6 - Multilingualism in Chinese Families and Raising Their Children Bilingually: Fujianese Immigrants

Summary

This chapter centers on multilingual Chinese families, their decisions about language for their children, and their transnational practices in raising their children. The focus is on the Fujianese, a growing immigrant group in the US since 1990. The Fujianese speak Fuzhou, which is mutually unintelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese. Fuzhou is spoken every day, but Mandarin is the language of schools in China. Therefore, most immigrant Fujianese in the US are multilingual (Fuzhou, Mandarin, English). Parents tend to favor Mandarin as the heritage language. The authors share results from a survey of multilingual homes and the children's language(s). In addition, the authors present the case of SC, a child who was sent to be raised in China at the age of 2 months and returned to live with his parents in the US when he was 5. This chapter reveals the unexpected language, academic, and social adjustment difficulties SC encountered, and the little guidance and bilingual academic support his parents found through the schools.