Chinese Heritage Research Articles

Chinese heritage speakers as language brokers in internship abroad

AbstractFocusing on four Chinese heritage speakers seeking internships while studying in China, this ethnographic multi-case study reveals how their linguistic ideologies can shape their life and work abroad. Drawing upon the theory of language ideology, findings show that heritage speakers were perceived as model Chinese speakers in the classroom, and their bilingual upbringing was also considered an asset by Chinese multinational companies. While the bilingual identity afforded them initial access to internship opportunities, in the workplace they were assigned language tasks (e.g., translation) rather than responsibilities aligned with their academic training. As this distribution of labor foregrounds heritage speakers’ bilingual identity, it places them into the peripheral role as language service providers in the corporate realm. By describing these perplexing experiences, our results provide a more nuanced understanding of heritage speakers’ experiences abroad and unpack the linguistic expectations and implications for those who seek internships while studying abroad.

When the whole-nation system meets cultural heritage in China

ABSTRACT In this article, we explore how China mobilised its unique whole-nation system (juguo tizhi) to become a global cultural power, focusing on the encounter between Chinese and global heritage discourses. This article is based on field ethnography of three World Heritage sites in Hangzhou, China: The West Lake Cultural Landscape, the Grand Canal of China, and the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City. The juguo tizhi is a hierarchical system mobilised to achieve national goals. In the process of China’s ‘successful’ inscribing of cultural heritage sites based on juguo tizhi, we suggest that Chinese heritage discourses are compromised, and grassroots discourses are overshadowed. The juguo tizhi reinforces statist narratives more than it protects Chinese culture, which, we argue, is linked to the tensions between cultural and national nationalism. Furthermore, we suggest that China is now moving beyond the compromising Chinese heritage discourse phase to align with global heritage discourse, and has begun to present the Chinese discourse internationally, where the juguo tizhi is mobilised. It will be noteworthy to observe how this occurrence will affect China and the global heritage landscape in the future.

Individual agency in language-in-education policy: a story of Chinese heritage language schools in multilingual Brussels

ABSTRACT It is increasingly recognized that agency plays an essential role in shaping language-in-education policy (LEP) and influencing the learning process. Research on agency has not yet adequately engaged with the field of heritage education and maintenance in diasporas. Drawing on Shohamy’s and Bonacina-Pugh’s conceptualization of declared, perceived, and practiced language policies, we examine the individual agency of three groups of actors – people with power (principals), people with expertise (teachers), and people with interest (students) – in a variety of policy or planning activities within two Chinese heritage language (CHL) schools in Brussels. On the basis of collected ethnographically informed data in conjunction with the conversation analysis of audio-recorded classroom interactions, our findings illustrate how three types of agentive roles are effective in forming language policies and constructing discursive spaces within the CHL schools, with a clear orientation shift from monolingualism to multilingualism. This study contributes to research on heritage language maintenance in a highly multilingual, diasporic, and educational context by providing a portrait of how educational practitioners and learners assert their agency to explore locally appropriate language policies that maximize actors’ potential to teach and learn heritage languages.

Chinese heritage children learning to read characters: The effects of group reading and frequency of character exposure

Learning to read Chinese has been the main focus of Chinese heritage language education. The frequency of exposure to orthography–phonology and orthography–semantics correspondences and radical awareness play a significant role in character learning. However, limited exposure to characters in Chinese textbooks and the lack of explicit instruction on phonetic radicals have been proposed as limitations of conventional instruction methods used with Chinese heritage language learners. The current study assessed the efficacy of providing frequent character exposure in group reading activities for Chinese heritage children in their early learning to read Mandarin Chinese through a teaching method called Progressive Character Reading. The effectiveness of the teaching method on Chinese character acquisition and Chinese reading comprehension was examined through a quasi-experimental framework that compared a group of children undergoing the new teaching method (experimental group, n = 20) with a group of learners experiencing the traditional textbook-based instruction (control group, n = 20). Significant differences in gains between these two groups were found in measures of Chinese character reading, character–picture matching and Chinese sentence comprehension. These results suggest that group reading activities with frequent character exposure can increase learning for Chinese heritage language learners over that associated with conventional textbook-based instruction.

