Chang Yu-i’s Struggle With Identity Essay -- Chinese Culture China Ess

Chang Yu-is Struggle With Identity Are you are confused as to where you are going in spiritedness? Do you sometimes feel like you just do not know who you are, or who you want to be? Do not worry, this is not uncommon. In fact, according to psychoanalyst Erik Erickson (1902-1994), most young people ages fifteen to twenty years of age feel the same way. Erickson, a psychoanalytic theorist, took the human spiritedness cycle and categorized it into eight stages. One much(prenominal) stage would be individualism versus role-confusion. During this stage, adolescents begin to truly bound who they are in life. They form their place off of the good and bad experiences of their past. Erickson believes that the stages in the life cycle apply to nearly everyone. It does not matter where or what era you are from. pip, for example, a lawsuit from Bound Feet & Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang. Chang writes a dual memoir of her and her great-aunts lives. In her novel, Chang tells the story of her great aunt, Chang Yu-i, growing up in a changing world. Even though Yu-i is innate(p) and raised in China during the early 1900s, she still faces the conflicts of trying to find herself. The psycho social crisis called identity versus role-confusion occurs mainly during adolescence, although it is not restricted to this period in life. It is usually the fifth stage in the life cycle, although it may overlap with the stages before and after it. major circumstances can also later change the outcome of this stage. Throughout this stage, a person finds himself bringing together parts of his life and combining them to form who he wants to be in life. Outside factors, such as the community or family, tend to play an indirect, only if important role in forming an identity. This is unbowed in any culture, although family plays an even more significant role in a collectivist culture, such as Yu-is. Chang Yu-i grows up in a family of xii children in a small coun ty outside Shanghai, China. Born into changing times, the struggle for finding herself is perhaps even harder and more confusing than it would be for people born today. Yu-i is born into a time when China is torn between holding on to the old traditions and adopting the ways of the western world. Throughout the early 1900s, China was in political turmoil. China had to deal with the Boxer Rebellion, the revolution against the Manchu dyna... ..., Yu-is family decides she will marry Hsu Chi-mo at age fifteen. Yu-i does not want to get married yet, but instead wants to continue her education at the Academy. However, she does not have a say in who or when she will marry. Because it is time for her to get married, her education is discontinued. She is pulled from her nurture before she is finished with it, neither her parents nor her in-laws feel that this is important. Although the fact that her education was cut short is not something she is pleased with, it is still something she has to accept, and it still a part of who she is. It is a difficult and long process to find yourself. Erickson tells us that is is a natural stage in life to question who you are. Everyone goes through it, regardless of age, sex, race, or time. Take Chang Yu-i for example. She pulled good experiences in her life, such as having unbound feet and getting some education, and used them to help form who she was becoming But she also took the experiences she did not like, such as discontinuing her education as such a young age to get married, and accepted them as part of who she was. She grew up strong, and eventually became her own person.