Search

Children and adolescents in linguistic minority families, such as Chinese American families, often serve as language brokers; that is, they are the translators or interpreters for their parents who have limited English proficiency. Despite a growing number of scholarly investigations on language brokering, evidence regarding its developmental outcomes remains mixed. To disentangle the complex effects of language brokering, two separate but complementary studies were conducted. Specifically, Study 1 took a variable-centered approach and examined the mechanisms of the complex effects of language brokering frequency, while Study 2 took a person-centered approach and explored subgroups of language brokers based on language brokering feelings and identified predictors and outcomes of subgroup memberships (including a known subgroup of non-brokers). Participants were Chinese American adolescents (N = 252 for Study 1; N = 394 for Study 2 including non-brokers) residing in Northern California who were surveyed when they were in high school (T1; Mage = 17.0; SD = 0.73; 61% female) and again four years later (T2). In Study 1, it was found that frequent language brokering for mothers was associated with brokering-related maternal dependence, which was in turn simultaneously associated with both brokering-related mother-child mutual regard and mother-child role reversal across language brokers’ adolescence and emerging adulthood. In addition, the positive impact of frequent language brokering diminished when language brokers did not perceive warmth from their mothers’ parenting behaviors. In Study 2, two distinct subgroups of adolescent language brokers were identified using latent profile analyses based on language brokering feelings: efficacious brokers and burdened brokers. A key predictor that distinguished the two language broker groups was bilingual proficiency, such that those who were proficient in both English and Chinese were more likely to be efficacious brokers. Moreover, compared to non-brokers, efficacious brokers were not significantly affected by or even benefitted from translating, while burdened brokers’ parent-child relationships and psychosocial well-being were at risk due to brokering. Finally, the majority of adolescents remained in the same subgroups over time, and those who were burdened at both times and those who later became burdened showed poorer adjustment in emerging adulthood than other subgroups.

This dissertation interrogates the experiences of Chinese immigrant and Chinese American women and families during the era of Chinese exclusion. The enforcement of anti-Chinese immigration laws, starting in the late 19th century, initiated the creation of the U.S. as a “gatekeeping nation-state.” Scholars have examined the boundaries formed by exclusion of Asians and Asian Americans from the social and physical spaces of U.S. society. In this work, an intersectional analysis of Chinese immigrant and Chinese American women and families complicates existing narratives of U.S. immigration, race, and gender. By focusing on women’s experiences as boundary-crossers who challenged community prescriptions and anti-Chinese policies, this work shifts the historiography away from male, working-class immigrants. In its broadest arguments, this dissertation 1) constructs a social history of Chinese America using the experiences of transnational students, interracial families, and Chinese American women who were expatriated via marriage and then re-claimed their U.S. citizenship; 2) argues that these women’s gendered negotiation of state power changed the ways in which white immigration officials perceived them, a ground-level foreshadowing of post-World War II raced and gendered immigration dynamics; 3) challenges the normative idea of Chinese America as coastal, urban Chinatown space and co-ethnic community; and 4) re-maps Chinese America through regional mobility and networks, focusing on understudied areas of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. A focus on the histories of everyday people resulted in exceptional stories of women. They not only crossed the physical borders of the U.S., but also engaged in interracial marriage, used their student status to challenge Orientalist perceptions of Chinese women, and claimed legitimacy as U.S. citizens. Employing historical, feminist, and anthropological methodologies, this analysis draws on archival case files from the Chinese Exclusion Act files of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service regional centers (Seattle, Chicago, and Philadelphia) and from Chicago School of Sociology researchers. In reading these materials “against the grain,” rich stories of women’s negotiation emerged. Each chapter addresses different permutations of race, gender, class, citizenship status, and family. These analyses in conjunction with community archival materials and public sphere publications support a re-mapping of Chinese America. Utilizing the federal census and archival material from the border-crossings of the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic to trace lived experiences revealed patterns of local and regional mobility in addition to transnational movements. Their histories from the margins of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic re-map exclusion-era Chinese America as socially and geographically heterogeneous, beyond ethnic enclaves, i.e. Chinatowns. The results challenge coastal, urban spatializations of a pre-World War II history dominated by the West Coast.