DIFFERENT GENERATIONS, DISTINCT LIFESTYLES, SAME FEELING OF HIRAETH: APOSTCOLONIAL STUDY OF KEN LIU’S “THE PAPER MENAGERIE”

The wave of immigration in recent decades has heralded new versions of colonialism. Thus, attention to the phenomenon of migration has gained a special place in literature. Among diaspora writers, one can mention Ken Liu and his “The Paper Menagerie”. In the course of this paper, at first and with the help of Edward Said’s theory of orientalism, a thorough discussion of the family’s and Americans’ attitudes toward each other and the cultural differences between them will be provided. Then, the character of the mother, as a representative of the first-generation immigrants, and the boy, as a representative of second-generation immigrants, will be under scrutiny based on Homi Bhabha and William Safran’s postcolonial ideas to delineate their path to their diasporic identities. In the final step, in the light of Eric Landowski’s theory of social relations, Jack and his mother’s distinct lifestyles in their host country will be analyzed to deduce that they chose snob and dandy lifestyles, respectively. The present paper will conclude that although different generations of immigrants have distinct lifestyles, they will consciously or unconsciously keep the connection with their homeland. Just like Jack, who undergoes an identity crisis and abandons his paper menagerie, his mother, and his Chinese heritage to assimilate into American culture. He loses both his mother and her magic, only to regain them to some extent at the end of the story, when he realizes that he, too, feels hiraeth. Although, the hiraeth that he felt was latent in his unconscious.

Evolution of Decorative Elegance: Rediscovering the Honeysuckle Pattern in the Caisson Ceilings of the Mogao Grottoes during the Middle Sui Dynasty

The Mogao Grottoes, situated in Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, holds significant cultural value as an iconic site of Chinese heritage. Among the intricate patterns adorning the caisson ceilings within these grottoes, the honeysuckle pattern stands out as one of the most popular designs. This paper propose an innovative redesign method the honeysuckle pattern specifically for the caisson in the Mogao Grottoes during the middle Sui Dynasty in order to better inherit the art of Dunhuang and meet contemporary aesthetic requirements. A literature review and case study were used to summarize Lotus pattern types and characteristics. It begins by providing an overview of the original honeysuckle pattern found in the caisson ceilings of the grottoes, followed by an analysis of the different decorative patterns on the borders of caisson ceilings in the early and middle Sui dynasties. Then, The paper proposes a novel design model for the honeysuckle pattern, drawing inspiration from historical designs and employing a combination of traditional and modern technology. Through this methodology, the paper concludes that the innovative honeysuckle pattern design for the caisson in the Mogao Grottoes successfully integrates traditional design elements with contemporary design methods. This design method not only reflects the historical context of the Middle Sui Dynasty but also exemplifies the potential of method in contemporary design practice.

Creating ZPDs for emergent bilingual children to engage in literacy learning in a virtual Chinese heritage language classroom

The purpose of this study is to explore how a language teacher helped her emergent bilingual students with literacy learning in a community-based Chinese heritage language classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic. The theoretical concept of the Zone of Proximal Development was utilized to support the exploration. Data that informed this article included field notes, video recordings of class conversations, and artifacts made by the participants. The findings show that the teacher strategically asked questions, used digital technology, and drew upon visual means to create opportunities for the children to engage in literacy learning and move toward advanced levels of literacy development. The study informs suggestions for heritage language teaching practices and advocates for sustaining emergent bilingual children’s Chinese heritage language in the post-pandemic world.

Chinese Heritage Language Maintenance in the Context of Superdiversity

Situated in the context of migration trends toward superdiversity in Anglophone countries, this study conceptualizes Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners as complex social beings with increasingly diverse language repertories, migration histories, and socioeconomic statuses. Failing to understand such diversity in language maintenance and language shift may lead to oversimplifying the process of Chinese language maintenance and consequently perpetuating educational inequities in overseas Chinese education. The study analysed questionnaire data from 56 CHL learners who identified as dialect speakers in a New Zealand university. Findings show that CHL learners are indeed a linguistically and socioculturally diverse group. There is a clear shift towards English among participants as they approached adulthood, with some also speaking non-Chinese languages like Khmer. While Chinese dialects remain prevalent within their homes, younger generations exhibit a decrease in the number of Chinese dialects spoken. Surprisingly, Mandarin, despite being the primary language resource for Chinese education, is underutilized and tends to remain at a low proficiency level. This study concludes by offering implications to policymakers and Chinese curriculum developers to provide genuine support for maintaining and learning the Chinese language within the increasingly diverse Chinese diaspora.

What Really Matters in Early Bilingual and Biliteracy Acquisition?

Home language and literacy input (HLLI) is critical for linguistic and literacy development in bilingual children. This exploratory study investigated home oral, and print input for Chinese heritage language learners between four and six years old in the United States and aimed to identify salient types of input associated with speaking and reading abilities in the heritage language (Chinese) and the societal language (English). Fifty-three parents completed a HLLI questionnaire and rated the speaking and reading competencies in Chinese and English of their children. The relationships between HLLI and bilingual abilities were examined via principal component analysis and regression. There were two major findings: first, Chinese speaking ability mainly depended on oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as print exposure to Chinese; Chinese reading ability was associated with oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as pinyin/bopomofo practice at home. Second, both speaking and reading abilities in English were significantly and positively related to children’s interest in reading English only. Evidence-based recommendations are provided regarding home language and literacy practices for young Chinese heritage language learners in the United States.

