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Cross-cultural experiences ofimmigrant students from MainlandChina in Hong Kong secondary schoolsMing-Tak Hue aa Department of Educational Psychology , Counselling andLearning Needs, Hong Kong Institute of Education , Tai Po, HongKongPublished online: 29 Aug 2008.
To cite this article: Ming-Tak Hue (2008) Cross-cultural experiences of immigrant students fromMainland China in Hong Kong secondary schools, Ethnography and Education, 3:3, 229-242, DOI:10.1080/17457820802305469
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Cross-cultural experiences of immigrant students from Mainland China inHong Kong secondary schools
Ming-Tak Hue*
Department of Educational Psychology, Counselling and Learning Needs, Hong Kong Institute ofEducation, Tai Po, Hong Kong
Many schools in Hong Kong are concerned with the growing number of enrolments ofstudents from Mainland China. This article examines the immigrant students’ constructsof their cross-cultural identities. It reveals how these students experience a journey oftransformation in language, culture and identity. Qualitative data were collected fromunstructured interviews with 12 immigrant students from Mainland China from sixsecondary schools. Two cases which are representative of the sample are reported. Thestudy showed the transformation of the cross-cultural identities of these students, in theprocess of which they adopted the new culture into their lives and made it their realitywhile they still strongly connected part of their identity to their Mainland Chinesebackground. Despite some negative experiences of adaptation, they adopted ameritocratic approach to making sense of their cross-cultural experience. It was usedas a form of agency to overcome, or at least ameliorate, feelings of discrimination, loss ofcultural support and being immigrants in the ‘new’ society of Hong Kong. Lastly, twoimplications for the promotion of education for immigrant students will be discussed atschool and legal levels.
Keywords: cross-cultural experience; immigrant students; narrative analysis; self-identity
Introduction
The sovereignty of Hong Kong was returned to China from Britain in July 1997,
terminating British colonial rule (1840�1997) over the city. Despite this, British colonisa-
tion still impacts on Hong Kong in various ways, such as the adoption of the education
system established by the colonial government and the strong emphasis on English
language. Consequently, it is suggested that Hong Kong is vastly different from Mainland
China in many ways. This partially explains why immigrant students from Mainland China
have experienced difficulties in adapting into the community and schools in Hong Kong.
Since 1997, the number of immigrant students from Mainland China who have enrolled
in Hong Kong schools has been growing. According to data released by the Government,
from 1995, each day an average of 150 newly arrived Mainland Chinese have been granted
residency in Hong Kong, of which nearly half are aged under 15 years (Education
Department 1997; Sham Shui Po District Board 1996). In 1996, there were an estimated
169,319 immigrants from Mainland China (Hong Kong Government 1996). By 2001, the
number had climbed to 266,577. In 1996, 48% of these immigrants were aged 19 or below.
In 2001, this percentage dropped slightly to 36% (Statistics Section, Education Department
2003). More recently, the number of immigrants has been dropping, but the number of
*Email: [email protected]
Ethnography and Education
Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2008, 229�242
ISSN 1745-7823 print/ISSN 1745-7831 online
# 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17457820802305469
http://www.informaworld.com
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school age children from the Mainland is still large. Consequently, many schools have
acknowledged that catering for the diverse needs of these students has become an
educational challenge to school managers and teachers. They have asserted the urgent need
to readdress the issue of diversity, in order to promote an inclusive culture and ensure that
every student is treated equally and receives equal opportunities to learn.
This article looks at this issue and specifically examines the cross-cultural experiences
of students from Mainland China and how such experiences link to the development of
their identity. Briefly, two research questions were addressed in the study reported here: (1)
How did the immigrant students talk about their changing identities and changing lives?
(2) How did they re-learn and re-evaluate their primary culture they inherited in Mainland
China? The discussion begins with an examination of relevant studies into the learning
difficulties of immigrant students in schools in Hong Kong, the UK, and the USA. A
theoretical framework will be established to examine the cross-cultural experiences of
immigrant students on the basis of the literature. The research method adopted and some
findings from this study will then be reported and lastly, the implications of this study for
the educational provision to immigrant students will be discussed at the two levels of
school and legislation.
