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Research on Hong Kong identity has focused on several pivotal periods (the 1997 Handover, and the 2014 and 2019 protests), which situates local, postcolonial Hong Kong identity as oppositional to a national Chinese identity. While these time points are critical, it is also important to attend to earlier Hong Kong media, including humorous works. Better understanding of how Hong Kong humour operates expands our knowledge about humour, identity and media studies beyond the prolific cinematic output. This article reports on the content analysis of 8.8 hours of the sketch comedy show, (The Hui Brothers Show) 1971‐72. The Hui brothers broke the ‘two fools’ tradition of vernacularized and self-deprecating comedy by incorporating content reflecting Hongkongers’ everyday experience and coinciding with a rise in television viewership. We report three representative themes: (1) luxury and novelty, (2) social commentaries and behaviour governance and (3) the normalization and centring of working-class lifestyles as ‘Hong Kong’ lifestyles. We argue that these themes from the 1970s have planted the seeds to Hong Kong identity boundaries that have been (re)constructed and (re)imagined in contemporary Hong Kong history thus offering opportunities for collective self-reflection about what it meant to be a Hongkonger then and what it means now.

Addressing patient-clinician communication barriers to improve multiple chronic disease care is a public health priority. While significant research exists about the patient-clinician encounter, less is known about how to support patient-clinician communication about lifestyle changes that includes the context of people's lives. Data come from a larger photo-based primary care study collected from 13 participants who were adults 60 or older with at least two chronic conditions, in English, Chinese (Cantonese or Mandarin), or Spanish. We use discourse analysis of three examples as anchor points demonstrating different interactional pathways for the photo-based communication. Patients and clinicians can move smoothly through a pathway in which photos are shared, clinicians acknowledge and align with the patient's explanation, and clinicians frame their medical evaluations of food choices, nutrition suggestions, and shared goal-setting by invoking the voice of lifeworld (VOL). On the other hand, when clinicians solely press the voice of medicine (VOM) in their evaluations of patients' pictures with little attention to patients' presentations, it can lead to patient resistance and difficulty moving to the next activity. Because photo-sharing is still relatively novel, it offers unique interactional spaces for both clinicians and patients. Photo-sharing offers a sanctioned moment for a primary care visit to operate in the VOL and promote goal-setting that both parties can agree upon, even if clinicians and patients framed the activity as one in which patients' lifeworld choices should be assessed as medically healthy or unhealthy based on the ultimate judgment of clinicians operating from the VOM.

Unlike Korean or Vietnamese adoptees who came to the U.S. during the postwar era, Chinese adoptees are mostly abandoned female infants under China’s one-child policy from 1980 through 2015. Little work has documented Chinese adoptees’ identity (trans)formation across time and space. This study examines how three Chinese adoptees from the U.S. who chose to go to Taiwan to teach English make sense of their Chinese heritages and their lives in and out of Asia. Drawing on the frameworks of positioning and chronotopic identities, this cross-sectional, multiple case study documents the participants’ identity (trans)formations through their narratives on their moves across the U.S., China, and Taiwan during different points of their lives. Our adoptee participants’ home and work experiences over time represent diverse pathways for their negotiations of various aspects of their identities – linguistic, cultural, Chinese, American, Asian American, and adoptee – in their life trajectories transnationally. Their diverse experiences complicate current understandings of adoptee identities within and across the adoptive home, the “homeland” of their birth places, and beyond.

Building on research that has demonstrated the benefits of Dual-Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programmes on students’ bilingual, academic, and cross-cultural development (Lindholm-Leary and H...

While the role of parental ideologies on children’s bi/multilingual development and the role of children’s beliefs about multilingualism are well-documented, less work examines how parental and stu...

Objectives To examine audio-recorded primary care interactions with patient-initiated photo sharing around food and diet choices. Methods Data were 13 audio recordings of primary care visits with English-, Chinese-, or Spanish-speaking patients 60+ with two or more chronic conditions. Patients and clinicians completed pre-intervention surveys and some training on photo-taking / photo-sharing discussion. Data were analyzed using discourse analysis. Results Photo-based communication interactions lasted 3:34−28:37 min and averaged one-third of the visit. Clinicians and patients both initiated the photo-based talk and transition to other topics occurred smoothly. In eight of 13 interactions, the photo-based communication task was raised, but conversation did not occur at that moment. When discussed, the photos raised opportunities to talk about patient’s decision-making which led to dietary suggestions including clinical nutrition suggestions and referrals to other specialty clinics. Conclusion Photo-based communication in primary care can be used to promote patient activation and facilitate collaborative decision making that accounts for the patients’ lived experiences and lifeworld. Practice implications By setting the agenda early, clinicians or patients can designate the photo-sharing as a relevant part of the visit. Photos may be most relevant as part of the problem presentation, diagnosis, or treatment recommendation sections of the visit.

