Introduction
Communities all over the world have over the years faced similar but vexing challenges. The issues vary from poverty, disease, and inequities in racial or tribal lines, food insecurity, crime, indiscipline among many others. Numerous efforts have been engaged in I bid to alleviate human suffering resulting from the challenges as well as trying to tackle these challenges. This paper describes my personal contribution to making my community a better place for my peers.
Background
I am an Asian American and throughout my life I have lived both in China as well as America. I have observed that the Asian Economies have been developing at a very high rate prompting migration of people to and from the world’s biggest economy (the U.S) for trade as well as the acquisition of skills required to drive the economies. Interaction among the Asians and Americans has thus been inevitable.
Of great concern have been the uniqueness and the great difference between the Asian and the American cultures. China and other Asian countries are visibly conservative whereas American cultures are more liberal. In general the great differences can be seen mainly in three aspects namely religion, the family and the government structure.
Hurdles encountered by migrants especially the youth in trying to adapt to foreign cultures have been numerous. Individualism is prominent in the American culture in that one does that which pleases him with little regard to others’ opinions so long as he/she is within the confines of law. This is unlike the Asians who are more collective in the way they handle themselves. Also great respect is accorded to older people in Asian cultures where the young even refer to strangers as uncles and aunties unlike in the U.S where they refer to older people by their names. The family is also very central to Asians than Americans. Children work hard to please their parents and not to fulfill their dreams as the Americans do.
All these and other differences have over the years been the basis of some conflicts and misunderstandings between Asians and Americans. Discussion topics like the military expenditure in China as compared to that in America, the free speech society available in America and not China kept crossing my mind as I pondered on what to do.
I felt compelled to take an initiative in bridging the gap. Narrowing the differences between these two people would be of priceless service to both China and the U.S. My passion to smoothen the relations between Chinese and American teens had been born.
Clearly, I understood that the best way to do this would be to seek interesting ways of sharing information from both parts of the world mainly on the lifestyles and culture. With this information the people would better acknowledge and tolerate each other to form more cohesive bonds through better understanding.
The Chinese American Youth Forum
I started thinking of ways of availing this information to the teenagers. I thought the best way would be to create an unbiased platform, on which teens from both countries would share their experiences, views and opinions freely.
Facebook had by then become the common mode of interaction for young people. I decided to create a page on Facebook where teens from both cultures would remotely meet and exchange ideas. The page got very popular among teens. It was an exciting fun page but the fun was cut short in August 2009 when the Chinese government banned Facebook. This greatly frustrated my efforts but did not kill my dream. I created a website named www.cn-usforum.com. Cn-usforum stands China-US forum
The website is to be launched officially in the course of this month. It is led by a group of four students who would offer their free time to promote monitor and improve interphase of the website. Two of them are in China while the other two are in the U.S. I may be busy having just completed my ACT exams and still undertaking SAT but I feel I have to do this for my community. My ultimate goal in establishing the new website is to bridge the economical, cultural, social and racial gap between my home country China and the U.S as well as ensuring that the youth embrace diversity and communication.
The website has well established forums which offers a platform for young Chinese and Americans to discuss and share on a wide variety of issues mainly relating to culture and as well as other activities. A recent debate about the high school schedules got me really excited. Strong arguments came forward on the unfairness and strictness of the Chinese High School Timetables. They are viewed by most Americans as being too overloaded while others give them credit for the good performance of Chinese students in Mathematics and sciences. Personal experiences have been shared and commented on by a host of other participants. Users can post topics, reply, and even start a poll within the website. They can also display portraits depicting various aspects of their society such as the African Americans, sports and music. A new page tailored for elementary and middle school children has also been developed to incorporate even younger members in the site.
Future Prospects
I plan to expand membership of the forum as well as greatly increase the discussion forums to cover a wider scope while incorporating various events starting with the 30 hours famine project in November. The project which is being supported by World Vision will seek to raise awareness on the famine situation in parts of China as well as seek ways of helping the affected. It is the first of its kind in China. I also wish to have at least 50 portraits on display by the end of the year mainly done by Chinese teens.
My vision may be broad and even overboard but step by step, I will be able to significantly improve relations between Chinese and Americans. By focusing on the youth I intend to ensure that in future, people from the two cultures will bond easily and feel free to relate with each other for their own benefit as well as that of the contemporary society. If they can embrace each other by focusing on their similarities instead of their differences, then I believe the world will be a much better place and my dream will have been fulfilled.