Transnationalism and Identification among Chinese Immigrant Youth

Abstract

This paper examines transnationalism and identity construction among Chinese immigrant youth in Canada, an often-ignored population and inadequately addressed research area in transnational studies. I argue that the transnational practices within immigrant families have nurtured transnational orientation and identification among Chinese youth. I also interrogate simply using the frequency of homeland trips to evaluate the degree of second-generation transnationalism, by highlighting the different lens that Chinese youth engage in framing their perception of homeland.

Introduction

Transnationalism is a relatively new concept developed in the 1990s to describe the process by which migrants maintain multi-stranded social, economic and political relations between their countries of origin and settlement. From a transnational perspective, migrants can no longer be characterized as “uprooted,” people who are expected to make a sharp and definitive break from their homelands. Instead, their daily lives depend on “multiple and constant interconnections across international borders and whose public identities are configured in relationship to more than one nation-state.” 1 In the field of transnationalism studies, existing literature, however, tends to overwhelmingly focus on examining the transnational involvement of first generation adult immigrants. What has not been adequately researched is how their descendants, the second-generation immigrant youth, engage in transnational practices and negotiate their identity formation within the transnational social fields.

Lacking in language and cultural skills, or strong ties and frequent contacts with their parentage homeland, second-generation immigrant youth may not engage in transnational practices with the same scope and intensity as their parents. Therefore, some researchers argue that transnational practices among second-generation youth are only “confined to a small minority and are likely to become less significant over time.” 2 In contrast, others question using such standard to dismiss transnationalism among second generation. They point out that it underestimates the influence of the transnational social fields in which second generation are embedded. It also overlooks the periodic and selective transnational activities in which they engage at different life stages. “Over time, and taken together, these influences can have a cumulative effect,” as Levitt and Waters emphasize. 3 Against this backdrop, more empirical studies are needed to explore the transnational practices or orientation of second-generation youth, particularly in relation to their identity construction.

Further, studies on second-generation transnationalism have indicated the levels of transnational activism may vary among different groups. Compared with immigrant descendants from Spanish-speaking countries such as Dominicans, Chinese youth are often reported with lower levels of transnational activism when being measured against some objective indicators, such as homeland trips, bilingualism, and financial or political involvement in parents’ countries of origin. 4 Such view may privilege actual transnational movement while overlook transnational orientation and identification developed within transnational social fields such as family. 5 Rather than simply dismissing the transnational engagement of second generation Chinese youth as insignificant, in this study, I aim to examine how transnational networks in which Chinese youth are embedded influence their identity construction. More specifically, I focus on the influence of transnational family connections and activities in shaping the lived experiences and identification of Chinese immigrant youth.

Integration and Transnationalism

Over the past decades, research on second generation immigrant youth were informed by two slightly different scholarships with one focusing on migrant assimilation or integration while the other on transnationalism. Although these two scholarships only vary in their different focus and do not conflict with each other in nature, researchers working in these subfields “have not always seen themselves as taking part in the same conversation.” 6 To explore transnationalism of second-generation immigrant youth, it is necessary to briefly trace the development of assimilation models and identify their shared insights and accommodating relations.

The traditional assimilation model, such as Milton Gordon’s typology of assimilation, anticipates that most ethnic groups will eventually go through the different stages of assimilation (e.g., cultural, structural, marital, etc.), lose their distinctive characteristics, and enter into the majority institutions. 7 However, as Zhou points out, the classical assimilation models based on European immigration patterns are not applicable to the children of post-1960 non-European immigrants. 8 Empirical studies show that the ethnic differences of non-European immigrants do not lessen with the length of us residence and succeeding generations. Thus, Portes and Zhou propose a segmented assimilation model that describes three divergent paths and consequences of the assimilation of non-European immigrants and their descendants: one is to become “white-washed” and assimilate into the white middle-class, a second is to assimilate into the oppositional culture and underclass in the inner city, and a third is to achieve socio economic mobility while deliberately maintaining ethnic values and solidarity. 9 The segmented assimilation model confirms that for immigrant youth, to maintain their ties and identification with their parents’ culture and homeland may help them to buffer the negative influence of North American culture, to legitimate and enforce the re-established values and norms shared by immigrant parents, consequently to strengthen their self-esteem, and facilitate their successful incorporation in the North American societies.

