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Q: How did your parents respond to your Chinese partner?
I'm so excited to take my Chinese girlfriend home, but then, I am not sure whether there is going to be a cultural barrier, or some awkwardness at first. How was your first experience taking your Chinese partner home?
9 years 34 weeks ago in Relationships - China
When my parents first meet my girlfriend they were ... just themselves, really. We spent a sunny afternoon walking around and talking about random topics. First time my girlfriend came home, same thing, my parents and my family didn't act differently from usual. In their eyes, she's family and she get the same treatment as a family member. Nobody was overly formal, nobody did stupid remarks, nobody stared at her or anything, her not being French and Asian was completely irrelevant. My girlfriend quickly have a good feeling about my parents, and my parents liked her too.
It was, for my then-girlfriend (now wife), her first time abroad. So she was quite intimidated, everything was really different from her. So she acted shy and tended to isolate herself in a room to watch TV shows on her iPad. She didn't even know one word of my native language, so that was quite a factor too : from her point of view, everybody was talking in gibberish ^^ Nothing awkward happened. I briefed my wife on a couple of things beforehand:
* We drink tape water, no worries, it's safe
* We drink water at room temperature, even if it's winter
* Don't splash water out of the shower (she used to splash lots of water when taking a shower, she improved a lot now)
* The toilet paper is flushed with your pee/poop, no garbage can dedicated for it
* Saying "thanks" and "sorry" when appropriate (it's kind of a big deal back home)
* How to use fork & knife
The food was a bit of an issue, my wife was ok with the taste, but her digestive tract was challenged. I would say, plan to cook some meals she can digest well (rice with woked vegetables for instance). Not eating rice for a week was a bit hard for her.
Sinobear:
"...everybody was talking in gibberish"...well, you are French!
Both parties will be nervous because of the cultural/language barriers and the fact that its an important meeting, so reminding them both of that beforehand will definitely help. But ultimately it comes down to the people and their attitudes. Iif all three are good people and your parents aren't the relationship then there should be no problems outside some confusion or people not being able to exactly understand each other.
My mom is herself an immigrant, and my dad is very well traveled. I've had friends from Norway, India, UK, Bosnia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Poland, Philippines and others over since I was a small child. I think my family has a good grasp of cultural differences.
My sister also has a well accepted "foreigner" boyfriend so that's swell. My parents havent met my gf yet, but they've chatted on Skype and they seem to get along well. She might go home with me for Christmas and I'm super calm about it. It also helps my gf is easygoing and likeable.
No worries because both my parents and my girlfriend are Chinese.
My mom loves my wife more than me.
It helps that my wife speaks great english and is comfortable chatting with anyone. My mom likes that she can hug her and that she takes care of me and my wife loves that my mom treats us as equals and not my wife. Telling her to steal ly money for safety, pushing me to get better life insurance to take car of her.
They kick me out so they can have alone time and get closer.
Me and my woman travel alot and she was raised pretty.....aware, so culture differnces have never really been there. Pretty damn smooth.
Im guessing iy will depend on your wife`s and your parents personalities more than anything.
