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Customs                                                   By Wah You Lee                               Contents

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There are many nations in the world, and every nation has its own customs, so there are many different kinds of customs.

Customs of nations are historical and traditional. This means the customs of nations are handed down by the nation’s tradition through a long period and they ate linked with the people’s way of living. For example, the American “Thanksgiving” is for celebrating their ancestors overcoming the difficulties of nature and settling on the American continent.

Festivals are one kind of customs of nations. Every nation has its own festivals, and every festival means something. In china, there are festivals for celebrating harvests or victory over the enemy in history, for blessing lovers, for memorializing ancestors, for uniting the family’s members. All nations in the world have their festival “New Year” It is a great festival. At New Year, people can take a few days’ rest, enjoy themselves in many activities, review the past year, and look forward to the coming year.

In China, there are many customs different from other nations.’ For example, in March of the lunar calendar, people would go the graves to fall on their knees to ancestors and eat meals in the countryside. On May 5th of the lunar calendar, the people would have contests of rowing boats that were decorated as dragons on the river, and eat cakes made of sticky rice and wrapped with bamboo leaves. On August 15th of the lunar calendar, the members of the whole family would get together an admire the beautiful moon and eat moon cakes. These customs were full of tender sentiments of the Chinese people.

There are strange customs in China, too. In some areas of the plateau, people carry the dead bodies of their relatives to the mountains and let the eagles eat them; some fishermen living on boats bind their relatives’ dead bodies on board and sent them out to sea. These customs may fit the requirements of the natural environment, so we cannot say they are good or dad.

But there used to be some bad customs in China. For example, men could have more than one wife, and widows could not get married again; the men and women who had sexual relations without and engagement would be put into a cage for a pig and thrown into the water; the most cruel thing was that when the master died, the servants and even his wife, had to be buried with him.

These barbarous and inhumane customs make me think of the relationship between laws and customs. Laws are made by governments for protecting people. They have to fit the conditions of the country and the world. But some customs were formed by the needs or interests of some groups of people of nations. So not all customs express the needs and interests of the whole people of the nation, and maybe some customs are harmful to people. These barbarous, inhumane and harmful customs the government has to make laws to stop.

A Respectful Love                                 Contents

I was moveddeeply by a true story that happened Chong Ging, China

In 1973, Mr. Wu was twenty. He was a mechanic in a transportation company. He was handsome, strong, and skillful in his work and had stable wages; so many girls liked him and wished to marry him. But he refused them. He loved a country girl, Ping Lan, who was beautiful, sweet natured, clever and capable.

They dated for six years, and got married in 1979. Two years later, they had a lovely daughter, Ling Ling, and lived a lucky life.

But in 1982, in an accident, because of salvaging the cars, Wu was injured seriously and became disabled. He needed someone’s help in his daily life. After that although the transportation company gave him some money every month, it could not sustain him. The family fell into a different position in the economy. Then Ping Lan had to work hard to support the family. She sold all their property to open a small barbershop, and their economic situation was improved gradually. But Wu was still upset. He thought that “After marriage, C could not make my wife lucky, but encumbered her. The only way to solve the difficulty is divorce.” So they divorced in 1987. But they lived together in the same house as before.

Some men wanted to marry Ping Lan, but they retreated when knew Ping Lan’s request that anyone who wanted to marry her had to take care of Wu and their daughter Ling Ling.

There was a man named Zhong who was the owner of a small barbershop in another place. He had recognized Ping Lan before and knew about her recent situation. But Ping Lan thought Zhong should think about it over and over. Finally, Zhong closed his barbershop and moved to Chong Ging, and helped Ping Lan manage the barbershop and take care of Wu and Ling Ling. Ping Lan was moved and they got married in 1990. then they hired a home attendant to take care of Wu and Zhong cut Wu’s hair every month. They lived a friendly and warm life.

In 1998, Ling Ling was 18 years old and graduated fro the academy. Because Zhong’s parents were old enough to need someone to take care of them, by the agreement, they made before and under Wu’s urgency, Zhong, Ping Lan and their son went back to Zhong’s hometown to take care of Zhong’s parents. Before leaving, they bought a house for Wu and gave home some money.

Two years later, after knowing Ling Ling had to leave her father for another place because of her job; Ping Lan consulted with Zhong and moved back to Chong Ging. Zhong’s parents would be taken care of by Zhong’s brother

This story lets me know that respectful love is. Respectful love is just from one’s heart, not anything else. When you love someone, you should love him for his moral and honest character, not because of his appearance or wealth. You love him. You should understand him and give him a hand. You would do your best to support him, to help him. Of course, the respectful live is related to both sides. Respectful love cannot exist forever if it is not reciprocated. This respectful love from both sides can send out bright light like the love between Romeo and Juliet.

I respect Wu; he was bright to make a right choice. He preferred Ping Lan as his wife over many girls because he knew Ping Lan was a girl with good character. I respect Ping Lan; she combined love and responsibility. After the divorce, she still took care of Wu as warmly as before. I respect Zhong; he love Ping Lan from his heart. He thought what Ping Lan thought and did what Ping Lan wished to do. He supported Ping Lan to take care of Wu. How respectful this love is!

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