Early Bidialectal Maintenance among Chinese Heritage Learners in Canada

Research on Chinese heritage-language maintenance has predominantly focused on Mandarin as the default mother tongue and has largely ignored learners’ dialects or language varieties. As a result, we know little about dialect speakers’ beliefs and practices of maintaining their language varieties other than Mandarin, particularly in the home domain. Using family language policy (FLP) as the theoretical framework, this multiple case study examined six Chinese families’ beliefs and practices in early bidialectal (Mandarin and dialect) maintenance over three years when their children moved through kindergarten to Grade 3. Findings indicated that parents subscribed to the dominant language ideologies and placed their dialects at the bottom of the language hierarchy. However, the parents differed in their beliefs in the value of their dialects; and families who celebrated bidialectalism actively maintained their dialects while those who did not gradually gave up on passing their dialects to their children, even when grandparents were involved in the maintenance efforts. The findings have important implications for supporting and achieving bidialectalism in immigrant countries.

Coupling in Sport

China’s rise in recent years to become an economic superpower has been accompanied by active policies to promote sport and culture. Once chosen by the Olympic Committee in 2015 to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, China faced a problem since its hockey team was not strong and could potentially be humiliated in the climax events of the Games. The Chinese Ice Hockey Association (CIHA) decided on a strategic coupling with Canadian hockey expertise to create credible men’s and women’s hockey teams, including hiring Canadian coaches, taking teams to Canada for extended professional training, playing exhibition games against Canadian teams, inviting Canadian hockey teams and players to China, and recruiting Canadian hockey players with Chinese heritage to play professionally in China on the HC Kunlun Red Star team (men) and the KRS Vanke Rays (women). We label this relationship a global player production network. However, the strict Covid lockdown in China and the froideur that developed in Canada-China geopolitical relations after the detention in Vancouver of Meng Wanzhou and the arrest in China of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, was followed by a decoupling of the Canada-China hockey relationship. But by granting national status to Canadian-born “heritage” players, and by selecting at the eleventh hour the Kunlun Red Star and Vanke Ray teams as their Olympic teams, China effectively re-coupled with Canada and was thereby able to field two credible hockey teams.

Trilingual and Multicultural Experiences Mitigating Students' Linguistic Stereotypes: Investigating the Perceptions of Undergraduates of Chinese Heritage Regarding Native/Non-Native English Teachers.

Student stereotyping of non-native English-speaking teachers is a common focus of research and there is a paucity of studies targeting trilingual students of multicultural backgrounds. The present study aims to investigate the dimensions of trilingual Chinese heritage undergraduates' perceptions of English teachers from Kachru's stratification of native-English-speaking (Inner-circle), ESL (Outer-circle) and EFL (Expanding-circle) regions. A mixed study design was used to collect data including online questionnaires and an offline semi-structured interview. Quantitative findings indicate the subjects' preference for native speaking teachers, together with a hierarchical ranking in teacher assessments according to race/ethnicity. Qualitative findings demonstrate that students are also less biased on racial grounds, considering all teachers are "qualified and good enough", hence the "Inner > Outer > Expanding = Qualified > Unqualified" result. Multilingual and multicultural factors have been used to account for the mitigated linguistic stereotypes from sociocultural and political perspectives. Findings of this study challenge but nevertheless also confirm to some extent the traditional native/non-native dichotomy that manifests raciolinguistic traits and support Kachru's stratification with statistical evidence. Educational implications are discussed to benefit future practice to further eliminate student prejudice and to better prepare native Chinese teachers of the English language.

An Arts-Based Lesson: Chinese Heritage Children’s Multimodal Early Writing Using Fallen Leaves

An Arts-Based Lesson: Chinese Heritage Children’s Multimodal Early Writing Using Fallen Leaves

Construction of Non-inherited Digital Platform based on PEST-SWOT Model

Abstract In order to protect non-genetic inheritance, this paper proposes the construction of digital platform for non-genetic inheritance based on PEST-SWOT model. Firstly, the classification of intangible Chinese heritage is summarized and the development of Jiaodong dough plastic intangible cultural heritage is summarized and analyzed by using SWOT and PEST analysis model. Finally, the strategy of digital protection and inheritance of Jiaodong dough plastic is constructed, and the digital information of Jiaodong dough plastic is collected and classified for data collection and archiving by using digital information technologies such as three-dimensional digital scanning of the Internet. To develop the information retrieval system of Jiaodong dough molding, establish the resource database of Jiaodong dough molding with complete, multiple and intuitive information, and record the whole picture of Jiaodong dough molding art in a real and systematic way. At the same time, convenient ways of inquiry exchange and utilization are provided to realize the digital preservation and sharing of Jiaodong dough plastic resources, so as to achieve the purpose of inheritance and dissemination of Jiaodong dough plastic art.