Literature review
Many schools in Hong Kong have become aware of the needs of immigrant students,
including those from Mainland China (Aberdeen Kai Fong Welfare Association Social
Service Centre 1999; Berry 2003; Cheung and Hui 2003; Chong 2004; Ho 1999; Hong
Kong Young Women’s Christian Association [HKYWCA] 1997). Relevant studies have
provided a broad picture of the diverse needs of these students, and of the difficulties they
encounter in school. For example, Chong (2004) and HKYWCA (1997) found that
students from the Mainland face difficulties in speaking the Cantonese dialect and
understanding English. Similarly, Ho (1999) study pointed out that these students
experienced other difficulties such as delays in their admission, enrolment into lower
than appropriate grades and difficulty in catching up on the standard of their English.
The education of immigrant students is an issue of great concern in the UK and the
USA, as in Hong Kong. These countries have a long history of immigration and it is widelyaccepted that the enrolment of immigrant students has brought language, cultural, and
ethnic diversity into their schools. However, as some authors have argued, the linguistic
heritage and cultural knowledge which the immigrants bring to schools are apparently
ignored or overlooked (He et al. in press; Rassool 1999). In general, these immigrant
students experience learning difficulties in speaking, reading and writing English, while
their families struggle with economic insecurity or poverty (Cummins 1989, 2000, 2001;
Rutter 1994; Stevenson and Willott 2007). For these students, academic, physical,
emotional and social development challenges associated with economic insecurity are
exacerbated by language barriers, migration and acculturation processes, and limited
access to programmes (Ruiz-de-Velasco, Fix, and Clemwell 2000; Rutter 1994).
While the needs of immigrants has been examined, extensive research has also been
done on multiculturalism, inclusion and other diversity issues which are central to
mainstream schooling. These studies seek to find out how immigrant students can be
better supported at various levels of schooling (Delpit 1995; Ladson-Billings 1994). They
include studies on school practice (Cheminais 2001; Dentler and Hafner 1997; Phillion
2002); families, schools and communities (Carger 1996; Soto 1997; Travers and Klein,
230 M.-T. Hue
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2004); educational policy (Nieto 2000; Salili and Hoosain 2001); teacher training
programmes (Arora 2005); language, culture, and identity in education (He 2002a,
2002b, 2002c, 2003; Toohey 2000); and race, gender and class issues (Grant and Sleeter
1986; Richardson 2005). There has been, however, little explicitly narrative work, especially
in the context of Hong Kong. What is missing are accounts of how immigrant students’
language, culture and identity developments are shaped by and shape their cross-cultural
experience; how such an understanding helps develop culturally relevant pedagogy for
immigrant students to obtain equal opportunities for school success; and how theirexperience informs school administrators and policy makers in creating inclusive
environments and policies to support the learning of these immigrant students.
Cross-cultural identity of immigrant students
Having reviewed the relevant Hong Kong, UK and US studies, the development of the
cross-cultural identity of the immigrant students based on literature evidence will now be
examined. From a psychological perspective, self-identity is the mental and conceptual
awareness which one holds regarding the existence of one’s own being (Erikson 1959;Hamachek 1978; Jourard 1971; McAdam 1986; Patterson 1961; Rogers 1947). For
immigrant students, the development of self-identity is a more complex process as they
experience more changes as a result of their migration than those who have never had such
an experience (Cuypers 2001). The changes may include the move to the new place, their
adaptation to the second culture, and the change of language used. These changes may
cause extra stress and intensify any existing conflict of their self-identity. However, this
does not necessarily mean that all of these changes have a negative impact on the
development of immigrant students’ identity. Such changes could lead them to rethinktheir roles and identities by making meaning from their cross-cultural experience (Carr
1986; He and Phillion 2001). Suarez-Orozco (2002) affirmed the complexity of the
changing process of one’s cross-cultural experience, and used the idea of multiple identities
to describe how immigrants defined their cross-cultural self in both positive and negative
ways.
