has
been learning and practicing it most of her life and established her own school in Japan and Utah.
The interview was engaging, and I had learned so much about Chinese culture, the
history and its application in todays life which I would not have encountered if I did not conduct
this interview. Chinese culture has two central pillars which support and sometimes dictate life of
its people: one is Confucianism and the other is Taoism. Confucianism tells the Chinese how
their nation and society should be, and Taoism teaches them how their individual lives can be
improved and eventually become happy. The interviewees qi-gong school is named / yi
shui kong, water and sky united (though each Chinese character has multiple and comprehensive
meanings). It derived from / Yin style Ba Gua Zhang. Both kinds of qi-gong was
created to provide the way of physical and mental health by uniting body and mind, by the
effective use of breathing, and by awareness for all the elements. Her qi-gong is under the
influence of Taoism. She has also created dance sequences that have Chinese court dance as their
foundation. The dance movement flows to the music. But both the movement and music do not
have beats. The choreography is expressing beauty and skills in martial arts at the same time.
The coexistence of two seemingly opposite concepts was inconceivable for me, but her
choreography and physicality succeeded to embody it.

I had the strong impression that qi-gong training and its philosophy are an essential part
of her life. She hardly misses the daily training, and when she notices a slight sign of illness, she
practices a qi-gong movement that enhances body functioning of the particular part. She eats
food that is effective to maintain physical health. And she dresses herself most suitable for the
season and climate. Unlikely American culture that happiness is mainly a mental and/or spiritual
states, her concept of happiness is the whole experience of physical and mental conducts of daily
life.
I did not include a spiritual conduct in the previous sentence for a reason; spiritual
aspect of life is not a major factor for Chinese people. According to her research on her own
culture, she found out that only marginal percentage of Chinese people believe in religions. In
the study, about 80% answered they believe in Communism. And small number of people believe
in Christianity and other tribal religions. In my country, Japan, the majority of the people
consider themselves not belonging to or practicing any established religions. But when they are
asked what they believe, most of them will come up with either Buddhism, Shintoism, or some
nature gods that is inherited through its culture. It is surprising that communism, an
economic/social system can be a belief for a majority of people in a culture.
Confucianism also plays an important role in Chinese culture, and it can be seen in their
life stages. The most valued life stage for them is an old age. As the life span becomes longer, the
Chinese have to wait a little longer to be considered as being old. It used be 55 years old for men
and 50 years old for women, but nowadays, men older than 60 and women older than 55 are
considered as old people. Once they reach this golden age, they are respected, not expected to
work. They are valued because they worked hard to contribute to the society and support their
family in younger stages. Japan, too, adapted Confucianism and the respected for the elders in

the past because it was useful to establish stable feudal system. It is still a part of social and
ethical value, but I think a golden age in Japan is probably a childhood. Traditionally children are
thought as gifts from the heaven. They are godlike in their nature. And under the influence of
Buddhism which states living, getting old, being ill, and dying are the four major causes of
suffering, an old stage is not something people will look forward to getting there. Japanese will
rather choose to stay young and innocent if it is an option for them.
The respect for the elders are also seen in family gathering and cerebrations in China.
Chinese usually sit around round tables, not squares or rectangle tables for dinner. At a glance,
there is no hierarchy or ranks at round tables. But there is. Older people are seated at the very
back of a room, the opposite of a door or entrance. That is the most respected position in the
room. After all the food was served, younger members do not even pick up their chopsticks.
They wait until the oldest person starts eating. Respect for elders is based on Confucianism that
teaches to respect the king, elders, and to value feudalistic order of a society. Confucianism is
also influential in education, especially moral and ethical part of it.
Dinner at round tables reveals another aspect of Chinese culture. The biggest holiday for
them is a Chinese new year. For the event, they almost overflow dinner tables with all sorts of
traditional dishes and delicacies. Enjoying a lot of food with friends and families is the way of
celebrating the holiday and other gathering. Trivial manners and serving styles are less
significant than enjoying the foods that are also related to traditional Chinese food therapy. And
by doing it, they celebrate and hope happiness and health for one another. This image is so lively
and full of energy. It is easily connected to Chinese people I know and have seen. Worrying
about styles and forms are the last thing. The interviewee also told me that typical Chinese
greeting is What did you eat today? Eating well is crucial for their well-being. On the Chinese

New Year day this year, I went to a Chinese restaurant here in Utah. It was packed, and
customers, of course mostly Chinese, were ordering a dish after another. A lot of food, a lot of
talk. That is how they celebrate the occasion and show their care for each other.

Her experience of being different in American culture is being surprised at how

friendly Americans are. She is greeted from strangers with smile on street or in town. It was
uncommon in her culture. A positive experience is now that her son attends a Chinese immersion
elementary school, she can help the teacher and class using her Chinese language. She could not
come up with any negative experiences, and said, I am lucky.
As for intercultural experiences, her daily life is full of such experiences. She has Chinese
culture, her husband has Japanese culture, and their children are brought up in American culture
outside of their house. We agreed that at the beginning of living in other cultures, everything is
interesting and we take a lot of pictures and write about culture shock, maybe in social media.
But that excitement fades away pretty quick. Then intercultural experiences become just a
normal way of life. I actually have an experience of being startled at a Caucasian standing and
waiting for a bus in Utah. I was driving my car, and totally forgot I was in the U.S. So looking at
the Caucasian, I thought, Wow, there is a foreigner. I am a foreigner in this country. But my
intercultural life is now a normal life. The U.S. is not a foreign country; it is simply where I
live.
My interviewee has only lived in Utah, not in any other states. So she cannot compare
Utah culture to other states. But she is grateful to have Chinese community and friends, and
moreover, Chinese immersion programs in public schools here. She feels she is lucky to be able
to raise her children trilingual. She herself speaks three languages, Mandarin, Japanese, and

English. She is surprisingly fluent in Japanese, and thinks her English is not good enough and
now takes ESL class to improve it. Most of the time she spend time with her Chinese and
Japanese friends, but to be really a part of American culture and society, she needs to improve
her English. Her hope is to teach her qi-gong to more American people. Her English is good
enough to go grocery shopping or talk to her sons teachers, but to be independent and explain
what she thinks and knows, her language barrier is still high.
I learned from her that the culture in which a person is born and spend childhood and
adolescence, has permanent influence for his or her entire life. The interviewee was away from
her native land for more than 20 years, longer than the time she spent in China, but she is still,
and of course, a Chinese. I myself is a person with less privilege in the U.S., and her experiences
are mostly similar to mine. Both of us have hardly had negative experiences that was caused by
living in different cultures. We agreed that living in different cultures are exciting and interesting.
I also saw the greater potential of human adaptability and communication in her family,
especially their two sons who effortlessly switch between Japanese, Mandarin, and English. It
was greater than my assumptions. Their house is interesting mixture of three cultures and
languages. My previous perceptions of Chinese culture is actually slightly negative. I thought
they were loud even in public and it was different from my Japanese culture even though we are
both from Asia. But after this interview, I realized that they were not being mean. It was just a
different way of communication. I would assume and accept any other people from different
ethnicities act differently. But since we are all Asian, a slight difference would bother me.
Talking more is Chinese way of showing care to each other. In addition to that, the knowledge
and explanation of the interviewee was informative. I learned Confucianism and Taoism are still

alive and practiced in China, and so is Communism. They still form and influence the way
Chinese think and behave as individual as well as a society.

Work cited
Lin, Yang. Personal Interview. 22 Feb. 2015