This paper examines non-Mandarin-speaking Chinese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area who speak a variety of Cantonese called Hoisan-wa , whose histories and experiences are often muted in wider contemporary academic and public “Mandarin-as-Chinese” discourses. Drawing on 93 interviews, I focus on language awareness of Chinese(s) through: a) participants’ anchorings of Chinese varieties; b) self-reported fluency data; c) the use of the term “Chinese. The data suggests that if we aim to promote equitable “Chinese” language maintenance opportunities for all Chinese Americans, rather than viewing Chinese language acquisition as linear and limited to only one variety at a time, there needs to be more inclusion of the diverse Chinese languages that are in the local communities, Hoisan-wa among them.

Translanguaging theory re-conceptualizes the linguistic systems and practices of multilinguals as well as multilingual classroom pedagogies. While many studies have documented translanguaging in bi...

In a broader context where English is marketed as a desirable product of consumption, hiring English speakers as language teachers and de facto cultural ambassadors is a common practice in some Eas...

Objectives: This study describes the development and feasibility of Integrative Nutritional Counseling (INC), a Chinese medicine (CM)+biomedicine-based nutrition curriculum for Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes. Although Chinese Americans often incorporate CM principles into their diet, scant research has explored how to integrate CM with biomedical nutrition standards in a culturally appropriate manner or if such a program could improve diabetes self-management. Design: This is a 1-month pre-post study design including three points of contact: baseline, in-person class, and 1-month follow-up. Subjects: Participants (n = 15) were Cantonese-speaking/reading Chinese Americans diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who had used some form of CM/medicinal foods in the last 12 months. Interventions and Outcome Measures: The INC program included baseline surveys and a CM intake interview conducted by a licensed acupuncturist. The acupuncturist generated a CM diagnosis, which was shared with the participant, and used this diagnosis to tailor brief nutrition education. To bolster this brief education, a bilingual registered dietitian provided a 2-h group education class in Cantonese to all participants, during which time participants also received a Chinese/English INC booklet. Participants completed surveys immediately after the class and at 1-month follow-up, with qualitative exit interviews. Results: Participants reported improved attitudes and dietary habits aligning directly with INC, and improvement in biomedically valued measures of type 2 diabetes, such as weight loss, and CM-valued measures of digestion/elimination and hot/cold feeling. Satisfaction with INC was high, but challenges included confusion with some INC information, structural barriers, and comorbidities. Conclusions: Chinese Americans with type 2 diabetes and interventionists found integrative nutrition approaches acceptable and feasible. Future research should examine INC with a larger population and explore optimal delivery of INC given reported challenges.

Purpose: Chinese Americans (CAs) with diabetes and limited English proficiency often struggle to adhere to standard diabetes diets focused on food measurement/restriction. Chinese medicine principles commonly inform food choices among CAs but are rarely acknowledged in nutritional interventions. We developed and tested feasibility of a theoretically informed integrative nutritional counseling (INC) program that combines Chinese medicine principles with biomedical nutrition standards. Methods: We randomized diabetes self-management education (DSME) classes to include either: (1) usual nutrition curriculum based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommendations delivered by a diabetes educator (control) or (2) INC curriculum based on a combination of ADA recommendations and Chinese medicine principles delivered by a diabetes educator and a licensed acupuncturist (intervention). All DSME enrollees were invited to participate in research entailing data collection at three time points: baseline, after the DSME nutrition class, and at 6-month follow-up. Using validated measures, we collected dietary self-efficacy, diabetes distress, diet satisfaction, and dietary adherence. We also measured weight and glycemic control. Results: Study participants were 18 Cantonese-speaking patients with diabetes who were predominantly female and older, with low levels of income and acculturation. Intervention and control groups were similar at baseline. INC performed similarly to usual DSME with 100% of participants reporting the INC booklet helped their learning. Dietary adherence significantly improved in participants who received the INC curriculum. Conclusion: INC is feasible to implement as part of DSME classes and shows promise as a complementary culturally sensitive addition to usual diabetes nutrition education for CA patients.

