Family Histories
According to Martin & Nakayama (2009), family histories
are “histories of individual families that are typically passed down through
oral stories” (p. 124). Family histories influence people’s perceptions of who
we are and what we want to be.
Family history’s power is magic: you have to admit it
although you cannot see it. The power will affect people’s thoughts, even their
behaviors. Families can use power as a tool to bring the family and those
family members to the sun side, but if people abuse power, it will turn to the
dark side. For example, if the parents use power as the tool to let the kids do
many things they don’t like to, or put their dreams onto the kids, I will say
that those kids will feel stressful and cannot express themselves because their
parents’ hope. The cultural also affect family history. For example, in
traditional Chinese family, the decision maker in the family is always the
central man in the family. Husband acts this role in most of Chinese families.
The economy affects this role a lot. It seems that if the one can earn more
money in this family, this one will be the final decision maker. But this
situation changes a little bit and right now, there are more and more families
prefer equal rights in the family and they will make decision together. Following is a video clip of Chinese family.
Influence is more like persuasive communicate, people want
change others’ behaviors or at least, their thoughts. Influence is huge and it
can affect next generation’s thoughts. For example, my friend Elizabeth was
influenced by her mother because she saw how her mother communicated with her
parents as a single mother. Although she has different ways to communicate with
her mother, the way her mother treat her grandparents still gave her effect.
References:
Maritn, J.
N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts
(Fifth ed., pp. 185-187). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.
Family History plays such a vital part into who you are as a person forever. The things that your grandparents and parents do are things that you will catch on to and do yourself. Different cultures and families have different ways of passing down history. I like that you explored the chinese families in this post. Good Job!
ReplyDeleteFamily is so important. I don't think enough people know about their family history. Different ways to remember, pass and hold the memories. Can't wait to see what you find.
ReplyDeleteGreat inclusion of video to expand on your application to family history. Moving forward with these blogs, think about how you can develop your points just a bit more. The content is there, but think about how you can add richness and detail to it.
ReplyDelete