In Britain, the sociological perspective of cosmopolitanism is used to examine issues of
cross-cultural experience of immigrants. It postulates that all human beings have the same
sense of morality and human dignity, which forms the basis of an ethos for a single moralcommunity. Regardless of immigrants’ nation, state, and society, everyone has favourable
feelings for cultures besides their own culture of origin. Therefore, as Appiah (2006) claims,
any divisions of cultures or society are morally unnecessary and irrelevant. Beck (2006),
45) has identified the fundamental foundations of cosmopolitanism, which rest upon
acknowledging the five dimensions of the otherness, including ‘the otherness of those who
are culturally different’, ‘the otherness of the future’, ‘the otherness of nature’, ‘the
otherness of the object’ and ‘the otherness of other rationalities’.
Although the studies mentioned above have held a psychological view of the uniquenessof one’s cross-cultural experience, and a sociological view of the establishment of a
cosmopolitan identity for all human beings, some studies have argued that there are some
cultural elements in the lives of immigrants which are difficult to change within their cross-
cultural experience (Deaux 2006; Gans 1979, 1992, 1994; He 2002a, 2002b, 2002c; Hue
2005; Rassool 1999; South North Network Culture and Development 2004). For instance,
in He’s studies into the cross-cultural identity development of three Chinese immigrant
teachers in Canada and the USA, the findings indicated that their Chinese identity was not
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entirely transformed, while new cultural elements could be identified which constantly
‘flow’ in their lives, eventually forming part of their identity. Similarly, Gans (1979, 1992,
1994) held the same view and offered the concept of ‘symbolic ethnicity’ to account for
various ways of adaptation and assimilation. He suggested that individuals could
assimilate to a new society in most respects, while maintaining some interest in selected
cultural practices such as food and celebrations. This symbolic form of ethnicity, as Gans
contended, can be kept and practised for a long period of time.
Research methods
Theoretical framework
The present study aimed to examine the cross-cultural experiences of Mainland Chinese
students. It was qualitative and narrative in nature. It adopted the theoretical framework of
interactionism (Blumer 1969, 1998; Cooley 1964; Mead 1934) and the social construction
of reality (Berger and Luckmann 1973; Holzner 1968), and examined microscopic aspects
of immigrant students’ lives. It also drew attention to the social construction of their cross-
cultural experience, and how the knowledge of realities was constructed in everyday life in
family, school and community.
To explore this kind of knowledge, the methodological approaches of narrative analysis
and personal experience were employed (Anderson 1991; Clandinin and Connelly 1995;
Denzin 2003; Geertz 1973; Holstein and Gubrium 1995). Specifically, the methodological
approach suggested by Clandinin and Connelly (1995) was used to explore what constructs
the immigrant students used when talking about their experiences across three dimensions,
namely (1) the change of the ‘space’ from the Mainland school to the Hong Kong school;
(2) in the ‘place’ of the Hong Kong schools where they have been enrolled; and (3)
throughout the ‘time’ when they were in the schools in the Mainland and Hong Kong.
Furthermore, the analytical framework of moving ‘inward’, ‘outward’, ‘backward’ and
‘forward’ was adopted. Using ‘inward’ was to discover the inner feelings of the immigrant
experience, whereas with‘outward’, the perception towards the new environment of Hong
Kong was explored. Regarding ‘backward’ and ‘forward’, this was to see how these
students related the stories of their ‘past’ experience to ‘the present’ and how it shaped
their perception of ‘the future’.
Process of data collection
Interviews were conducted in six secondary schools where immigrant students from the
Mainland were enrolled. Having received parental permission, 12 students, aged between
13 and 16 years, from junior forms who had migrated to Hong Kong within the previous
three years were invited to attend one-on-one interviews with the author. These students
were regarded by their teachers as students whose academic performance was ranked
as medium for their classes; this selection criteria was used to ensure that all the students
involved had a similar academic background and to avoid students whose academic
performance was categorised at the extremity of ‘the top’ or ‘the bottom’ of their class.