Cet article analyse le partage intergénérational de recettes de soupes familiales chez les Sino-Américains à partir d’enregistement audio et video de séances de cuisine. Trois thèmes principaux ressortent: 1) la construction de l’hygiène au cours de la préparation des repas, 2) l’interrogation de l’authenticité et de la “chinoisité” dans les pratiques d’alimentation, et, 3) la revendication du capital culturel comme élement identitaire d’un groupe marginal aux Etats-Unis à travers les connaissances intergénérationnelles de l’alimentation. Considérés ensemble, ces thèmes montrent comment les Sino-Américains sont aux prises avec une longue histoire de discrimination et, en même temps, repoussent les tendances à l’assimilation grâce à la préservation positive de leur affinité culturelle et dessinent des espaces pour les nouvelles générations. This paper examines Chinese Americans’ intergenerational sharing of important family soup recipes in audio/video-recorded cooking sessions. Three main themes emerged: 1) Construction of hygiene around Chinese meal preparation; 2) questioning the authenticity and Chineseness of particular food practices; and 3) claiming cultural capital as part of a marginalized identity group in the U.S. through intergenerational food knowledge. Taken together, these themes demonstrate how Chinese Americans wrestle with a long history of discrimination while simultaneously pushing back against assimiliationist tendencies through preserving positive cultural affinity and carving out spaces for newer generations.

Though Cantonese has been spoken in the United States since the 1880s, very little is known about the attitudes of younger Cantonese speakers and learners and their ideas about their bi/multilingua...

This paper explores discursive ways Chinese American older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) take ownership of their health management. Fifteen patient stakeholders with T2DM took part in...

Calls to disaggregate data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) overlook heterogeneity in experiences and outcomes within AAPI subgroups. Using national data from the American Community Survey, this study examines socioeconomic differences among Chinese Americans in terms of language identity. The results indicate the most frequently identified home languages among Chinese speakers are Formosan, Mandarin, Cantonese, and simply “Chinese.” The groups differ in representation depending on state residency and citizenship, while Cantonese speakers have the lowest levels of English proficiency and educational attainment. The strongest predictor of each language group is birthplace. The study has implications for serving disadvantaged and overlooked Chinese American subpopulations in the United States.

Translingual practice is an emergent theoretical perspective which emphasizes the capacity and disposition for meaning-making across linguistic boundaries. Following on studies of globalized workplaces that have focused on lingua franca English, this article explores translingual practice as represented in interview and blog narratives recounted by multilingual, multiethnic young adults hired by Japanese schools and companies for their English proficiency. In these metapragmatic narratives of interactions with supervisors and coworkers, participants portray themselves surmounting communicative challenges through investment in L2 Japanese, and especially through pragmatic accommodation to local norms. In this way, they avoid maintaining widespread ideologies that delegitimize Japanese L2 speakers.

This paper examines the ethnolinguistic identities and ideologies about language and cultural maintenance for a small group of Chamorro Millennials in the diaspora. Findings include the reconstruction of the meanings of the terms “Chamorro” and “Guamanian,” sustained cultural connections to Guam, mixed and intergenerational identities, and the links between language and identity. We also discuss specific Chamorro lexicon that were brought up by participants. We argue that selectively holding on to language and culture allows this specific subgroup of the Chamorro diaspora to (re)construct, (re)locate, and reconnect with their heritage language and culture in contemporary ways.

This longitudinal study examined the role of oral proficiency, as measured with elicited narratives using a wordless picture book, Frog Where are You? (Meyer, 1969/1994), on English reading comprehension with a total of 102 English Language Learners (ELLs), including both Spanish and Cantonese speakers. Narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and reading skills were assessed on the same children one year later in second grade. Children were enrolled in either bilingual programs or mainstream programs. Multiple regression results show it was not the quantity and variety of words used in the narratives that predicted English reading comprehension one year later. Instead, the ability to produce a coherent oral narrative, in either the home language or English, explained a small variance in English reading comprehension for both English learner groups. These findings highlight the importance of examining narrative skills, especially as measured by narrative structure. Implications for parents and educators are discussed.

