Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Sociology

Publication Date

6-2-2017

Abstract

This study tests the salience/prominence of Chinese ethnic identity by applying identity theory, social identity theory, and social network analysis. Using survey data of Chinese graduate students in two universities in the United States, I show how Chinese ethnic identity salience varies with the percentage of Chinese in an individual’s ego network revolving around him or her. In addition, among newcomers to the United States, as the percentage Chinese in ego networks increases, the decline of Chinese identity salience/prominence declines, but for old timers in the United States, as the percentage Chinese increases, the decline of Chinese identity salience/prominence is reversed. The ethnic identity salience lapses with time unless the respondents keep a cohort of co-nationals. Moreover, a cosmopolitan sociocultural environment is conducive to the maintenance of ethnic identity when an individual has many co-nationals in his or her ego network while having many co-nationals does not stop the decline of ethnic salience in an isolated social environment.

Comments

This article was originally published Open Access in SAGE Open. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Journal

SAGE Open

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2017

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