Characteristics Of The Ethnic Identity Of The Second-Generation Chinese Americans (Adult Group)

Compared with the first-generation Chinese Americans, the second-generation is distinctive in its own way as they have to cope with two often contradictory and polarized ways of living. They are"between the two cultures". The subjects examined in my thesis are the adult group of the second-generation Chinese Americans. Needless to say, when they were growing up in the United States, they were under the pressure of negotiating between parental demand for preserving traditional Chinese values and the expectations of the mainstream culture. They had to figure out who exactly they were and achieve a self-definition. Now, China's constantly expanding economic, political and cultural influences worldwide and US'sub-prime mortgage crisis, other crisis-related social problems, and a degraded international image due to the Iraqi and Iranian wars may have caused the second-generation Chinese Americans to re-reflect upon their ethnic identity. This thesis aims to explore, in relevance to the first generation, the characteristics of the second-generation Chinese Americans and the possible ethnic identity orientations of the second-generation Chinese Americans against the backdrop of the current realities of both China and the United States. This topic is of great social and psychological significance and has attracted much attention.