Rather than conceptualizing integration/assimilation and transnationalism in conflicting relations in the fear that transnational activities will slow down the process of migrant assimilation in host nations, Portes maintains that transnational activities can actually facilitate their successful adaptation by providing opportunities for economic mobility and for a vital and purposeful group life. 10 Levitt and Waters suggest that migrants and their descendants may combine assimilation and transnationalism in different ways at different life stages to pursue social, economic and political mobility as well as to construct identities. 11

Different from the traditional approach that emphasizes the stability and quantities of transnational activities over time, Levitt and Waters suggest a more expansive view of transnationalism. They argue that for second-generation immigrant descendants, transnationalism could refer to both “core transnationalism” characterized by regular and patterned transnational activities of frequent travellers, and “expanded transnationalism” with periodic movers who engage in occasional transnational involvement. 12 Regarding the scope and intensity of transnational engagement, it could be either “broad transnational practices” (e.g., institutionalised and regular travel) or “narrow transnational practices” (e.g., sporadic and occasional participation). 13 Similarly, Levitt distinguishes “comprehensive transnational practices” (e.g., which involve many arenas of migrants’ social life) from “selective transnational practices” (e.g., in limited aspects). 14 The expansive view of transnationalism sheds important light on examining the transnationalism among second-generation immigrant youth, given that frequent transnational activities are not central to the lives of most of them but transnational ties and social fields may still influence their identity construction to varying degree. Transnationalism, in this sense, involves both a material dimension that is characterized by immigrant youth’s actual transnational behaviours and practices; and a discursive dimension in terms of one’s identification and orientation in transnational social fields.

Identity Construction of Chinese Immigrant Youth

How should we understand identity construction among Chinese immigrant youth? From a post-structural cultural study perspective, Hall argues against essentialist understanding that treats one’s cultural identity as inherent, fixed, with a common ethnic origin and a natural solidarity and allegiance. 15 For Hall, identity, or to be exact, identification is “a process never completed.” 16 He views one’s identification as a “‘movable feast’: formed and transformed continuously in relation to the ways we are represented or addressed in the cultural systems which surround us. It is historically, not biologically defined.” 17 Similarly, Ang in her classic work “On Not Speaking Chinese,” criticizes the natural and essentialist link between one’s “Chineseness” with a mythic homeland, a common history and language against which all the other Chinese diaspora cultures are measured for their authenticity. 18 Instead, she proposes a creative construction of hybrid and syncretic identities within the Chinese diaspora community, which are experienced as provisional, partial, and constantly “(re)invented and (re)negotiated.” 19 These post-structural cultural studies provide us with an important theoretical lens for understanding Chinese youth’s identification, which is hybrid, contingent, and historically rooted. It is a matter of becoming as well as being. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. 20 However, the racial discrimination that earlier Chinese immigrants experienced in the history of North American societies remind us that Chinese identification should not be simply understood as a free self-construction; rather, it is inextricably linked to the concepts of race and ethnicity. Although the historically constructed biologist’s concept of race has been replaced by a seemingly neutral cultural term—ethnicity—since the 1930s, Omi and Winant argue that race is still an important organising principle of social relationships in North America. 21 They call for academic attention to “the continuing significance and changing meaning of race.” 22 Further, in examining Haitian youth living in the United States, Fouron and Glick-Schiller point out that to fully understand the dynamics that shape the identity of immigrant children, researchers need to look at both their experiences of racialization in the United States as well as their lives that are located within a transnational terrain. 23 In criticizing the perspective that views immigrant youth only develop one ethnic or racial identity at different life stages, they argue that they develop “multiple, overlapping, and simultaneous identities and deploy them in relation to events they experience at home, at school, at work, in the country of their birth, and in the country of their ancestry.” 24 Informed by the theoretical insights from post-structural cultural studies, racial and ethnic studies, and transnational approach, in this paper I aim to examine how Chinese youth construct identities in relation to their racialized minority status in Canada and the influence of transnational social fields such as family.

