When our plane from Taiwan touched down at LAX in 1975, my mother, my father, my two older brothers and I stepped into the hot, dry sunshine of a new and, to us, very foreign world. The changes that lay ahead for all of us were profound and would affect every aspect of our lives. My parents were determined that this would become our new home, and at the same time were unyielding in their insistence on raising children with traditional Confucian values based on obedience, deference, and respect. Thus began my journey of living in two cultures at once.