Winnie Feng

Hong Kong

68

"We’ve left China, we don't talk about filial piety any more. In the future, if my husband and I can go to a nursing home together, that’s okay. If one of us died, I told my son, you have to bring the other one home. It’s forlorn to go to nursing home alone."

ally yu

GuangDong

75

"Filial piety is from your heart. You treat your seniors with a true heart. You need to be patient. Think about all those years I’ve been taking care of you. When it comes to modern technologies that I don’t understand, teach me with patience."(left)

van ma

 HongKong

 60+

"Treat your parents the way a boy treats his girlfriend. When you see your parents in a bad mood, ask them, 'What’s bothering you?' Not: 'Oh, I’m taking you to San Diego.'"(right)

jia qiyou

 jiangsu

 60+

"You have to work hard to take care of yourself, then you can talk about filial piety. I went to Hong Kong during the Great Famine. I used the gift money I received during Spring Festival and the money I earned as an intern to buy oil and flour, then sent them to my parents in Jiangsu. This is also a form of filial piety."

Kuang Juehua

Hubei

87

"Filial piety is being obedient to your parents. We are old. Our children don’t live with us, which makes some issues harder to deal with for us. We have to ask for help even when we need to go to the hospital. We used to be able to slowly walk to a close market. Now even walking is very hard for me."

Chen Xitian

Shanghai

80+

"I feel that my daughter practices filial piety. Whenever I feel under weather, she cares about me. Although I live in a senior apartment, she visits me every day, otherwise she’d call me. In the future when I’m sick, I’ll stay with my daughter. She’ll help me."

Ding Zhiqin

Shanghai

82

"Filial Piety is about family values and tradition. I don’t live in senior apartments. My children don’t want me to live there. I agreed, because life is short, a family should stick together."

Margrita Gong

Taiwan

60+

"Although mom is paralyzed, she needs respect and love. When she relaxed her body so that I could roll her over easier, I would say thank you mom.  I hug her and kiss her all the time. I don't know what's filial piety. I love my mom."

Gao tianyan

Liaoning

83

"At our age, we are ailing like a candle burning to the end. We might gutter in the wind any time now. I've lived enough. When I get old, I'll go to a nursing home. How can I depend on my children and become a burden?"

Bao Xifen

 Beijing

91

"Respect and care, that’s my opinion of filial piety. Before my wife passed away, she said to me, 'I’m dying, what are you going to do?' I said, 'what do you think? 'She said, 'You go to your youngest daughter, who’s in the U.S. She’ll do you well.' My wife was right."

Tang Xu

Shandong

doctor

"A crow knows to return to nurture its parents. However, we need to think about when the young generation has to carry the burden of supporting their old, what are they supposed to do? If they’ve given all they have, they have the right to make tough choices. When a person makes an immoral decision unwillingly,  then is the person wrong or the reason forcing them to do it?

Li yan

 Beijing

social worker

"Chinese seniors are too kind to their children, unconditional love. When they get old, they'd expect their children to stay close. So a lot of seniors that live in our senior apartment cannot adapt to the values held in the U.S. Say a senior raised his children in a selflessness Chinese way,  in the end the children adapted the western tradition. The senior cannot accept the fact that he lives alone and the children aren't able to visit everyday."