Each interview lasted about 60 minutes and was tape-recorded. The interviews were
unstructured and conducted in Mandarin. This was intended to provide them with
substantial freedom to talk about the issues concerned. Whenever they had something to
say about their cross-cultural experience, they were allowed to express their concern, in
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order to explore the issues, dilemmas or tensions associated with these experiences. Up to a
point, the unstructured interview method adopted for this study could be considered the
type of active interview as proposed by Holstein and Gubrium (1995), in which the
students and the interviewer play significant roles in constructing a conversation.
In the interviews, a positive rapport was established with the students using respect and
trust. This was done by showing interest in what they said and by making no judgmental
comments on their responses. Moreover, empathy with the feelings of the students was
established and an understanding was determined on how they defined the interviewer’srole and how they perceived the interview situation. Specifically, the interviewer introduced
himself, and then briefed them on the aims of the research and how the collected data
would be used. Having assured them of confidentiality and gained their permission to tape
the interview, it began with some general questions, and moved to core questions. Before
ending the interview, the students were thanked for their participation, and the valued
contribution of their responses to the study was highlighted.
Throughout the process of the interview, steps were taken to ensure that the students’
responses were being correctly understood by the interviewer (Denzin and Lincoln 1998;Holstein and Gubrium 1995), and of course, that the students were understanding the
meaning intended by the interviewer. Thus, each was simultaneously involved in explaining
any ambiguities, in correcting any misperceptions, and in probing for clarification. During
this process, the students were requested to define what their use of language really meant
to them in terms of both linguistic and cultural dimensions, so the validity and reliability of
the analysis could be confirmed.
Since this kind of study involved gathering information about individuals or individual
situations, as suggested in the literature (Alderson 1995, 2000; Ball 1981; Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and the Pacific 1999; Hargreaves 1967; Hill, Laybourn, and
Borland 1996; Lacey 1974), some important ethical considerations were taken into account
when involving students in this study. For example, participation would not result in any
harm to the participants and other school members; participation was on a voluntary
basis; participants fully understood what they were getting involved in and the role
expected of them; and they had the opportunity to opt out of the process at any stage.
Further, confidentiality issues which might arise were addressed, with participants having a
clear understanding of how their contributions would be reported. Confidentiality wasregarded as a high priority, particularly for those participants who felt they could easily be
identified in publication (e.g. Bentley et al. 1999).
Process of data analysis
All data collected were transcribed for analysis. In doing this, I tried to ensure that the
analytical procedure was grounded in the data collected from the students involved, and
that the foundation for interpretation and analysis rested on the trustworthiness of the
empirical materials. To achieve this, in the analytical procedure, it was endeavoured tomake interpretations in the light of a deep ethnographic understanding of social relations,
the students’ families, and their school and individual practices.
For data analysis, a constant comparative method as proposed by Glaser and Strauss
(1967) was adopted. To begin with, the 12 units of audio data collected were transcribed.
By producing ‘richly detailed’ descriptions and accounts of the data collected (Denzin and
Lincoln 1998, 335), it was intended to illuminate both the interviewer’s and the students’
narratives of cross-cultural experience and to identify the multiple meanings carried in the
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data. Categories and concepts were generated from each unit of the data collected. Having
processed the 12 units of audio data separately, the similarities and differences between the
students were identified, and then relevant categories and concepts generated from the data
were compared and contrasted. In short, the analytic procedure mentioned was a cycle of
constant comparisons, moving in and out of the data, reading for meaning and advancing
the analytical procedure by the intensive use of the above stages.
Findings
In the following two cases of the immigrant students, Xin Xin and Meng Chang, a
meritocratic view was expressed through the use of metaphors, showing vividly how the
students became involved in a mental and cultural journey of re-defining their self-identity,
whereby they had to deal with negative experiences, such as being discriminated against
and being disconnected from their social networks in Mainland China, and the challenges
to their lives at a new location where the culture was different from that of their home
town. The narratives of their cross-cultural experiences were chosen as they were rich
enough to reflect the cross-cultural experiences of all the other immigrant students
interviewed and the meritocratic views they held based on their cross-cultural experience,
even though they had some negative experiences of adaptation. In another words, the main
themes generated from these cases fully represent those themes emerging from the other
cases.
