My family

My father’s full name is James Fang Yuan, James was the name he took when he came over to America. His original name was Fang Yuan, he got his name from his great grandfather and his last was a lineage name which unlike my mother who had a clan name.

My father came over to America during the 1980s and came over to the Chicagoland area because he had both friends and siblings living in this area. Since he is Chinese, the place was populated by Asian people and he himself is pretty traditional and most of the food, music, and literature are mainly Chinese. However, do celebrate some American holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving but the rest of the holidays we celebrate are Chinese. But overall many of traditions have been satisfied when he had children, for example, he had to give up ping pong and playing the Chinese flute when I was born. But all of the main tradition such as food, music and holidays are still in practice.

My dad struggled to fit into his community since he didn’t know any English when he came over. He didn’t struggle to fit in where he lived but he struggled to fit into his work community since he didn’t know how to properly communicate. He will often display his Chinese habits. Other than that during the time when he first came over, there were many racist moments but that was all.