Chinese children and their families in England

Abstract

This article describes the outcomes of five case studies of Chinese families, looking particularly at the way in which behavioural rules imposed by family life govern the attitudes and lives of the children. What emerges is an intensely introspective family life which produces a ‘cocoon’ in which children's lives are lived out. There is remarkably little impact from the surrounding British culture, with parents often developing little English language despite living many years in England. The two major premises of Chinese behaviour — ‘filial piety’ and ‘respect for elders’ — dominate the children's actions and these case studies, and other associated data, confirm the view of the Chinese as a self‐contained subculture within the host society. Unlike other minority groups there is limited interaction of a formal kind within the Chinese community so that there are few community leaders able to take responsibility for negotiating concerns with ‘authority’. Speaking Chinese within the family, a measure taken in part to protect the traditions, reinforces the isolation and the sense that the family and traditional rules are paramount. The rule of ‘obedience’ leads to limited discussion with parents and to an absence of negotiation within the family. The lack of ambiguity within family life is comforting but it gives little impetus to growth and change. In a parallel questionnaire study the dominant behavioural rules learned within the family by these Chinese pupils were found to dominate children's attitudes to learning and to schooling compared to their white peers. The distinctive separation of the Chinese families may in the long run lead to educational and economic disadvantage, and hence disenchantment, for Chinese youth, and means need to be found to respond to this situation.