Boys Across Cultures 弓箭手

No matter how people raise them, boys have similar characteristics across cultures. This is a photo of our smallest one, who at just 2 is trying out his archery skills. Our boys like playing war, chasing and beating on daddy. Both boys have liked making weapons out of things not to harm others but to play. It is just as much physical contact as our daughter but in a different way.

Our sons also of course like to us to read stories to them and to just hold them. Last Saturday morning as my wife took our daughter to ballet class 舞蹈班 and our older son to Chinese class, I was watching Bambi for the 501st time with our youngest son while holding him and tickling his toe every couple minutes.

When our little one plays with boys in the park or in church it is in physical games, mock war, stretching each other, sitting on each other, etc. We don’t treat them any differently except to react to them in the way they most like, and we certainly don’t teach them these differences, but they happen anyway.

One big difference I think is the degree of communication between males. In Chinese culture, there seems to be a high degree of communication between males who form fairly close friendships. It’s not true for everybody, but it seems to be a general rule. I have for example, formed friendships with several Chinese males despite differences in culture and background. Hopefully, that is one thing we can encourage with lots of family time together.