Parents' adaptation from conflict: Bicultural socialization beliefs and acculturative family conflict in Chinese American families.

Many Chinese American parents desire for their children to take on both Chinese heritage and mainstream American values and behaviors, referred to as their bicultural socialization beliefs. Parents' development of such beliefs appears linked with parent-adolescent conflict concerning cultural values, yet the direction and temporal ordering of this relation is unclear. The present study aimed to resolve discrepancies in the literature through examining the bidirectional relations between Chinese American parents' bicultural socialization beliefs and the acculturative family conflict they experience with their children. Relations were examined across two developmental periods of the children: adolescence and emerging adulthood. Data came from a longitudinal study of 444 Chinese American families from the west coast of the United States. Mothers and fathers reported on their own bicultural socialization beliefs for their children. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents/emerging adults each reported on levels of acculturative family conflict within mother-adolescent and father-adolescent dyads. Higher levels of family conflict in adolescence consistently predicted greater increases in parents' desires for their children to be bicultural in emerging adulthood. Results have implications for interventions with Chinese American families and demonstrate Chinese American parents as capable of adapting and growing from challenging, culturally based interactions with their children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Stoletnyaya transformaciya uchebnikov kitajskogo yazyka dlya nachal'noj shkoly Singapura

Through the evolution of Singapore's elementary school Chinese textbooks, we can find that Singapore's Chinese language textbooks are student-centered, ability-oriented, and tailored to the needs of the students. And its Chinese language education philosophy has a composite orientation and tries to explore a rational balance between Western civilization and Chinese culture based on maintaining the Chinese heritage.

Language variation in teacher speech in a dual immersion preschool

This study investigates the language input provided for English-Mandarin emergent bilingual children in a California English-Mandarin dual immersion preschool. As illustrated in previous studies, teacher speech in foreign language classrooms often serves as the native standard of the target language, thus necessarily limiting students’ exposure to stylistic variation. The current research focused on the language input for emergent bilingual preschoolers who were Chinese heritage language learners and the use of sociolinguistic variables, including Mandarin lexical tones and word-initial sibilants, by their teachers. Results show that although the teachers perceived their classroom roles differently, they tried to provide clear and rich Mandarin input with tonal and sibilant variables that were used in consistent patterns. Except for the constraints of the linguistic environment, standard variables were preferred in classroom discourse. This implies that the particular needs of the English-dominant children to acquire Mandarin have been acknowledged and addressed by teachers. This type of modification in language input may affect children’s development of phonetic categories and their sociolinguistic competence.

Different Trajectories of Heritage Language Identity Development through Short-Term Study Abroad Programs: The Case of Chinese Heritage Learners

Learners of heritage languages (HLs) comprise a heterogeneous population. Because of their diverse backgrounds, the ways in which their HL identity develops in a study abroad (SA) context may vary. This paper presents a case study of Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs) from a university in Australia who participated in a short-term SA program in China. To achieve a holistic understanding of the learners’ identity development, this study adopted a three-dimensional framework of HL identity development, applied a narrative approach and focused on individual differences. Data were collected from 34 post-program journal reflections from CHLLs. The learners’ narratives indicated that they assigned different degrees of importance and distinct meanings to the SA experience with respect to their HL identity development. While some actively explored their HL identities, others took a more outsider stance and did not develop much in terms of HL identity. We identified several possible statuses of CHLLs’ identification, which were conceptualised as focused explorer, balanced explorer, partial explorer, meanderer and outsider. Future intervention could provide personalised feedback, comments and guidance on students’ post-program reflective journals, either in a more specific or holistic manner, and acknowledge each HL learner’s advantages and limitations in their reflections.

Institutional Capital, Ancestral Hall, and the Reshaping of Ancient Rule: an Empirical Analysis of the New Energy of Chinese Heritage Elements in Rural Revitalization

Institutional Capital, Ancestral Hall, and the Reshaping of Ancient Rule: an Empirical Analysis of the New Energy of Chinese Heritage Elements in Rural Revitalization

China in British Education: The Natzler Report in Historical Perspective

Michael Natzler's report for the Higher Education Policy Institute of March 2022 entitled “Understanding China: The Study of China and Mandarin in UK Schools and Universities” surveyed the provision of Chinese Studies in Britain since the Second World War and pointed out Britain's slow progress and current unpreparedness to cope with the new role of China in world affairs. In reviewing his very valuable contribution a longer-term perspective is adopted, going back to the nineteenth century, to explore the repeated failure of attempts at improving the situation as the background to a current almost complete failure to cope with the complexities of the Chinese cultural tradition, the understanding of which requires much more than a short course in Mandarin. Ignorance of Chinese culture is an insult to persons of Chinese heritage whatever their political persuasion, but under current circumstances educating Britons in this area after decades of ignorance and prejudice is not going to be easy.