The story of Xin Xin
Xin Xin, aged 13, was in her first year of secondary school, having been in Hong Kong for
one year. She formerly lived in a town in Fujian Province, China. She described her life in
Mainland China as ‘plain’ � she was only concerned with what happened in her hometown.
Apparently, the contact her town had with other cities was minimal. When comparing her
life in Hong Kong and in the village in Fujian, she acknowledged that there was ‘no
stimulation and challenge’ in the course of her daily life in the village. It suggested a
distinct difference in lifestyles of these two places. This difference involved a change from
rural to urban living and ‘small town’ to ‘big city’ living. As she put it, ‘in Mainland China,
the place where I lived is merely a small town. But Hong Kong is a big city. Things are
more advanced here. There are so many things I know nothing about and I have to learn as
much as I can’.
Xin Xin used the metaphor of a ship sailing in the centre of an ocean to capture her
cross-cultural experience, and depicted her identity as ‘a ship’. As she put it,
I feel like I’m a ship sailing in the centre of the ocean. It gradually finds its way and eventuallyreaches the continent. When I was in Mainland China, I could not see the world. Feweractivities are provided in Mainland Chinese schools than in Hong Kong schools. This hasbroadened my view of the world. In the past, I was in the centre of the ocean, but now I findmy way and know the direction of my life.
Xin Xin experienced a process of change in which she defined her identity as ‘a ship’,
sailing to a new place, ‘the continent’, where she could see the world with a broader
perspective. In ‘the continent’, she would be able to learn something that she ‘knows
nothing about’. This knowledge helped her, not only to re-orientate the direction of her
life, but also to formulate a meritocratic view of her cross-cultural experience which
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brought her a new aspiration for education, life and future career and gave her courage to
overcome difficulties brought about by her migration and the feelings of anxiety and
frustration aroused in the journey of ‘sailing’.
Specifically, she experienced two difficulties � the change of language and disconnec-
tion from her inner social group members. What she found most difficult to adapt to was
the change of language from Mandarin to Cantonese. In her own town, she was used to
speaking Mandarin, an official spoken language in Mainland China, and the dialect of
Fujian. However, in Hong Kong, the dialect, Cantonese, is spoken, although the form of
Chinese writing is the same as in Mainland China. She found it very difficult to speak the
Cantonese dialect without being influenced by Mandarin and Fujian. She tried hard to
conquer this, and found progress was not as smooth as she wished.
Besides this, she could not master the English language as well as Hong Kong students
did. Even though English was rarely used outside the classroom, she had to obtain at least
a passing grade in this subject in public examinations to fulfil the basic requirement for
university entry in Hong Kong. Hence, it was crucial for her to master this foreign
language as it would affect her school success and have strong implications for her future
career. When talking about her language difficulties, negative feelings were aroused. She
said, ‘The most difficult thing for me was Cantonese. I felt really bad when I couldn’t speak
Cantonese. Besides, I couldn’t speak any English at all. I once thought about going back
(to Mainland China) because of this, but I didn’t do so’.
Negative feelings were also expressed about her disconnection from her inner social
group members with whom she had a warm acquaintance in Mainland China. Socially, she
was used to having support from her close friends and relatives. However, in the first few
months after she arrived in Hong Kong, she could find hardly any close friends to whom
she could talk. Occasionally, she was overwhelmed and thought of going back to Mainland
China and being reunited with her friends and relatives.
A change occurred for her when her family sent her to another secondary school which
had a good reputation for supporting the learning of immigrant students. This was her
current school where more than 80% of the students were from Mainland China. There she
found it much easier to make friends and re-establish what she had lost in the community,
i.e. connecting herself to others. In this school, she received support from her peers and
teachers and it gave her a sense of satisfaction which motivated her to move forward and
take every opportunity to explore new things. This schooling experience also helped her
formulate an optimistic view of her aspiration for education and a future career. This
feeling was intensified when she realised that she had become more confident and
independent when connecting with others.
