Since the Good Friday Agreement (1998), Northern Ireland's community leaders, politicians and service providers have struggled to build improved relations both horizontally (between communities) and vertically (with service providers). The legacy of over thirty years of inter-communal violence has led to an exclusive view and use of territory and space. It has acted as a physical barrier of exclusion rather than potential meeting point or ground of inclusion. In south Belfast, a traditional interface situation between the indigenous Loyalist and Republican communities has been ruptured by the emergence of permanent Chinese community now in its fourth generation. The majority of this community worked, and continue to work, in the catering industry. This thesis seeks to understand the role of territory and space in inter-community relations - particularly those of the Chinese community for whom south Belfast is now 'home'. Spatial alteration can then be perceived as marking dilution of cultural identities or those ways of life to which communal loyalty is pledged. This perspective shapes identity and perceived reduction in levels of spatial 'control' can increase a sense of loss amongst communities threatened by demographic change. This thesis examines space and territory as part of community relations through the use of semi-structured interviews combined with · desk-based research. The thesis illustrates how exclusive space encourages poor community relations, increases democratic deficit and entrenches social marginalization. More inclusive spatial creation and use promotes positive contact between communities and allows constructive, mutually beneficial relations with service providers to be instigated. A key factor in this change is not just spatial creation, but how it is used and the types of civic education undertaken within it. How this form of civic education meshes with more formal education undertaken in schools will determine the ability of communities to achieve social integration and engagement.

The thesis examines methods of imagining and appropriating China in Britain in the period 1750 to 1820. It considers how those who engaged with the textual and material culture of China depicted and envisioned China. The thesis identifies a set of practices by which eighteenth-century writers, scientists, and designers appropriated elements of Chinese culture: adopting a Chinese mantle in the dressing of bodies, the dressing of rooms and the dressing of text as Chinese. Extending the work of Chi-Ming Yang on performing China beyond theatrical performance, this thesis explores the limits and effects of performance of Chineseness in home decoration, scientific thought, and satire. Divided into three sections, the first addresses the relationship between women and Chinese ornamentation within a domestic setting. Identifying a theory of ornamentation prevalent in eighteenth-century culture, it addresses the way women negotiated their engagement with the Chinese aesthetic, due to the negative associations it carried. It shows how the appropriation of Chinese goods represented a novel and alternative method of expression and identity formation, even permitting the recreation of an Empire at home. The second section examines how China becomes an object of study and the practices it produces, including translation, location, dislocation and display of exotic objects and texts. This section brings to light an account of Lady Banks’s Chinese porcelain collection as an example of how networks of exchange were created and complicated by the influx of Chinese goods, materials and ideas. The final section addresses the way in which satire employs a ludic Chinese mantle to challenge received ideas about aesthetics, monarchy and misrule. The thesis argues that adopting a Chinese mantle contributes to the fluid concept of identity formation whereby the performance of identity, through Chinese objects, dress and speech, helped to project a civilised and sophisticated personality. It charts British delight and anxiety felt towards China: playfulness and intellectual dismantling, rather than Orientalist aggression, were the primary methods of accommodation until the militarisation of the British and Chinese Imperial projects in the nineteenth century.

Whilst British-Chinese young people consistently outperform other ethnic groups at Key Stages 3 and 4 in the UK educational system and a handful of studies have researched the cultural perspective that the Chinese value education highly, little is known about the parental support strategies of British-Chinese families that support this outstanding educational performance. This research explores the nuances of British-Chinese parental support strategies towards education and socialization that contribute to their children’s academic success. In this study, I used qualitative interviews with 20 parents and 20 young people, 10 of each from a professional background (parents with a higher degree working in a professional field) and a non-professional background (parents with no degree, working manually). The research questions cover parents’ considerations in choosing secondary schools, the nature of parental academic supporting strategies and the kind of socialization support parents provide or advise about participation in extra-curricular activities and friendship networks. The findings show that British-Chinese parents purposively foster in their children a Chinese cultural habitus to cultivate dispositions and practices in learning through a hard work ethic and positive socialization, irrespective of their class. Their support starts from choosing a school where students can exploit school resources by exercising agency for individual educational achievement. After accessing school, parental academic support strategies vary, depending on the age at which children joined the UK education system and on parental cultural and economic capital. Social capital has been little useful, according to the parent participants studied since each family is unique in terms of immigration background, cultural capital and economic capital. However, reproduction of a Chinese cultural habitus from parents to young people across transnational borders and parental emphasis on agency overcome the limitations of class demarcated resources at school and home. The exploration of nuances shows a pluralistic Chinese community in the UK.

