Personal Narrative Essay: My Family Altar

Family Altar My family altar represents the way my family and culture are constantly intertwined. Both my parents grew up in Vietnam, but my dad’s family came from Hong Kong and immersed me in more Cantonese culture than Vietnamese. I grew up in California and moved to Texas nine years ago. The mix of cultures provided me with emotional support, social and economic training, and cultural knowledge. I was very close to my extended family, which is common in Asian culture. The Hello Panda snack in the altar was my cousin Lily’s favorite snack. I was very close to my extended family and my cousins were my best friends. Three cousins my age lived less than a block away from me and I visited them often. Asian families often live near one another, so there was less emphasis on nuclear family than with most American families. In elementary school, my aunts and grandmas would take care of me after school while my parents were working. During this time, they bought snacks like the

I speak Cantonese fluently, but my Vietnamese vocabulary is lacking. This may be due to the strong connection my dad has with his Cantonese heritage. When my great-grandmother immigrated to Vietnam from Hong Kong in World War II, she likely did not integrate fully with Vietnamese culture. She married a Cantonese man and their children all married Cantonese people. My dad says that he is the first in his family to marry a Vietnamese woman. He takes great pride in his Cantonese roots and has said on multiple occasions he wants my sister and I to do the same. Another explanation for my lack of knowledge in Vietnamese customs is that my dad’s family is very large and all live in the USA, while my mom’s family remains in Vietnam. I have had much more exposure to Chinese beliefs and customs from my dad’s family, such as the Cantonese-style