What's Cantonese for Mazel Tov?: Chinese and Jewish Families Mashup in New Jersey

What's Cantonese for Mazel Tov?: Chinese and Jewish Families Mashup in New Jersey

A Jewish girl (my daughter) named Sara marries a Chinese man whose last name is Lee, making her married name just like the famous brand of baked goods. At about the same time, my nephew Yakov, raised as an Orthodox Jew in Lakewood, NJ, gets his secret Chinese girlfriend pregnant and they marry. So now my family of NY metro Jews with roots in Lithuania and Poland merges into Chinese families with roots in Guangdong and Shanghai. It's a merger (or clash) of ancient cultures. The Chinese always arrive early. The Jews always arrive late. The Jews hug and kiss you with hardly any provocation, even if you're the plumber who's just replaced a faucet. A Chinese son shakes hands with his mother--on Mother's Day. The Orthodox and Secular Reform wings of the family can't figure each other out, either. You'll see. All the characters are nice people. Solid citizens with good careers and lovely homes. There isn't even a lot of political disagreement. Yet we don't know what to do with each other. It's Fresh Off the Boat meets The Goldbergs with a side of Shtisel, But it works, mostly. How? Let me tell you. . .