The Study

This article draws on data from a study on the identity construction and belonging negotiation among first-and second-generation Chinese Canadian youth in Alberta. As one of the top four provinces which attract a large number of immigrants to settle in, 9.5% of the Albertan population (644,100) is foreign born; people of Chinese origin are the second largest racialized minority group after South Asians. 25 Grounded theory was employed as the main research methodology for its bottom-up approach that emphasizes theoretical understanding should be derived from empirical data. 26 Recruitment flyers were distributed to several local Chinese community organizations, campuses of the University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary and posted on local Chinese websites. The study sample consists of 36 Chinese Canadian youth aged between 15 and 25. Among them, there were 19 males and 17 females. Of these, 21 participants migrated with their parents to Canada after the age of six (first generation), while 15 were either born in Canada or migrated before the age of six (second generation). A total of 21 participants’ parents came from mainland China, 10 from Hong Kong and 1 from Taiwan. Except a few participants who are in senior high schools, the majority of them are university students. Their parents’ occupations range from university professors, businessmen, engineers and technicians, to bus drivers, restaurant cooks and housekeepers. Some of their parents are unemployed. During the interviews, participants were asked to talk about the factors affecting their identity construction at school, within the family and through their formative contact with Canadian mainstream media. This paper focuses on exploring the influence of family through its transnational practices and networks on Chinese youth’s identity construction.

Transnational Practices at Home: Planting Transnational Seeds

As Vertovec argues: “the provenance of most everyday migrant transnationalism is within families.” 27 This is particularly true for second generation Chinese youth. However, Chinese immigrant parents may hold different attitudes towards maintaining transnational ties and engaging in transnational practices among their children. Some regard transnationalism in conflict with the goal of integration, the only way that promises their children a successful future. Under such belief they neither encourage their children to learn Chinese language, nor facilitate their transnational practices, such as homeland trips. Catherine’s parents are such a case in point. Born into a Chinese working class family with her father as a restaurant cook and her mother a housewife, Catherine revealed her parents had intentionally prevented her from learning Chinese, simply because they scared she would “catch the Chinese accent” in speaking English. As a consequence, Catherine grew up self-identifying as a Canadian while keeping a distance from anything related to Chinese cultural heritage. However, with time went by, Catherine’s parents soon regretted for their decision when they had to face a communication problem, cultural conflicts, and the associated intense relationship with their daughter. By contrast, some participants in my study revealed a range of transnational engagement, which was either directly or indirectly mediated through their parents.

Jerry, who migrated to Canada when he was five years old, came from a very similar family background as that of Catherine with his father working in a restaurant and his mother unemployed. Different from Catherine, Jerry has had a great interest in China since childhood due to his mother’s nostalgia narratives about her homeland.

… because my mom always talks about when she was younger and I know my brother and I are always interested to ask her what it [China] was like. She tells us stories about her childhood and everything. And then I think I just got interested and started looking up information about it on the Internet.

Although Jerry did not have opportunity to visit China prior to Grade 6, he has developed a transnational orientation through his mother’s daily inculcation. China, his mother’ homeland, was not a strange place but vividly lived in his imagination, a place which he dreamed visiting someday in the future and a place he somehow identified with. Jerry’s transnational identification was further strengthened in Grade 6, when he finally had the opportunity to travel back to China with his parents.

I’ve been there, I’ve seen what it’s like and I guess grade six curriculum we studied China and I just happened to go to China that year at the same time so I could say a lot of stuff. I’d seen a lot of stuff.

In a similar vein, Paul who has never been to China before attributed his transnational identification with China to his family influence. “It is what your parents teach you,” as he acknowledged.

I think my dad always used to tell me you’re here but telling us more about their background and like sharing Chinese beliefs too and because of that compared to most cbc, like I know a lot more Chinese saying too. One is because from watching tv plus when I was a kid too my dad used to teach me a Chinese saying every week and the meaning behind it and from that you get stories and you start tying more into your identity.

Fouron and Glick-Schiller once define immigrant household as transnational, arguing that children living within such households become part of a transnational second generation. 28 Their pattern of lives is shaped not only by their parents’ nostalgia but also by their enduring transnational practices and connection. Daily leisure activities such as watching Chinese tv programs and drama, or listening to Chinese music are among the most common transnational practices that many Chinese immigrant families engage. As Peter described:

I do watch [Chinese drama]. Now my skills in mandarin aren’t that great so primarily we watch Cantonese shows at home and there are those shows that are on every day on the Fairchild channel 6:00 and 7:00. So at least two hours of tv a day actually.

At home, he spoke Taishan dialect, Cantonese and Mandarin with his parents, and ate Chinese food every day. He also listened to Chinese music, although as he noted, “I don’t know what it’s saying half the time but I don’t know I just like to listen to it though.” Like many participants in my study, Peter was not confident to claim himself as a “real” transnational, who “go and check everything [happened in his parents’ home country].” However, the symbolic connection is still there, as he revealed: “when something happens in the news and you hear it’s related to China, it does kind of pique my interest because I am Chinese.”