In the process of playing the role of an explorer, Xin Xin acknowledged that there was a
certain cultural heritage which would never change and would always keep her connected
to the culture of Mainland China, i.e. the languages of Mandarin and Fujian and the social
network of her friends and relatives in Mainland China, while at the same time she was
working hard to explore ways to extend her social network in the new society and to
improve her English and Cantonese and her academic performance. As she affirmed,
Before moving to Hong Kong, I never had such feelings. However, it is getting stronger andstronger. I am missing my mainland friends and relatives much more than what I did before. Iknow they are very important to me. I don’t think I could go without them no matter whereI lived.
Ethnography and Education 235
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The story of Meng Chang
Meng Chang, aged 14, also studied at year one level in a secondary school. She was from a
town in Fujian, rather than from a village like Xin Xin, and had migrated to Hong Kong
one year before the study. Being an immigrant student, she depicted herself as a mountain
climber who had a mission to get through all the difficulties, wrestling with the external
environments of the school and the community so as to reach her destination on the
summit. As she described this, ‘It is just like climbing a mountain. I experience many
difficulties at school and in my daily life. I climb higher and higher by resolving the
difficulties one by one. Finally, I will reach the summit of the mountain’. In the interview,
she explained that the summit of the mountain could be referred to as the targets of
‘entering university’ and ‘having a professional job’. She affirmed to herself that she had to
endure all difficulties, with her character full of ‘patience’, an attitude of ‘determination’,
and a heart of ‘courage’. Three difficulties were mentioned: adapting to the lifestyle of
Hong Kong, searching for a new identity, and being disconnected from the community.
These were the difficulties she had to deal with on her ‘mountain climbing’ journey.
Her mother used to tell her that ‘life is hard in the village’, but she found that life did
not seem easier in the city of Hong Kong. Having migrated to Hong Kong, she was aware
that the lifestyle of the Hongkongese differed from that of those in her hometown in
Fujian. As she noted, ‘the pace of life in Hong Kong is very fast’. What she referred to here
was not only the community but also the school. She found that the ‘Xianggangren’
(Hongkongese) walked quickly in the street and did their work efficiently. Such a culture
was reflected in certain structural arrangements in the school. For example, Hong Kong
school students were given less time to complete learning tasks and examination papers
compared to Mainland Chinese students. This culture made her always feel left behind and
needing to catch up.
Apart from adapting to the new pace of life in Hong Kong, her cross-cultural
experiences led her to re-define her identity as a ‘Daluren’ (Mainland Chinese) and a
‘Xianggangren’ (Hongkongese). As Xin Xin did, Meng Chang spoke Mandarin and the
Fujian dialect. She did not feel happy with her Cantonese as it had a distinctive accent.
What annoyed her most was that her ethnic identity � being ‘a girl from the mainland’ �was emphasised by some of her classmates. She was even given a nickname, ‘Mainland
Girl’. This made her feel discriminated against. Apparently, it was not only the school
setting where discrimination was found, but also in the community where she lived.
However, she described the discrimination as evident in very subtle ways. It could only be
identified by reading between the lines of the spoken language used by others with whom
she interacted in the school and community. As she put it,
When some classmates found that I couldn’t speak Cantonese, they gave me the nickname‘Dalurmei’ (Mainland Girl) or other nicknames. It was just horrible. Others tended to speak tome in English when they knew that I couldn’t speak English . . . They (referring to classmatesin school and people in the community) look down on the new immigrants from the Mainland.They discriminate against us. For example, they gossip about new immigrants, and saysomething bad about us. They probably do nothing actually, but the language they use givesme this feeling.
