An AsianCrit perspective on Chinese immigrant parents’ language ideologies

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Asian Critical Race Theory, this qualitative case study analyzed first-generation Chinese immigrant parents’ language ideologies on their children’s heritage language (HL) maintenance in the United States. The findings revealed parents’ persistence in preserving their HLs for their children, as they considered HLs to be an integral component of their identities and a resource for their families. The study also found that parents’ immigration history, racialized experiences, and their children’s schooling experience, together with the larger sociopolitical contexts that perpetuated English hegemony and nativistic racism toward Asian Americans, contributed to their variously conflicted language ideologies toward HL maintenance.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Dr. Xue Lan Rong for the intellectual guidance and support early on in this process, as well as Dr. Enrique Suárez and Dr. Casey Philip Wong for their feedback on the early drafts of this article. Thank you to the editors of the Bilingual Research Journal and the anonymous reviewers for providing insightful and constructive feedback during the revision process. All mistakes are my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Carolina Asia Center.

Notes on contributors

Wenyang Sun

Wenyang Sun, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education, Culture & Society and an affiliate faculty member of the Asia Center at the University of Utah. Her research explores how the larger sociopolitical contexts shape the experiences of language-minoritized communities in the United States and globally.