Chinese New Settlers Services Trust (CNSST) is giving parents strategies to help their teenagers walk in both Kiwi and Chinese worlds.
New Zealand-born teenagers of Chinese parents often experience tensions with their bicultural identity. Their parents, who emigrated from China, face language and cultural barriers.
Gloria Gao, Manager and Social Worker at CNSST, says Chinese New Zealand teenagers can find it “confusing” being “Kiwi kids” at school then taking part in Chinese culture at home.
In 2008, CNSST ran their second year of ‘Parenting Teenagers’ workshops, which are facilitated by Chinese migrant New Zealanders. The course is held over eight sessions, with four sessions spoken in Mandarin and Cantonese languages respectively.
“It’s a good way to promote community cohesion and make friends,” says Gloria.
In China, the parenting style is traditionally strict. The CNSST workshops advise parents of different ways to discipline and support their children, by giving them “attention, affection, acceptance and affirmation”.
Gloria says parents on the course “accept the positive parenting approach in New Zealand”.
CNSST has six community-based centres in Auckland, providing social, cultural and educational services.
Their ‘Parenting Teenagers’ course received funding from The Tindall Foundation through Manukau Community Foundation, one of our regional Funding Managers.
For further information contact:
Gloria Gao, Service Manager and Social Worker, Chinese New Settlers Services Trust
Email: Gloria.Gao@cnsst.org.nz