This may sound insensitive, but Asian cultures value emotional restraint rather than emotional expression, counter to Western cultural values, which may lead an Asian woman to believe she should just hide her depression or anxiety. A Memoir in Nine Adventures , Jane Wong’s Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and Delia Cai’s Central Places ; in film, there are rumblings of sequels to The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians.

Shanghiist shared the same discomfort and agreed that it was often very difficult to tell who was the child and who was the mother.

Hopefully women of all backgrounds will realize it's not just a Western thing, or just a white thing, or just a ____ thing. Thank you for the time you have spent with us on the platform and for giving us the opportunity to bring a little bit of joy into your life. Critics have swooned over the movie’s hot dog fingers, the butt plug fight scenes, the trippy zigzags through possible worlds, but stripped of its zaniness, the indie sleeper dominating the Oscars is essentially the story of an aging Asian American mom confronting her very real flaws to reach her daughter.

Some of the restrictions for the first month, such as not leaving the house, might aggravate postpartum depression. I willed myself to get up each time, mostly because I knew my mother would come knocking if I kept my daughter crying.Amy Tan brought the Asian American mom to center stage, and in her, I saw my grandmother and my mother. I moved out of state in the middle of my pregnancy and my old OBGYN never mentioned that big of a life change could throw me for a loop. For a traditional Asian person, what we think of as "alternative" is actually traditional and has been a part of their culture for centuries.

In the Chinese culture, it is common for the new mother’s mother-in-law or own mother to live with her for a month after giving birth to help with the baby and to cook for her. MailOnline remarked “Some of the mothers look so similar to their daughters it is difficult to tell them apart and instead they look like sisters. Before I had my second child, my mom also told me “not to cry as much” because it was bad for my eyes (due to the tears affecting my hot/cold balance). I had access to educational material, but the material was not effective in helping me to identify postpartum anxiety. Racism had become more permissible, more palpable than ever before, and I didn’t want to confront what had happened; I wanted to bury it.Thankfully I am in touch with myself enough to realize that this wasn’t normal, and marched myself off to a doctor, saving face be dammed! It’s such a taboo for moms to reveal any flaws, or thoughts or feelings about a subject that isn’t their children,” Jessamine said to me. We hope you consider making a contribution to NextShark so we can continue to provide you quality journalism that informs, educates, and inspires the Asian community. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.

I was grateful that I didn’t have to be alone with the baby, that I didn’t have to cook for myself, that she was always willing to rock the baby to sleep when I was too tired to do so anymore. The ’90s was her heyday, when Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989) took the literary world, and then Hollywood, by storm. At least in the Chinese culture, there is such a large emphasis on physical recovery that a new mother may not feel comfortable admitting to mental or emotional struggles. My mother-in-law stayed with me for the 'confinement' period just after I had my first, when I struggled with some PPD. When my husband and I came home from the hospital with our daughter, my mom and several pounds of ginger greeted us.Also, I completely know what you mean about the Asian culture being open to "alternative medicines" but skeptical about modern medicine. While American Pie has made the idea of a MILF (you can look that term up if you don’t know it) a run-on joke since the 90’s, China seems to take this concept very seriously. However, despite some cultural barriers in getting support from my mother, my primary hurdle in getting help had little to do with my cultural background but more with poor education. When Billy's first dating attempt with a Japanese girl goes terribly awry he feels his chances for romance are lost forever. For Asian women, did you participate in the one-month sitting period, and if so, how did that affect your postpartum recovery (both positively and negatively)?