0) This is a study about Chinese ethnic minority children, aged between eight and fifteen, living in two cultures in the context of Northern Ireland. By virtue of the combination of two underpinning conceptual frameworks, identity theory and the culture specific Confucian ideology, this study sought to identify what elements and factors are at play in the processes of these children's identity construction and the development of their sense of identity. The present study was conducted by using a multi-method triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative data from focus groups, photo-collage works, in-depth interviews and Identity Structure Analysis (ISA). These children's identity formation was revealed to be constantly negotiated and influenced by various elements and factors. Those are such as situated context of Northern Ireland in which the underlying 'otherness' resulting mainly from the differences in cultural backgrounds and physical appearance stand out, their self-perceptions, the 'Confucian heritage capital', their interpretations of the locals' attitudes towards Chinese ethnic minority people, and their struggles to fit in and attempts to cope with realities. Particularly, the children's collective opinions of 'I don't feel properly understood by the locals' bear of great significance for their identity construction and the possible modes of integration into the wider world. The children maintained a positive attitude of 'having the best of both worlds in me' and retained a reinforced importance of heritage culture along with a strong sense of belonging to it. The family were found to be the most significant others for the children than their friends and helped them maintain their Chinese identity. All these factors and elements are closely engaged in the processes of the formation and evolution of their identity.

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Whilst there has been a high volume of research exploring quality of life, the specific issues important to the quality of life of people from older black and minority ethnic groups living in the United Kingdom (UK) remains relatively under explored. The aim of this research was to explore and understand the concept of quality of life held by older Chinese migrants living in the UK. The findings of this study provide an understanding of what is important to older migrants and why, as well as providing insight into the issues involved in cross-language and cross-cultural research. A qualitative approach was taken utilising grounded theory methodology. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews. 29 participants aged between 52 and 78 were interviewed; 17 interviews were undertaken in Cantonese with the aide of an interpreter. Quality of life emerged as a multi-dimensional concept and numerous influential factors were identified. Data analysis also resulted in a conceptual explanation of why these factors were important to participants - the concepts of identity, belonging and value systems emerged playing a crucial role in their lives and migration and ageing were identified as key variables. This led to a substantive grounded theory being developed that demonstrates that participants are involved in an ongoing process of constructing a harmonious sense of self across their lives, and that this is paramount in their quality of life. The research findings are related to existing theory and knowledge and how they extend or challenge them is discussed. The research supports the proposal that quality of life is a multi-dimensional, complicated concept and extends this to demonstrate that the sense of self is important in its construction and retention. Recommendations are made regarding application of the research findings and for the design of cross-language and cross-cultural research.