For immigrant youth newcomers, they might be more concerned about learning English and integrating into the Canadian society than engaging in transnational practices. However, participants in my study revealed that transnationalism and integration were not conflicting lived experiences. For example, Hua, who immigrated to Canada at the age of sixteen pointed out, although most of time she would intentionally expose herself to English media, at the same time she was encouraged by her mother to pay attention to news related to China. When the 2008 Sichuan earthquake happened, Hua immediately initiated a fund-raising event at school and sent $300 donation back to China.

I was one of the leaders at the X school club at that time. I felt I needed to have a fund raising. I can write Chinese calligraphy. So we rewrote people’s name in Chinese and we sold it for two dollars. Because of that event, we had a fund-raising and raised about 300 dollars and we donated it.

This natural disaster happened in Sichuan made Hua realize her continuous connection with China, although she worked hard to integrate into the Canadian society since she came here. “I think I have to do something,” as Hua explained. As well, Lydia voiced a similar opinion. Despite her integration efforts, she noted she still cared about what happened in China. For instance, the 2008 Summer Olympic held in Beijing made Lydia feel very proud of being a Chinese as well as a Canadian. A transnational identity, for Lydia, is characterized as identification with both countries.

Maintaining transnational social network with friends and relatives in China is a common form of transnational engagement among Chinese youth, particularly for first-generation immigrant youth. They do so either through the parents-facilitated routine greetings with extended family members such as grandparents, uncles, and aunts or through self-initiated contact with cousins or friends. Telephone, skype, online chat software such as qq and etc., greatly facilitated their transnational connection with people there. In examining the transnational practices of immigrant families, Levitt insightfully pointed out:

The Inishoweners, like many of the other groups in this study, sustained these connections, albert weakly and sporadically, enabled the second-generation to rekindle them when they reached the stage in their lives when they were willing and able to do so … The second generation, in a sense, reaped the fruits of the transnational seeds their parents have planted, without even having known they have been sown. 29

Although the transnational practices within Chinese immigrant families may not be a hyperactive, frequent or regular way of living, or as strong as those of other ethnic groups, to some extent, they help immigrant descendants sustain a connection with their parents’ homeland, nurture a transnational outlook and identification, and enable them to initiate transnational involvement when the appropriate moment or opportunity come to their lives in the future. In this point, its cumulative effect in the long term cannot be ignored.

Homeland Trips: Beyond Frequency

The existing studies tend to use the frequency of homeland trips as an important indicator to measure the persistence of transnational ties among second-generation immigrant descendants. For example, drawing on data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study, Rumbaut reported that three out of four respondents reported they had either never visited their parents’ country of origin or had done so only once or twice in their lives. 30 When combining this result with other subjective and objective indicators such as “which place feels most like ‘home’,” Rumbaut concluded that the level of transnational attachments among a diverse sample of 1.5- and second-generation young adults from Latin American and Asian countries (including China) was quite small. Similarly, in their study of the second-generation in metropolitan New York, Kasinitz et al. found patterns of transnational activities vary among different groups, with Chinese and Russian Jews having a very low level of transnationality in contrast to the higher levels among the Caribbean and South American groups. 31 Particularly, although 62 percent of Chinese respondents had reported visiting China at least once, only 11 percent had done so more than three times, in contrast to 47 percent of Dominicans and 34 percent of West Indians. As well, regarding the length of stay in parents’ country during their visits, only 8 percent of Chinese had lived more than 6 months while 27 percent of Dominicans and 24 percent of West Indians had done so. In addition to these quantitative studies, Louie’s qualitative research which compared the transnational engagement between second-generation Dominicans and Chinese Americans further supported the above argument. 32 About 75 percent of Chinese respondents either had never been to China or only visited once, 8 percent twice, and 14 percent three to four times. Therefore, Louie argued that the scarcity of contact with their parents’ countries of origin resulted in a sense of foreignness and lack of belonging among Chinese respondents.

