This multiple-case study investigated six teachers’ perspectives on their teaching practices and cultural integration in a Chinese heritage language school. This research also explored how the teachers’ instructional practices were linked to Ladson-Billings’ theories on culturally relevant pedagogy (1994). Qualitative in nature, multiple data sources were included, such as semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and teachers’ artifacts. Data analysis included both within- and cross-case analysis. Within-case analysis showed that each teacher had her particular method of fostering students’ language learning. They also had unique ways of teaching Chinese culture; one held that culture is embedded in literature, another held that culture is the daily life of a group of people, another held that culture is gained through reading, a fourth held that culture is transmitted from one generation to the next, another held that culture is analyzed in relation to other cultures, and, finally, one teacher perceived that culture is hybrid and multifaceted. Based on the central tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy, four themes emerged from the cross-case analysis: (a) motivational and skill-building strategies to promote academic success, (b) individual, plural, and progressive ways to integrate and reconceptualize Chinese culture, (c) rebalancing authority to share power with students, and (d) culture identity development to enhance self-empowerment. Despite the link between the current study and Ladson-Billings’ theory, differences were found. For example, the Chinese teachers viewed heritage language learning as a way to help students connect their family members rather than to become active agents in the larger society. Besides cultural facts, the teachers incorporated cultural virtues and cultural reconceptualization. Instead of focusing on questioning inequities, the teachers encouraged students to build harmonious relationship with other ethnic groups. As the existing studies emphasized minority education for Mexican and African American students, the present study shed new light on language and culture instruction for Chinese Americans. This study suggests four implications: (a) developing heritage language teachers’ professional knowledge about implementing a “student-centered” approach, (b) enhancing heritage language teachers’ critical cultural awareness, (c) investigating heritage language teaching from diverse sociocultural backgrounds, and (d) introducing the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy in heritage language education. / text

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between length of residence in the United States (U.S.) and dietary and physical activity acculturation, and the relationships between dietary and physical activity acculturation and weight status in 55 Chinese college students. Length of residence in the U.S. was positively associated with larger portion size, greater amount of physical activity, and change in BMI in male participants. Adoption of a Western diet was associated with weight gain. Portion size change was positively associated with BMI change. Lunch size change was positively correlated with BMI change in males while negatively correlated with BMI change in females. And dinner size change was positively correlated with BMI change in males. This study suggests that dietary acculturation is positively associated with weight gain in Chinese college students. Future interventions focusing on multi-dimensional aspects of dietary behavior change--especially portion size and meal size changes--while emphasizing the importance of changes in physical activity are needed. Such interventions may help maintain healthy weight status and prevent individuals in this population from becoming overweight or obese.

Even in the context of the multicultural scholarship, there is a lack of psychological research addressing the in-law relationship experiences of East Asian American daughters-in-law (DILs) residing in the U.S., specifically with regard to the emotional impacts and resiliencies that these women may experience in the face of potentially conflictual family dynamics. The primary purpose of this study was to contribute to the multicultural psychology literature by exploring the cultural, relational, affective, and coping experiences of these women, especially with regard to their unique social location and cultural contexts of Confucian and European American influences. The present study utilized a consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology to analyze the narratives of 12 Korean and Chinese American women who identified as 1.5 and 2nd generation and as DILs within their family network in the U.S. The results shed light into the affective and relational duress that they experienced due to their in-laws’ differing cultural values and traditional expectations. In particular, the participants reported that they often used indirect coping strategies to manage these stressors. The study offers multicultural training and practice recommendations for mental health service providers to consider when working with Korean and Chinese American women and their families.

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Chinese female immigrants were active cultural contributors and participants in nineteenth century America, yet Americans often simplified their roles into crude stereotypes and media symbols. The early western accounts concerning females in China created the fundamental images that were the basis of the later stereotypes of women immigrants. The fact that a majority of the period's Chinese female immigrants became prostitutes fueled anti-Chinese feelings. This thesis investigates the general existence of Chinese prostitutes in nineteenth century America and how they were portrayed in the media. American attitudes toward white women and their images of Chinese women created the stereotype of all Chinese female immigrants as immoral. Thus, they became unconscious pawns of nineteenth century American nativist forces wanting to limit and prevent Chinese immigration based on prejudicial and racist attitudes.

Dr. Kwan Hsu was neither a superstar nor a celebrity. Her name does not come up in conversations about important contributors to her field of biophysics nor is she instantly recognizable for her contributions to Portland State University's international program or the state of Oregon's business ties with China. Yet she was a contributor, a cog-in-the-wheel, at the very least, in all of these areas and more. She was a peripheral member of a well-known Chinese family, but few in the United States know of or perhaps have interest in, but otherwise, she had no great connections or family ties to generate interest in her story. How does one process a collection for a woman who does not meet the traditional criteria for excellence or success or public interest for an archive? Where is the value to the larger historical narrative of our time in preserving the memories of someone who was non-remarkable, or, conversely, someone who may be even too unique to contribute to that greater narrative? These are the questions I wrestled with when I first came to this collection. As my research progressed, I realized that I faced more questions, and that to come to any understanding that might answer them, I was going to have to research the history of archives and archival processes. Science, the Cold War, Communist China, women, the immigrant experience, all of these issues became part of my thesis, however shallowly I was able to investigate them. Questions of identity and historiography, of power and discourse were explored. In the end, what I found was that a collection that on the outside looked unimpressive and unenlightening, could indeed be very valuable, and provide insight into any number of areas of current interest in historical research. This is that story.

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本研究は、冷戦期と黒人公民権運動期という二重の文脈が交差するなかで、中国系アメリカ人の運動に作用した多様なダイナミズムを歴史的に解明することであった。これにより、従来のような「同化」と「モデル・マイノリティ」の視点から語られがちであった中国系アメリカ人という歴史観とは異なる視座から、当時の中国系アメリカ人の歴史を捉えることを試みた。さらに、チャイナタウン内で発行されていた中国語新聞と中国共産党の資料の分析により、中国共産主義が中国系の左派活動家を通して、いかにアメリカ合衆国の黒人公民権運動に影響を与えたかとのことも検証した。 / This dissertation provides an overview of Chinese American activism during the Cold War-Civil Rights Movement period. At the same time, it re-examines the history of Chinese Americans from the perspective of Chinese American activism. By employing a transnational approach to Chinese American activism and carefully analyzing various primary resources, this project attempts to clarify the dynamic process through which Chinese American activist movements changed from engaging in spheres of transnational Chinese struggles to fighting for justice and the interests of their own community in the United States, and finally to becoming an integral part of the Asian American Movement. / 博士(アメリカ研究) / Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University