With more than 40 million immigrants, the United States is the major destination for most international migrants. It has always been so because America is a nation of immigrants. The United States has been shaped by four waves of immigration, and unlike previous waves, in the past 50 years immigrants have come from Latin America and Asia more than other regions of the world. Chinese immigration is the focus of this thesis. Chinese people have been present in this society from before the Revolutionary War, and their story is a complex one--one marked by rapid growth, discrimination, exclusion, acceptance, more rapid growth, and assimilation. This thesis describes the four waves of immigration that have shaped American society, and the role that the Chinese played in this process. Immigration law is explored and two benchmark laws, the Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, frame this discussion. The regions of Chinese emigration are described and the push-pull factors that affected this migration are discussed. Migration and assimilation theories are presented, and a model of spatial assimilation that predicts where ethnic groups are located in the urban fabric is applied to Chinese people in the United States. Measures of residential and socioeconomic integration, English-language proficiency, and intermarriage are used to determine the level of assimilation of Chinese immigrants after 1965. The straight-line assimilation model best describes the assimilation of Chinese Americans into this society.

Using Scheper-Hughes and Locke's "Mindful Body" (1987) as a theoretical framework, this thesis seeks to examine how Alzheimer's disease (1) impacts Chinese and Taiwanese American elders and their caregivers, (2) is felt through the relationships and social interactions of the Chinese and Taiwanese American individuals interviewed, and (3) is experienced through the complex overlapping of culture, politics, and institutions in Boston and beyond. In order to understand the impact of Alzheimer's disease on Chinese and Taiwanese American families living in Boston, qualitative interviews of health care professionals, community members, Chinese and Taiwanese American elderly, and Alzheimer's disease caregivers were conducted and analyzed. Furthermore, participant observation at a Chinese American adult day health center, dementia review meetings, and various public lectures on Alzheimer's disease and the Chinese and Taiwanese American communities were attended. This case study demonstrates that for the Chinese and Taiwanese American communities, Alzheimer's disease is a social disease. It exists within family relationships of elder and caregiver, and for families, it is the gradual degeneration of these relationships that is at the heart of meaning of this illness' lived-experience.

The purpose of this case study was to explore ways that the cultural identity of Chinese American adolescents was mediated through participation in a children’s choir that sings repertoire from both Western and Eastern countries of the world. The study examined a children’s choir where a majority of members identify as Chinese American adolescents. The primary question guiding the inquiry was: How do Chinese American adolescents describe the experience of singing in a children’s choir on their emerging cultural identity? Sub questions included the following: How is identity created or described by Chinese American youth in a children’s choir? How does social interaction with fellow choir members affect their identity development? What is the impact of singing Chinese folksongs on the development of their identity? How might the findings apply to other music education settings? Data collection included 12 hours of observations over the course of five weeks, and interviewing five students, the director, and the founding director of the children’s choir. Findings suggest positive role models that are also culture bearers, singing popular Chinese folksongs, and having a positive, family-like environment aids in the development of cultural identity among Chinese American adolescents.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore American teachers' perspectives on their Chinese American students' culture, which includes the use of language, communication style, family values with regard to education, and development and identity. Different from previous studies on Chinese Americans, which were conducted in coastal urban areas, this study took place in a Midwestern rural town. 17 American teachers (K-12), eight Chinese immigrant parents, and five Chinese American students participated in semi-structured interviews. Data consisted of interviews with teachers, parents, and students, and pertinent state and operational social studies curricula. Data analysis followed the naturalistic inquiry approach, and themes emerged from the data.Major findings of the study include: (1) While the majority of the student participants' native language was Chinese and they began learning English upon entering school, none of the teacher participants was able to provide language assistance; (2) Teacher participants positively commented on Chinese immigrant parents' involvement in their children's education, but did not realize parents' communicative challenges caused by linguistic barriers and a lack of understanding of American culture and American education; (3) Teacher participants were not aware of the cultural influence behind Chinese immigrant parents' high expectations for their children's education and some teacher participants thought high socioeconomic status Chinese American families attached more importance to education than low status families; and (4) The majority of teacher participants believed their Chinese American students fit well in the school culture but half of the parent participants reported racial discrimination against their children, and fewer than half of the social studies teachers in this study included cultural diversity in their curriculum as required by the official state curriculum standards.Based on the findings, this study has implications for practice and policy. Implications for practice focus on improving the communication between American teachers and Chinese immigrant parents and on helping in-service teachers better understand their ethnically diverse students. Implications for policy emphasize the development of preservice teachers' skills in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages [TESOL] and their appreciation for Asian cultures.

