"Traditional vs. Modern Family" Review

“Traditional vs. Modern Family,” is an essay written by Wan L Lam. This essay talks about the traditional Chinese, which no longer exist today.  Talking about her personal experience in Chinese society, Lam writes that she can “feel the existence of freedom.” She makes several examples in which traditional and modern family are different. The traditional family that Lam describes is a patriarchal and chauvinist society, where men took decisions without care or compassion for desires or feelings of all the members of the family. Lam describes the women’s role was insignificant without any privilege or opportunity to express their feeling or desires. Her mom had better to follow the command’s men with “no argument.” Young members of Lam’s family did what older members told them no questions asked.

       “Bean Paste vs. Miniskirt,” by Nicholas D. Kristof is an article published in the New York Times in 1999. This article talks about the wide generation gap in Korean Society, and the troubling situation generated between young and elderlies as a result of modernization, and aperture of this society to Western influences. Elderly people feel disillusioned by the trends of young people that use credit cards and spend money irresponsibly, in their opinion.  Choi Sam Soon, 55 from Hanok village about 30 miles of Seoul said, “They got money from machines.” Korean society used to base its respect on elderly men and women, but modern society seems to only respect money, power and technology.  On the flip side, the younger generation complains about how difficult it is to live with the old school generation and to have to try to make them happy all the time. Most elderly people just “bite their tongue” in front of the immoral and disrespectful young people because they assume that they would not listen to them anyway.