FIVE.~ an intercultural situation~

My family has recently moved house and now we have two new neighbors! Both our neighbors are Indian families and our family has been interacting with one particular family relatively well recently. We’re always aware of the fact that Muslims do not eat pork for both religious and maybe health issues. So my family is really careful with food around them. It was only when my brother started playing more with that family’s children did we realize something interesting about their cuisine.

Every time our neighbor’s kids come over to find my brother for some afternoon fun, my mother will cook or bake to entertain them. Sometimes, my neighbor will bring outside food over and both families will enjoy dinner together. Once, my neighbor bought some burgers over and the kids stopped playing and rushed over to eat (something that they’re even better at than playing). I started distributing the food to them and knowing that the neighbors don’t eat pork, I passed them the chicken burgers and laid out all the other snacks in front of them. Just as I was about to get started on my burger, one of my neighbor’s kids, Brandon, pointed at the burger that my brother was holding and said “Can I have THAT one? It’s my favourite!” I looked at him and then at that burger and I was like “But that’s pork.” He stared at me and said “Yeah but it’s my favourite.” Just then his mum arrived and I quickly queried her about his ‘strange’ request and she just laughed! Seeing my confused and possibly dumbfounded expression, she gently explained that she’s rather lenient around with her kids and allow them to eat whatever’s to their comfort when the elders are not around. Besides, it’s the elders who are Muslim. She hardly considers herself a Muslim because she’s a Christian. OHHH. At home, it’s the grandparents who strictly stick to the pork restrictions so the kids are required to follow suit but once outside, they are allowed certain freedom to that.

This is really kind of similar to some habits in my family too. True, even if they don’t follow the restrictions closely, they do this discreetly and not in broad daylight, so we hardly hear of it. It seems like my Chinese family is not so different from my neighbor’s Indian family after all.

Actually, this brings me to another question. The older generation still holds firmly to their traditions, while the newer and younger generations tend to be more laxed around these laws. Is the changing or non-adherence of certain ‘rules’ diluting the traditions and social norms of a culture? Somehow I think not. Some traditions are really strange to begin with, like how some religious groups do not allow the cutting of hair, even for men. So I think it may not totally be a bad thing if some ‘rules’ are more laxed.

Feel free to comment:)