Asian Family Values

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Confucius said, “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.” In most of the Asian countries, family harmony and filial piety have a very high value in their traditional culture. There is an expectation that the elderly be honored and obeyed and many others which you can know by looking at the ethical standards and moral values commonly known as the “Three Bonds and Five Relationships” or “Samgang Oryun”. Growing up within certain cultural beliefs and values shape how one sees things. Those beliefs and values I believe are taught by parents an can changed depending on one’s environment as they grow up and can think for themselves in a higher level. The elders and adults in Asian countries still have a bit of inflexible way of thinking, which makes an existence of acculturation between the generations. From this, I’d like to think if family harmony can be attained by just following the long passed down thoughts of the traditional Asians. In the “Samgang Oryun” that I mentioned before, there are 3 bonds or relationships that are related to family and are stressed which are father and son, elder brother and younger brother (let’s just understand it as siblings), and husband and wife. I will be comparing the traditional and present thoughts on the 3 relationships and think about the