The meaning underlying the nickname meant that immigrants were regarded more as
‘Daluren’ (Mainland Chinese) and intentionally distinguished from local Hong Kong people,
who identified themselves mainly as ‘Xianggangren’ (Hongkongese). While Meng Chang was
discriminated against and called ‘Dalurmei’ (Mainland Girl) she noticed that she was not
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regarded by others as ‘Hongkongese’, even though the immigrant students had been legally
offered Hong Kong citizenship and both the local students and the mainland immigrants
were Chinese. In Hong Kong, it was more usual for her to refer to herself as ‘Daluren’.
However, whenever Meng Chang went back to her hometown in Fujian, the situation was
reversed, as she more often referred to herself as ‘Hongkongese’. Her friends and relatives
tended to think that she took on a new identity as a ‘Hongkongese’. As she explained,
when I get back to my home town to see my relatives and friends, they keep asking me what mylife is like in Hong Kong. They felt happy for me that I could become a Hongkongese.Apparently they all think that I have a great life in Hong Kong.
Meng Chang acknowledged that in Hong Kong, she engaged in a process of re-
evaluating her identity as a ‘Mainland Chinese’, whereas in her hometown in Fujian, it was
necessary to re-define her identity as a ‘Hongkongese’. She engaged in a journey of
‘mountain climbing’ to re-define and re-evaluate her identity when she was caught between
being a ‘Hongkongese’ and a ‘Mainland Chinese’.
Being a ‘mountain climber’, she experienced another difficulty, that of being
disconnected from others in the community where she lived in Hong Kong. Her migration
from Mainland China to Hong Kong meant that she started a solitary journey of
‘mountain climbing’, where she felt lonely and forced to withdraw from her existing social
network in Mainland China. It was obvious to her that the strong sense of community
shared among neighbours in her hometown in Fujian could not be found in the
community in Hong Kong. She acknowledged that people in the community of her
hometown were connected, but in Hong Kong, the neighbourhoods were isolated and
disconnected. As she disclosed,
In Hong Kong I’ve got a feeling that I have to close the door whenever I return home. When Iwas in Mainland China, it was entirely different. My neighbours and I were very close to eachother. We used to meet and play in each other’s home. We used to dine together. But those arememories of the past.
When she walked through the well-dressed crowds of office workers and businessmen and
the forest of towering buildings, she felt no attachment to her new home in Hong Kong;
and the prosperity of Hong Kong meant nothing to her.
Because of the disconnection from the Hong Kong community, the most likely context
where she could establish her social relationships with others was at school where she could
start to know others. She told herself that she needed to open up in school, but, in practice,
the feeling of being a stranger made her lack confidence when speaking to other
classmates. Change happened when she felt welcomed by teachers and made friends with
some schoolmates, also immigrant students, who were from the same region and district in
Mainland China and more importantly, shared the same dialect. When they got together,
Meng Cheng and her peers gradually developed a kind of linguistic sub-culture. It made
many of them develop a sense of ease and security when relieved of the necessity to speak
the dominant Cantonese dialect. The clubbing together of immigrant students from the
same area was a very cohesive and attractive tie, which gave her courage to face up to the
challenges of adaptation and begin to formulate a meritocratic view of her aspirations for
her education and future career, namely of ‘entering university’ and ‘having a professional
job’. In some senses, this sub-culture was seemingly formalised into a ‘District of Origin
Association’ (tongxianghui), where Meng Cheng experienced a sense of personal growth
and found herself more confident in expressing herself and making new friends.
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Overall, the other immigrant students involved in this study, like Xin Xin and Meng
Cheng, became aware that they engaged in a journey of learning from their cross-cultural
experiences. They engaged in a process where they had to choose their own identity so that
they could actively continue to maintain their cultural roots from Mainland China while
they made themselves feel at home in Hong Kong and created their hopes and future in
this new city. Although they felt alienated from Hong Kong society in terms of language,
culture and identity, they held a meritocratic view that individual effort was a ladder which
could help them overcome struggles in their lives and eventually become professionals.
This belief relieved the ‘pain’ of negative feelings aroused by alienation and discrimination,
and gave them hope and motivation so that they had the courage to face new challenges
and explore a new world and culture they did not know much about.
