I thought of my father when I read the essay White Tigers in Across Culture. Though Maxine and I are both girl, we were both treated differently by a parent in the Asian culture.
             Our relationship between my father and between Maxine and her mother (from White Tigers, p20-25) are in complete contrast. Maxine was rejected by her mother because she was a girl. Maxine's mother had old traditional way of thinking and said, "There's no profit in raising girls. Better to raise geese than girls."(20) In fact, she favored boys in the family.
             My mother passed away at her early age and left my father to raise six girls and four boys. My father who were liberal minded and opposed the favoritism of sons over daughters, accepted each of us and loved us as we are.
             My father would encourage and congratulate me whenever I got straight A's at school. At times, I almost cried to see how happy and proud my father was about my achievement. For example, he would be delighted to show my name on the Dean's list to everyone and said "look, my daughter's name here!" (as he was excited so he spelled my name out for everyone) J-O-A-N. Did you see it?"
             In contrast, Maxine was so disappointed because whenever she got straight A's at school, her mother just made discouraging remarks like "You can't eat straight A's."(20) and also thought that " she was getting straight A's for the good of her future husband's family, not her own."(21)
             Instead of calling me "Bad girl"(20) as Maxine's mother did --though Maxine hadn't done anything wrong except screaming or breaking dishes to object to her mother's unfair treatment-- he always called me "Ut cung" ("sweetie" in Vietnamese) and praise me for whatever I did. ( I think he probably spoiled me sometimes.)
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