Chinese Americans (CAs) are at higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) compared to White Americans at the same BMI. In this chapter, we use a Culture-Centered Approach to investigate patient agency as it intersects with structure and culture in the talk during focus group interviews. The interviewees were CAs with T2DM discussing their diet and eating practices to manage this chronic condition. These interviews were conducted as part of a larger study to create an integrative diabetes diet that uses Chinese medicine-based diet suggestions for diabetes that are also nutritionally acceptable from a biomedical perspective. As we will present, CAs both use and are seeking ways to use Chinese medicine as a culturally informed way of asserting agency in how they manage their diabetes. CAs were often challenged in fully using Chinese medicine because of a variety of structural constraints including lack of access to information for determining the legitimacy of health practices. However, the participants were also quick to share information with one another to help others be more self-reliant and thus demonstrate how complementary and integrative healthcare can be a form of social justice.

Objectives Current cardiovascular disease (CVD) nutrition guidelines do not take into account Chinese medicine (CM) principles. We created a heart healthy integrative nutritional counseling (H2INC) curriculum consistent with CM principles and current nutrition guidelines. Methods We conducted three phases of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (CM and biomedical providers and Chinese American (CAs) patients with CVD) followed by iterative development of H2INC. First, we interviewed licensed CM providers (n = 9) and laypeople with CM foods expertise (n = 1). Second, we interviewed biomedical providers (n = 11) and licensed CM providers (n = 3). Third, we conducted four focus groups with CAs (n = 20) with CVD. Results Stakeholders emphasized different principles for creating H2INC. Phase one emphasized alignment of CM diagnoses to biomedical CVD conditions. Phase two overlaid CM concepts like the nature of foods and constitution (hot/neutral/cool) with heart healthy nutrition recommendations such as MyPlate, and avoiding excess salt, fat, and sugars. Phase three demonstrated patient acceptability. Conclusion By integrating CM foods principles with biomedical nutrition, this integrative approach yields culturally relevant health education for an underserved population. Practice Implications Integrative nutritional counseling shows promise for CAs and could support biomedical providers with little knowledge about patients’ use of CM for CVD.

Previous research reports the positive impact of dual immersion programs on students’ language proficiency, yet fewer studies have examined students’ attitudes in such programs. The current study examined student attitudes and language proficiency in a Cantonese dual immersion school and explored relationships between students’ attitudes and language proficiency in Cantonese. Language proficiency results showed that, on average, Cantonese immersion student performances indicated attainment of Intermediate‐High level in listening, Novice‐Mid level in reading, and Novice‐High level in writing and speaking. In addition, heritage learners outperformed nonheritage learners in reading and listening skills. Survey data revealed that heritage learners held more positive attitudes toward learning Cantonese compared with nonheritage learners, but there were no differences in attitudes toward the focal school between the two student groups. Regression analysis revealed that students’ attitudes toward the dual immersion school explained significant variance in their Cantonese reading, listening, and speaking skills. Qualitative data also revealed that students’ positive attitudes toward their school were shaped by their experiences with their principal, teachers, and school activities. These findings shed light on the role that positive school and learning environments play in helping dual language immersion school students acquire proficiency in the partner language.

This article takes a language ecology perspective on the interdependence of multiple Chinese languages in the heritage communities and classrooms of middle-school students. We describe how these students struggle with Mandarin as an imposed identity and consider productive classroom exercises of linguistic rescaling that help them to critically examine the diversity of Chinese languages. This study addresses the dearth of critical examination of non-Mandarin Chinese heritage students’ lived experiences by showing interactions in which they actively engage in disrupting and dismantling conventional notions of “Chinese”.

This paper investigates Mandarin learning experiences of Chinese American teenagers from working-class families. Drawing on a subset of data from a larger ethnographic study, we focus on 14 middle schoolers who studied Mandarin as a heritage language at a socially engaging school with Mandarin as part of its official curriculum. The data highlight a mismatch between students’ true heritage language and the institutionalized surrogate heritage language, which created unwanted implications for students’ investment and identities in the presence of Mandarin hegemony. In a time when the teaching of Mandarin receives unprecedented educational support, this study calls for more educational efforts that attend to the large population of heritage language learners from non-Mandarin language backgrounds. We suggest that Mandarin educators have critical language awareness so they can address Chinese American students’ multilingual backgrounds in ways that can value their home languages and support their investment ...