This dissertation investigates a key folkloric concept – authenticity – through an exploration of the Chinese restaurant. Scholars tend to be wary of using the term authenticity in conjunction with cultural expressions because of its association with dangerous nationalist movements, problematic boundaries, and potential for essentialism. Authenticity is often understood in the vein of continuity to the past; such an understanding implies singularity, stability and bounded concreteness rather than dynamism and fluidity in cultural expressions. As a result, in scholarship, claims of authenticity are often avoided or deconstructed as invalid or false. However, I argue that claims to authenticity can be valid and legitimate and that authenticity should be considered as multiple and flexible.I examine one Chinese restaurant, one Chinese dish, and a small collection of vintage Chinese restaurant menus to investigate discourses on authenticity. Ding Ho, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, embodies several features typical of Chinese restaurants but also contain anomalous elements in their operations which, according to some on-line restaurant reviews, mark the restaurant as inauthentic. However, I suggest that anomalies are not evidence of pollution of a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity but instead indicate variations within the category. Discourses on a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity include, for example, some patrons’ desire for access to the separate Chinese language menu that some Chinese restaurants have. Such conversations often contain echoes of Orientalist narratives. Wor Sue Gai, the dish I focus on in my discussion, is a chicken dish often found in Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and it is believed to be a local invention. While the actual origins of Wor Sue Gai are unclear, conversations about the dish on internet food discussion boards point to both Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan as its birthplace. Unlike chop suey, Wor Sue Gai’s Chinese-ness is not in question, although it is presumed to have been created in the United States. However, it still maintains a Chinese identity as well as a regional identity associated with both Columbus and Detroit. These multiple identities tell us that Wor Sue Gai, like any cultural expression, can sustain several co-existing identities. Authenticity is not about a single origin so much as it is about claiming a cultural expression as their own.As cultural artifacts, Chinese restaurants menus serve as the public presentation of the restaurant’s identity. Earlier Chinese menus tend to have distinct separations of Chinese and American dishes, indicating the need to gently introduce Chinese cuisine and culture to an unfamiliar patron base. Analysis of the types of dishes, the transliterations of the names of dishes from Chinese to English, and visual images and illustrations on the restaurant menus reveal that authenticity is often contextual and negotiated to accommodate the restaurant’s clientele. Chinese restaurant menus operate as markers of social relationshipsThis dissertation argues that there are multiple authenticities in any cultural expression, that claiming authenticity is a valid act, that its authenticity can be based on claiming, and that claims of authenticity are contextual and relational.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song stands as one of the first and one of the only Broadway musicals about the lives of Asian Americans. Premiering as a stage musical in 1958 and a film in 1961, it was a landmark in the entertainment industry, opening opportunities for Asian actors to play substantive roles written by one of the most famous writing teams in American musical theater. However, Flower Drum Song has effectively fallen out of mainstream memory. There are several possible reasons for this disappearance; one of the most salient causes is the use of stereotypes in the construction of characters, dialogue, and music. The aim of this thesis is to reopen and reconsider musical theater as an important and revealing genre of entertainment that is birthed in the politics and history of the society from which it emerges. A reading through the libretto and score, listening to cast recordings, and viewing the film reveal Flower Drum Song as a product of its time. It is filled with stereotypes of Chinese and Chinese American characters—stereotypes that were commonly propagated in the mid-twentieth century and viewed, in this setting, as innocently humorous. Looking back at Flower Drum Song through a more culturally sensitive lens, one observes the offensive stereotypes presented therein. However, studying any piece of artwork necessitates understanding that art in its particular point in history. In order to historically situate Flower Drum Song, this discussion highlights some of the relevant events and legislation affecting immigrants to the US beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, focusing particularly on Asian immigrants. Through a close reading of the libretto and an analysis of the score, one is able to identify elements used by Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Fields to construct their own versions of China and America—of Chineseness and Americanness. Through music, dialogue, staging, and costumes, the writing team constructs images of Asians and Asian Americans, thereby taking upon themselves the authority to represent a group of people through the show they wrote. In the mid-twentieth century, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joseph Fields crafted a musical comedy based on the novel by C. Y. Lee that gently prodded the theater world forward in terms of openness and acceptance of characters, actors, and stories of diverse backgrounds. Yet, as well-intentioned as the team may have been, they still drew on Orientalist and Exoticizing tropes, constructing an artificial understanding of “China” and “Chinese Americans”—images that would influence the theater going public. In 2002, David Henry Hwang, a Chinese American playwright, sought to salvage this musical by rewriting the book in a more culturally conscientious perspective. His version of the show, however, did not achieve much success. It seems as if Flower Drum Song is doomed to be forgotten. Yet, the issues surrounding the play are fruitful for discussion and vital to the history of American musical theater.