The Chinese community is the fastest growing non-European ethnic group in the UK, with 11.2% annual growth between 2001 and 2007. According to the National Statistics office (2005), there are over a quarter of a million Chinese in Britain. Compared to other ethnic minority groups, the Chinese group is socio-economically widespread, characterized by high academic achievements and high household income. It is estimated that there are about 30,000 Chinese immigrant children studying in British schools, 75% of who were born in the UK. These children face a complex process of establishing their social identity, maintaining their own cultural roots whilst adapting to the British cultural contexts. The predominant psychological interpretation of social identity formation is founded on Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1978). Social identity creates and defines an individual’s place in society. One of the key features in social identity theory is ingroup favouritism and out-group derogation (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). The function and motivation for in-group and out-group attitude construction is to promoting a positive self-concept and related self-esteem. Theoretical approaches to understanding social identity that take a developmental perspective are Cognitive Development Theory (CDT) (Aboud, 1988, 2008) and Social Identity Developmental Theory (SIDT) (Nesdale, 2004, 2008). These theories attempt to explain the age related development in children’s inter- and intra-group attitudes. There are different types of social identities, and ethnic identity as well as national identity are the central focus of the current research. Some researchers have pointed out that ethnic identity is relevant to self-esteem and it is particularly important to children from ethnic minority backgrounds (Phinney, 1992). However, the research on social identity is predominantly conducted in Western contexts and there is lack of evidence supporting the generalization of developmental models of social identity in children to all ethnic groups and particularly those growing up in different cultures and national contexts. The research reported in this thesis is a cross cultural and developmental study which compares social identity in relation to self-esteem among British born Chinese (BBC), white British, Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese children. The overarching aim is to explore the influence of social context and ethnic culture on social identity development and self-esteem. Three research studies were conducted in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Scotland with 464 children across three age groups, age 8, 11 and 14 years (148 children from Mainland China, 155 Hong Kong Chinese children, 70 British born Chinese children, and 91 Scottish children). In addition, 46 parents of BBC children were surveyed to investigate their cultural orientation. The first study was designed to explore cultural similarities and differences in social identity and its relation to self-esteem across four groups of children in three age groups. Social identity (self-description questionnaire) and self-esteem (Harter’s Self-esteem questionnaire) were measured with all four groups of children. The result revealed significant differences of social identity across the groups. Four cultural groups of children think individual self was the most common form of identity. All the Chinese groups emphasized show more collective self than white Scottish children whereas the white Scottish sample of children placed more focused on individual identity. All four groups of children had high self-esteem, and no correlation was evident between social identity and self-esteem. Furthermore, analysis found no significant developmental change in social identity or self-esteem with age. The second study focused on BBC and white Scottish children: these share national context, but differ in ethnic identity. The study was designed to explore children’s national self-categorisation, the degree of national/ethnic identification (Chinese, Scottish, or both), and their perception of the positive and negative traits of Chinese and Scottish people across the age (using a Trait Attribution Task). BBC children’s sense of national identity varied in different national contexts, whereas white Scottish children were more fixed in their sense of national identity. Furthermore, BBC children attributed more positive traits to Chinese than to Scottish people, and white Scottish children attributed more positive traits to Scottish than to Chinese. BBC and white Scottish children evaluated both Chinese and Scottish groups positively, but they both attributed more positive traits to in-groups than out-groups. Some age-related differences were identified for degree of national identification. The third study introduced a novel social identity vignettes task to examine BBC and white Scottish children’s perceptions of ethnic identity of a Chinese character within two contrasting socio-cultural contexts (Scottish versus Chinese). This study addresses the question of whether children’s social identifications are adaptive and sensitive to social context, and how this contextual sensitivity might change with age. It also explored the link between parents’ attitudes towards their children’s cultural orientation and children’s national/ethnic identity in identity vignettes. The study revealed that both BBC and Scottish children judged the vignette characters as having a stronger Chinese identity or Scottish identity according to whether they were described in a Chinese or Scottish vignette. This cultural sensitivity increased with age. Both groups had a positive evaluation of the vignette characters’ self-esteem in both Chinese and Scottish cultural situations. Parental cultural orientation attitudes (using General Ethnicity Questionnaire) towards their children were also examined and differences of language proficiency among BBC children were identified. There is no connection between children’s strength of Chinese and Scottish identification and parents’ strength of cultural orientation towards Chinese or Scottish. Together, the findings presented in this thesis extend our understanding of social identity development, ethnic and national attitudes and the developmental intergroup attitudes among children from different national and ethnic groups. Furthermore, findings indicate that social identity is a complex and dynamic process in children’s development that cannot be understood without considering national and specific socio-cultural contexts as frames of reference. The findings of this research have important implications for child-related policy and practice and for future research on social identity development.

This thesis is about inter-generational relationships and the reproduction of culture in the family lives of Hong Kong Chinese people in Scotland. It is based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork and informal interviews in family homes, Chinese language schools and community organizations in Edinburgh. A central question is that of ethnicity and how people learn to “be ethnic” while living in a Western, multicultural society. The first part asks what Scottish-born Chinese children learn about ethnicity through growing up in families who work in the ethnic catering trade. Chapter 1 introduces the themes of ambition and achievement, and the mixed emotions associated with this sometimes-stigmatized occupation. Chapter 2 focuses on ideas about the duties of parents, drawing on life stories of three generations of Chinese Scots to describe their decisions concerning childcare and schooling. The second section concerns the learning of specific cultural practices – language and handicrafts – in the institutional context of Chinese complementary schools. Chapters 3 and 4 show that these are important spaces where people feel part of a group with shared moral responsibility for the maintenance and transmission of culture. The question of “authenticity” in both cultural practice and interpersonal relationships is discussed. Chapters 5 and 6 explore how Hong Kong Chinese Scots are responding to the rise of China as a global economic and cultural power. Ethnographic data from Chinese New Year celebrations in Edinburgh, and Mandarin language classes for Cantonese-speaking children suggest that people may engage in “inauthentic” cultural practices for strategic economic or political reasons. However, these articulations of ethnic identity are also important for the nurture of inter-generational relationships. The thesis concludes with the argument that Chinese Scots take a futureorientated approach to family and community life, drawing selectively on the resources of inter-ethnic ties and language to prepare their children for a changing economic and social environment

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