This article examines the reported language ideologies and family language policies of the parents of Cantonese-English bilinguals in the U.S. in relation to their children's achievement scores in Cantonese and English. We explore the relationships first by language of instruction. Results show children in bilingual classrooms scored higher than those in mainstream (English-only) classrooms on the Cantonese tasks, but significantly more children in bilingual programs had Cantonese as a home language than children in mainstream classrooms. Parents from mainstream classrooms were significantly more satisfied with their children's English-language attainment than parents from bilingual classrooms. Using cluster analysis, we then identify four new groups of children based on their language proficiency: (a) English-dominant, (b) Cantonese-dominant, (c) “balanced bilingual,” and (d) “ideal bilingual.” Results show all children scored at or above the monolingual English mean on English decoding, but the ideal bi...

This article explores uninvestigated issues in Cantonese and Hoisan-wa language maintenance from an ethnic Chinese diaspora point of view. Data come from a larger study looking at Frog Story narratives from 140 Cantonese–English bilingual children in California. Fourteen of these children were found to display uniquely Hoisan-wa phonology and lexicon in their narratives. Focusing on these 14 children, this article attempts to answer the following questions: Due to low prestige factors and lack of support for the maintenance of Hoisan-wa, have these speakers assimilated to the standard Cantonese-speaking community? Are there any signs that Hoisan-wa language backgrounds are still reflected in elementary school students attending schools with a relatively high Cantonese-speaking enrollment? If yes, what are these signs? Because nearly nothing is known about Hoisan-wa maintenance in the United States, the author documents markedly Hoisan-wa lexicon and phonology, and offers evidence of intergenerational lang...

This paper investigates the ways languages are used in Philadelphia Chinatown through qualitative content analysis of 330 photos. Examining the linguistic landscape of public spaces exposes issues of linguistic tensions, language vitality, and language shift in multilingual settings. While Chinese in the form of Mandarin is highly publicized, thereby placing disproportionate emphasis upon one language over others, Philadelphia Chinatown shows diversity, coexistence, and creative uses of multiple Chinese languages alongside English. The signage suggests linguistic rescaling connecting real and imagined audiences, conforming to broader ‘Chinese’ linguistic norms while localized to connect to a range of Chineses. We show how linguistic and cultural pluralism of ‘Chinese’ have always existed – and continue to exist – and the importance of developing socially sensitive literacy pedagogy, especially when there is a mismatch between the informal, community-level signage and what is formally taught in ‘Chinese’ language classrooms in the U.S. Keywords: linguistic landscape; Chinatown; Chinese languages; literacy education; heritage language; education

The term “Chinese” can refer to an ethnicity, a group of people, or language(s). This conflation makes disentanglement especially difficult, yet not disambiguating perpetuates an oversimplification of a nation, languages, peoples, and cultures. While this blanket term collapses plurality into a monolithic entity, the converse seems to hold when looking at Romanized naming practices of Chinese Americans. The alphabetic rendition of Chinese American names draws relatively clear boundaries of country of origin and general time of arrival to the United States. This paper problematizes the term “Chinese” and looks at the Chineses like Cantonese and Hoisan-wa, which have long overlooked histories in the United States and hold critical clues to disambiguating the cultural and linguistic pluralities of what many would lump together as an immutable term. These findings have implications for using this naming phenomenon to raise linguistic awareness and for the teaching of Chinese American history.

Revitalising indigenous languages: How to recreate a lost generation is a remarkable and inspirational book that chronicles the language revitalization efforts, triumphs, and tribulations of the Co...

Type 2 diabetes affects Chinese Americans at an alarming rate and many Chinese Americans use Chinese medicine principles to deal with their diabetes. In this article, we examine interviews with Chinese medicine practitioners about the best ways to treat diabetes and xiaoke (Chinese medicine’s closest equivalent to diabetes). These interviews were conducted to examine how practitioners would promote a particular form of integrative medicine – in this case, using Chinese medicinal principles to suggest food treatments for diabetes or xiaoke. Our research expands understandings of integrative medicine and Chinese medicine recognizing that in practice, the static categories of Chinese and Western diagnosis and treatment are not very useful for understanding how integration occurs. Instead, Chinese medicine practitioners negotiate between the poles of individual and standardized on one dimension and physical and energetic on another dimension as a way of practicing Chinese medicine and enregistering their professional identities here in the U.S. Examining these interviews from a language and social interaction perspective, we present integration as a performance and enactment of social personae rather than a product. We highlight the need to attend to differences in what oftentimes is treated as a monolithic community of Chinese medicine in the U.S.

We come at this review as a graduate student of economics with a focus on Game Theory (Tan) and as an applied linguist specializing in Chinese American language maintenance (Leung). As such, from t...