Chinese School Community Anonymous

In Chinese culture, your peers are your jie (sisters) and ge (brothers), and older people your au yi (aunts) and shu shu (uncles). In this way, “family” extends to not just kin, but also friends, companions, and even acquaintances.

Every week when I volunteer at my Chinese school as a Teacher’s Assistant, I see this principle reflected in our supportive community. Parents group about in the hallways, asking after each other’s relatives in China as if they were their own. In the TA room, I commiserate about homework and parents’ expectations with other stressed teens, many total strangers.

I want to bring this sense of implicit family from the vibrant Chinese school community I call home to Emory, so that even if I’m eating in Cox Hall with someone unfamiliar, I can still laugh and discuss classes, dorms, and Emory life with them, with the sense of an intrinsic bond.