Art, culture, and Chinese-American experiences: A case study at a Chinese community-based school

This qualitative study aimed to explore Chinese-American students' art and cultural experiences in terms of how they related these experiences to their experiences in American public schools. Wurzel's theory of multicultural education was used to build a conceptual framework to analyze the process of Chinese-American students' art and culture experiences in terms of factors of culture identity, cultural differences, cultural conflicts, and the acceptance of other culture. This research was undertaken at a Chinese community-based school in a Chicago suburb and took over one year from October 1992 to September 1993. Several types of data were utilized: (1) school documents, (2) participant observations in Chinese art and culture classes, (3) qualitative essays written by students, (4) interviews with school administrators and art teachers, and (5) group and individual interviews with students in a Chinese painting class. Results of this study provided understandings of Chinese-American students' processes when experiencing and facing cultural change, differences, and conflicts between Western and Eastern worlds. Several conclusions were made about multicultural art education as related to community and ethnicity issues: (1) art education provides a viable force for an ethnic group of students to identify with their cultural heritages; (2) traditional Chinese art teaching approaches are not suitable for Chinese-American students, rather a blended art model both Chinese and Western is more appropriate and successful to teach students with bicultural backgrounds; (3) there should be linkage between community-based ethnic schools and local public schools, therefore, drawing the connections between community-based contexts and local public schools in helping the development of multicultural art education is recommended.