The Therapeutic Assessment model of child assessment (TA-C) aims to provide psychological benefits and facilitate positive changes in the children and their family. However, research on TA-C has focused almost exclusively on the experience of clients from mainstream American culture. This study investigated the cultural applicability of the TA-C model with Chinese adults residing in the United States. A convenience sample of 74 Chinese adults, ages 25-40, was recruited. Two sets of vignettes were written to simulate the experiences of each step of the TA-C and information gathering (IG) model of assessment. Each participant was randomly assigned to either the TA-C or the IG group, and completed the Perceived Experiences of Assessment Scale and My Feelings after reading each phase of the assessment (introductory, testing, child feedback, parent feedback, and overall experience) in their vignette. In addition, each participant completed the European American Values Scale of Asian Americans--Revised and the Asian American Values Scale--Multidimensional, designed to measure of acculturation and enculturation respectively. Findings indicated that after taking acculturation and enculturation into account, Chinese participants had a more positive experience with the TA-C model than the IG model. Additional analyses found that the level of acculturation and enculturation had no significant impact on how participants in the TA-C group experienced the case through their vignette, supporting the robust nature of TA-C. However, participants in the IG group did experience an impact of both acculturation and enculturation on how they experienced the case through their vignette, supporting less applicability of the IG model when high enculturation is present. In addition, the experience of being emotionally stirred up in the TA-C condition was examined and discussed, suggesting further that the TA-C model both evokes and supports emotional disequilibrium that then facilitates a positive experience by the end of the TA-C. In conclusion, this study offered promising preliminary support for TA-C as a culturally appropriate child assessment model for Chinese families in the United States and provided a more nuanced understanding about the use of the IG model with those who are highly enculturated.

By considering San Francisco’s legal, social, and cultural history during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in relation to American law, missionary women, and Chinese American prostitutes, this thesis argues that by aggressively trying to control Chinese sexuality through laws, “yellow slave” narratives, Christianizing, and the immigration process, the American government and missionaries created an atmosphere ripe for Chinese prostitutes in America with varying degrees of sexual freedoms.

As has been true for most groups of immigrants arriving in the United States, the Chinese have undergone a wide-ranging, and at times rapid, transformation in the eyes of mainstream America. No other ethnic or racial group in American history has been so singled out for immigration regulation as have the Chinese--the Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, still represents the only time that a particular ethnic group was selected for immigration restriction. While an analysis of the legal history of the era reveals the various restrictions faced by Chinese immigrants in terms of the state, a look at American popular culture paints an even more vivid picture of the Chinese American experience. The treatment of Chinese in pop culture--particularly in visual media such as political cartoons, film, and television series--illustrates their ever-changing role in American society and culture. In the 1960s, Chinese kung fu, virtually exploded onto the American pop culture scene; kung fu television series and movies enjoyed huge commercial and popular success from 1966 to roughly 1974, and Bruce Lee was arguably the most important figure in the genre. Lee, an American-born Hong Kong Chinese, provided one of the first images of a strong, capable Chinese man that Americans saw, both in terms of his onscreen roles and in his off-screen life. However, there has been no truly academic study of Bruce Lee, nothing substantive to place his life and his short career in a broader historical context. The purpose of this thesis, then, is to address Lee's role as the first true Chinese American pop culture hero, and to analyze the interaction between that role and the changing identity of Chinese Americans.