Conclusion
This study has shown that immigrant students start a journey searching for their identityand re-learning their self through their cross-cultural experiences. They engage in a process
of looking for ways to relate to the community and others, such as relatives and friends,
and to interpret their roles and their future in various contexts such as family, school and
community in which they participate. In particular, it is necessary for them to associate
with their distinct identity as a ‘Daluren’ (Mainland Chinese) which they have inherited
from their days in Mainland China, and how this is linked to their new identity as a
‘Xianggangren’ (Hongkongese). In this journey, as shown in the two cases, they use a form
of agency to overcome, or at least ameliorate, feelings of discrimination, loss of cultural
support and being the immigrants or the ‘outsider’ in the ‘new’ society of Hong Kong.
They use collective support and an ideology of meritocracy, according to which, if they
work hard and are successful in examinations and in entering university, these will
counterbalance those negative feelings. It is also an ideology which gives them courage to
deal with the challenges of their lives at a new destination where the culture is different
from that of their home town in Mainland China.
While immigrant students are searching and re-learning their cross-cultural identity,
the school and the government have crucial roles in offering support to these students.
Thus, this study suggests two implications for the promotion of education for immigrant
students occur � at the school level, readdressing the needs of immigrant students and,at the legislative level, developing policy to prevent any forms of discrimination against
immigrant students.
At the school level, an educational challenge for teachers and school managers is how
to cater for the diverse needs of students, as Hong Kong schools accommodate an
unprecedented number of immigrant students from Mainland China. This study has
shown the school has potential power to help these students build up a meritocratic view of
their cross-cultural experiences, when the immigrant students adapt to the school
environment and the education system in Hong Kong, and overcome learning difficulties
in Hong Kong schools, such as difficulties with English language and the use of the local
dialect, Cantonese.
When considering the transformation of the cross-cultural identity of immigrant
students, culturally responsive curricula, pedagogies and teaching strategies should be
developed, particularly since it is recognised that students’ positive feelings about their
cross-cultural identity and development of a meritocratic view of the negative aspects of
their cross-cultural experiences may not occur naturally or spontaneously. It requires a
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purposive, intentional effort on the part of the host nationality. It is argued that the
emphasis in pedagogy and curriculum should not only be on the cognitive elements of
education, but that the affective and social elements should also be dealt with. Schooling is
not only about what students should know, but how they feel about their new lives and
cross-cultural experiences. By responding in this way, schools would be more able to raise
practitioners’ awareness of the diverse needs of students, and open up new dialogue on
ways to cater for their individual differences, so as to create a favourable environment for
developing an inclusive school.At the legislative level, the diversity of students’ needs has drawn the public’s attention
to the broader issues of social justice and equality. Concerns have been expressed about
how all students can be equally valued, without any forms of discrimination such as those
revealed in this study. In fact, the paramount notion of no discrimination in society has
been stated in The Basic Law (Consultative Committee for the Basic Law of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China 1990, Chapter 383,
Section 8). This notion should have been better formulated as part of an educational policy
regarding provisions for immigrant students, and then been transferred into the localeducation service to fulfil the legal requirement that all students are assumed to be equal
and that diversity should not be taken as grounds for any form of discrimination.
Furthermore, Hong Kong schools are responsible for catering for the diverse needs of
every individual student, regardless of their background, such as ethnicity and languages
spoken (Education Commission 2000; Education and Manpower Bureau 2004a, 2004b).
All in all, issues regarding the education of immigrant students are no longer peripheral
to mainstream schooling. They become a central discourse in the support of all students,
bringing together concerns about cultural identity, ethnicity, purpose of schooling, and themeaning of inclusion in an increasingly diversified world. By enhancing school members’
understanding of the cross-cultural experiences of immigrant students, schools would be
more capable of developing their own practices for promoting the whole-person growth of
all students. This is considered a crucial step towards a more inclusive, just and fair society.
Certainly, various parties in the school all have a role to play if this important goal is to be
achieved.
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