What are three significant influences that shaped Maya Lin’s childhood?1.The first influence and very important is her Family.
It was a very insular little family. Her home live was very close knit. Family was consist from her mother , her father , her brother and she. Maya Lin spend all her childhood at home close to her parents and brother. She lived all time in her own world created by herself.
Maya and her brother were unusually brought up. There was no gender differentiation. She was thought the same as her older brother. For girl this is a very lucky guest from her parents.Her family was a family of teachers. Maya’s mother and father were professors in University.
Because of this it was very important for them to grow up kids with one thing – what they will do in life and it was not about money. It is about teaching. Parents were try to give her and her brother the best they could in education. She did not has a lot of friends and all time she was stayed close to home. She and her brother did not want to go out of home.
She believed that whole American live outside their home is more wild than she would had felt comfortable with .Maya did not aware of her family’s history a lot in her early childhood and she didn’t know Chinese language and culture as much before 10 years later . Her parents decided do not teach her Chinese, but changed their mind later. The reason of this was immigration. Her mother and father leaved their friend, their families.
Parents were never talk to her about her family’s history and she with her brother never asked about it. She never knew her grandparents on either side.2.The second influence was education. She loved school. She studied like crazy.
She was a Class A nerd. She did not fit in in high school at all. She was a little smart girl, which knew more than all other classmates. One more reason she did not fit in in high school was her age. She looks younger and her classmates were very nice to her. This thing so hurt her, so she did not have anyone to play with and this is a reason why she did not has a lot of friends like all kid does in this age.
She gave to school all her childhood. She loved to study, but she had no extracurricular activities. Her activity were absolutely isolated. All her artistic activities was only at home.
She never took one extracurricular activity.3.Number three influence is Identity. For a long time she believe that she is not an Asian. She believe she is white. She did not aware of that is mistaken understanding of her race.
Her parents tried to make their best for kids to fit in American society.