This study looks into Chinese American adolescents’ sense of self as members of an ethnic group, how ethnic language usage affects the children’s ethnic identity, how the quality of family relationships correlates with their ethnic identity, and how cultural participation relates to their family relationships. Using acculturation, social identity and ethnic identity formation theories as the framework, I interviewed six families of Chinese descent and found that ethnic language usage correlated with Chinese American adolescents’ ethnic identity, and the children who were pretty sure about their identity were more likely to report a close family relationship. The study results indicated that cultural participation does not necessarily increase the quality of family relationship. Parents who tried to understand their children’s Americanness and communicate with them, and who didn’t force their values on their children were more likely to have children report a good quality of family relationships.

The purpose of this study is to investigate Chinese American images in selected children's fiction to determine whether or not data support the position of the Council on Interracial Books for Children, that the works of fiction studied tend to stereotype Chinese Americans. After reading the selected fifteen works of fiction, a criterion checklist was devised by the investigator to examine the behavior and lifestyle of Chinese Americans depicted in a variety of circumstances. validity of the criterion checklist was established by a panel of experts in the area of Chinese American studies. Inter-rater reliability was determined by two readers who utilized the criterion checklist to analyze the content of one lower elementary grade and one upper elementary grade work of fiction. Finally, the criterion checklist was used to analyze the fifteen works of fiction and draw conclusions related to the purpose of this study. The findings in this study do support the conclusions of the Council on Interracial Books for Children that this group of fiction portrays Chinese Americans in a one dimensional, stereotypic manner. In the checklist items related to environment, food, utensils, physical attributes, cultural celebrations, occupations, and recreation, Chinese Americans were portrayed as adhering to Chinese-specific characteristics. However, in cross-cultural and behavioral items, Chinese Americans were portrayed as desiring Western-specific characteristics. This tendency was especially prevalent in upper elementary grade fiction. A more integrative or multi-dimensional view of Chinese Americans appreciating, and able to function well in, both cultural contexts is disconcertingly absent. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made: 1. That teachers, librarians, and other school personnel who use this collection of books, supplement them with materials containing contemporary and realistic information about Chinese Americans. 2. That future writers of children's fiction dealing with Chinese Americans portray them in a multidimensional manner. 3. That curriculum writers of textbooks use a similar criterion checklist to offset the one-dimensionality of Chinese American images in existing children's literature. 4. That future writers of children's fiction on Chinese Americans utilize a criterion checklist such as the one in this study to assist them in developing multi-dimensional characters.

Approach of the study: The present report is divided into five chapters. Chapter II begins by considering the literature of bilingualism which has been written during this decade in sociological, linguistic, and psychological fields. It goes further to describe briefly bilingual education, which has very recently developed to be used as effective education for ethnic group children. The attempt of this study is to test the hypothetical assumption in socio-psychological aspect of ethnic children. In Chapter III, the focus is moved to the survey. Here I attempt to indicate how the relevance of research work may be influenced by methodology of research and bureaucratic authority, in which they are imbedded. In Chapter IV, the study turns to a comparison of Chinese-American students according to birthplace. The hypothesis is tested by using the data gathered for the thesis. A consideration of some of the inner states associated with self-esteem will also be mentioned. The last chapter will summarize the study and suggest a number of directions which future research might take.

In any study of physical fitness or of nutritional well-being of a group of people, a knowledge of the normal height and weight of that group serves as a valuable guide. Thus, Height-Weight-Age tables have been prepared and are being used in schools, gymnasiums, camps, etc., as a gauge of physical development in children. However, for the group of Chinese school children in the United States very little work has been done to determine the normal height range and weight at the different ages and the normal height-weight-age relationships. Because of the lack of data on the normal weights and heights of Chinese school children, the writer, who had previously attempted a survey and study of malnutrition among Chinese school children in Stockton, California, found that she has no means to gauge her measurements. The tables prepared for Caucasian children are always available and can be referred to, of course; but can height-weight-age standards which are based on measurements of Caucasian children serve as standards by which Chinese children could be judged? This study was undertaken in order to throw light on that question and to serve as accurate and contemporaneous material for preparing height-weight-age tables for Chinese school children in Northern California, should the final analysis prove that tables prepared for Caucasian children cannot be adapted for their use.