Obviously, if we use the frequency of homeland trips as a major indicator, the existing studies have indicated a low level of transnationalism among Chinese immigrant descendants. My study with Chinese Canadian youth also revealed a similar pattern. When being asked how many times they have been back to China, a majority of participants noted that they only made it once or twice. The geographic distance, time conflicts between youths’ school break and parents’ work schedule, the immediate life pressure of making a living in a new country, and the expensive travel cost all act as potential barriers that prevent Chinese youth from making frequent transnational movements. For example, Catherine, who came from a Hong Kong immigrant family with three daughters, noted that she had only been to China once. Financial constraint was identified as a major cause, which is quite typical among many immigrant families whose primary concern has centred on the immediate settlement and employment issues, such as looking for jobs, paying off house loans, and making the ends meet. As Catherine explained: “Because we [her parents] were so focused on saving money, we don’t normally go on family trips at all. The last time when I went to hk was, I think I was eight.” Therefore, transnational trips, in this sense, should not simply be viewed as a personal preference but closely associated with immigrant family’s socioeconomic status and its actual situation in the host society. Further, although the frequent homeland trips may help to strengthen the transnational ties between the second generation and their parents’ home country, it would be simplistic to assume that only the frequency or the quantitative number accounts, rather than the quality of trips itself. After all, a frequent visit of their parent’s country of origin may increase Chinese youths’ familiarity with it, but it could not automatically determine whether they are willing to maintain that transnational connection and to construct transnational identities accordingly. Therefore, it is important to explore what is their impression of China and how it affects their identity construction.

Xue was a Canadian-born-Chinese (cbc), who has been struggling with her Chinese origin, thus reluctant to accept everything related to China. As she recalled her homeland trip:

Very crowded, I can’t breathe. I don’t think I would like to live in China because I don’t agree with the weather. I like Canadian weather … well let me think … a lot of the rivers and stuff are really polluted and I think it’s almost … the parks you can go to are nice but it’s almost kind of a sense of artificial. There’s some that are okay but for a large part, it’s all kind of specially made for looking at. The places in Canada it’s grown. Let’s just leave it like that, we’ll fence it off and call it a National Park. I had that impression that China at least for a lot of the places in China it’s just more … less of a natural kind of thing and more of a man made … it’s just such a high population density.

Chinese immigrant youth’s perception of their parents’ homeland was somewhat restricted by which part of China they visited. For example, Catherine described her impression of Hong Kong. As she commented: “I don’t really like it, just because the environments, just how crowded it was. I like the fact that here [Canada], there is open space for you to see.” Such opinion was echoed by another Hong Kong immigrant descendant, Diana, who noted that Hong Kong is “good to go on vacation, but not to live there” because “it was too fast paced in everything.” In their study of children of immigrant in New York, Kasinitz et al. reported that for these youths, the strong ties to their parents’ country are “the exception, not the rule.” 33 Some Chinese respondents in their study complained a variety of inconvenience that was associated with their visits, such as lack of amenities and some cities being dirty and crowded. Few participants were willing to live in their parents’ homelands for any length of time. In complaining “the strange lifestyle of China,” they cheered for “going back home [the United States] to civilization.” 34 Some participants in my study also voiced similar opinion but not all of them. Joe is such a case in point, whose reflection is worthwhile to be discussed here.

Joe, a Canadian-born-Chinese recalled his first homeland trip in Grade 8, where he was deeply impressed by the kindness and honesty of his poor relatives in rural China. This trip helped him build a strong emotional connection with his extended family members there, despite language barriers, socioeconomic difference, and the rural-urban gap. As he described:

I see my relatives and they are rather I guess poor, they are not as well off as we are. They work hard for what they get and stuff and I feel very close to them even though because they are very, very pure people. They won’t … I don’t know how to say it, they don’t understand a lot of city jokes or stuff, they are very, very pure, honest farmer people. I really respect them and I get along with them really nice. I don’t feel uncomfortable around them. I don’t feel like they think my Chinese is bad so they are going to not like me or anything. It’s fine.

As Kibria noted in her study with second generation Chinese and American college students, homeland trips might bring them closer to their immigrant parents in that “it had made them more appreciative and understanding of the cultural traditions and practices with which they had been raised, ones that they may have rebelled against in the past.” 35 For Joe, the China-trip triggered his admiration and respect of his father, who has gone through a very challenging life path—from a poor country boy in China to a successful university professor in Canada.

Like I said, my dad’s from a farming background, a very, very poor country, rural background. So when we go to his hometown, there’s no running water. The last time I went back, I felt like it was really kind of inspiring knowing that my dad came from such a poor background he’s become the person that I am and it kind of gives me pressure. Growing up, I’ve had it so much better than my father, but I still don’t feel like I’m doing as well as he’s doing, I’m not as smart as he is and stuff like that.

Joe’s homeland trip triggered his critical thinking of his own growing-up environment compared with that of his father, which he took for granted before. His self-reflection was based on a transnational lens, which is positioned both here and there. Such transnational outlook increased his understanding of his immigrant parents, tightened his emotional bond with his relatives in China, and fostered his willingness to construct a Chinese identity. As he note:

After I came back from China last time, I was very, very interested in building my Chinese-ness. I really liked my relatives. I felt like my Chinese wasn’t good and I wanted to make my Chinese better. When I came back in grade eight I felt like I really wanted to become more Chinese. At that point, I stopped listening to Western music completely for two years. I always downloaded Chinese … Really intense I was downloading all the newest albums and stuff like that and try to learn to sing it and learn the words and stuff like that.

The above examples indicated that a transnational identity construction might not be simply based on the frequency of homeland trips, but on how Chinese youth feel and perceive about their visit, and most importantly from what perspectives. For some, a homeland trip may reinforce a stereotyped understanding about the “other” countries that have been ideologically constructed in the Western societies. While for others, such trip may contribute to their connection and identification with an “imagined community.” 36 The question arising here is: how does the stereotyped representation of China to which Chinese youth have been exposed in the Western societies influence their impression and understanding of China? In this regard, Xue’s case demonstrated my concerns. More specifically, Chinese garden architecture has been well known for its unique artistic style and regarded as a significant contribution to world arts and civilization. However, in Xue’s eyes, they are simply “artificial,” secondary to the “natural” style of the Canadian parks. Xue’s negative comment about her parents’ homeland in fact reflects a typical way of thinking among some second-generation Chinese youth in my study. Growing up in western societies with racial stereotypes against people of Chinese origin and ideological hostility against China, some Chinese youth accept the racist dichotomy between the west and the rest, the civilized and the uncivilized. 37 They believe there is only one legitimate way of being, and one normal style of living, that is, the Canadian way, against which other alternatives are measured and judged as undesirable. 38 In this sense, their perception of their parents’ homeland was not innocent, but filtered through a western ideological and hegemonic lens in which they have been socialized for years. Through this lens, they tended to focus on the negative aspects of other countries. Particularly, the social-economic gap between the developed and the developing countries, such as living conditions, were overwhelmingly highlighted and biasedly interpreted as a demonstration of the civilized and the uncivilized. By comparison, Joe’s case demonstrated a different perspective when engaging in the homeland trip. Despite the poor living conditions in the rural China, Joe found out the positive aspects of his visit: the good personality of people and the common bond between them. As a result, he was inspired and felt connected with his Chinese roots. Without the biased lens that is based on the dichotomy between the west and rest, it seems much easier for Joe to construct a positive transnational identity across national boundaries.

Conclusion

In this paper, I explored transnational identification among Chines immigrant youth in Canada. First, I elaborated on the transnational practices within families, an often-ignored dimension of transnational studies. I highlighted the role of immigrant parents in nurturing transnational orientation and identification among their descendants. Although transnational practices within Chinese families may not be a regular and frequent phenomenon when compared with other ethnic groups, the transnational seeds planted by migrant parents may grow up into real transnational fruits in later stages of their descendants’ lives. Second, I questioned using the frequency of homeland trips as an objective measure to evaluate the degree of second generation transnationalism, by suggesting that only the quantitative number may not do. I contend that the homeland trip should not be simply understood as an innocent transnational movement, but rather, it involves potential ideological differences between nations. The filter that second generation use to observe, think and construct meanings may reflect the ideological and hegemonic socialization and indoctrination they received in host society.

For migrants today, moving to a new country does not mean a permanent rupture with their old patterns of life and relationships, but to forge new networks and create new social fields that cross national borders. The concept of transnationalism sheds new light on the study of movement, integration and identification of migrants in the age of globalization. This study contributes to the scholarship on second-generation transnationalism by discussing transnational identity construction among Chinese Canadian youth. For this group, the transnational ties with their parents’ homeland may be less integral and habitual. However, as Kasinitz et al argued, “such ties nonetheless will continue to play a role in their sense of who they are.” 39 Immigrant parents’ transnational practices may ensure the social relations across national borders endure, therefore when their descendants come of age, the transnational ties may be revitalized and strengthened when the second-generation are eager to do so. Further, we also need to recognize that transnational engagement is also a nation building process, which is ideologically related to the historically embedded concepts of race and ethnicity. Therefore, transnationalism has never been an innocent process. For Chinese Canadian youth, their transnational practices such as homeland trips are shaped by unequal power relations among “nations” and “race.” However, the critical thinking displayed by my participants in this study also indicates the possibility of resisting and reshaping such hegemonic constructions in their transnational involvement.