NEW IMMIGRANT CHILDREN’S COMPLICATED BECOMINGS: A MULTI-SITED ETHNOGRAPHY IN A TAIWANESE DIASPORIC SPACE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Ping-chuan Peng, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by: Professor Patti Lather, Co-Advisor Associate Professor Peter Demerath, Co-Advisor College of Education Assistant Professor Marie Cieri ABSTRACT The coming of capitalist globalization and the so-called end of the Cold War and colonialism have brought Taiwan and its neighbors into a new era of migration. Many females from China and Southeast Asia come to Taiwan by intermarriage. These women are known in these days as new immigrants. They and their children—new immigrant children (NIC)—are now considered as the fifth ethnic group in Taiwan. Their arrival changes the demography of Taiwan and is recently perceived as an emerging challenge to the host society and its educational system. This dissertation comes from a four-year ethnographic study of NIC’s education and acculturation since 2002 when the challenge had not yet been fully recognized. Many NIC, their teachers, their neighbors, and their parents have participated in this study and shared their ideas and stories of the research topic. This study particularly focuses on six families and two older NIC from their middle school by following these participants’ i everyday lives and biographies. With an interest in diverse becomings, this dissertation especially focuses on the Awen family. Based on the Awen’s stories, this study finds that all of the Awens are becoming new Taiwanese. But Taiwaneseness is not an ahistorical culturalist concept. Rather, it is historically structured and territorially polymorphous; and therefore, is multiple and complicated. In order to cope with the subjects’ multiplicity and complexity, the researcher argues for a situated interpretation of these NIC’s everyday practices. Such an interpretation should first contextualize the subjects’ diverse micro becomings into the ever-changing macro structure. Also, it implicitly calls for both a comparative study and a cultural critique of the culture of the host society. Taking becomings as an alternative foundation of multiculturalism, this study finally argues that multicultural education should attend more to how to maintain and enrich the possibility of desirable becomings. In the context of Taiwan, this also means that, however diverse becoming new Taiwanese would be, it is a project of all Taiwanese. ii Dedicated to my father iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a long journey to complete this dissertation. There are so many people to be remembered. I am, first of all, deeply indebted to my research participants. Although I cannot raise their names, it is clear that, without their sharing and assistance, this dissertation would have been impossible. My co-advisors, Drs. Patti Lather and Peter Demerath’s, open-mindedness and advice are clearly the prerequisite for such a “cultural study” in a college of education and enabling such an experimental writing at a student stage. Because of them, I have been able to walk across the OSU campus and engage in an interdisciplinary experience. Herewith, I can gratefully acknowledge Dr. Marie Cieri’s timely commitment and careful reading, and Drs. Eugene McCann and Rick Livingston’s suggestions for studying this emerging global migration underclass. Dr. Paul Klohr’s help is certainly indispensable for an international student with difficulties in writing English. More critical is his humorous and kindly mentorship. It iv has been a panacea to relieve the overwhelming stresses in a typical doctoral student’s life. My ex-advisor and best friend, Dr. Hornfay Cherng, has been one of the most critical back-ups in Taiwan. His inspiration led me to the Ohio State. He also helped me overcome my economic deficit when I was collecting data,. In short, wherever I am, his hands are always there. In addition, I shall never forget Drs. Hsiao-Chin Hsieh, Ding- Tzann Lii, and Wen-Li Soong’s encouragement for my pursuing an advanced degree. There are also many other helpers at different stages to be acknowledged. Drs. Arzu Arikan, Thomas Savas, Jill Lynch, and Roland Coloma’s inspiring conversations had become the most impressive part in my student career. No less important were Ying Bao and Hui-Ying Hong’s assistances for continuing my study after a four-year disconnection. Shu-Fen Huang’s technical support and Yi-Chen Liu’s thoughtful insight were equally essential for its completion. My thanks to them and their efforts will never be enough. Finally, after studying so many families, I thereby had a chance to review my own. Without my brother’s support to my parents and my mother’s taking care of my father, I would never have had such a chance to pursue my intellectual career. Nor would I be able to travel to this point without Chien-Fang’s patience. My degree is no doubt theirs, too. v VITA December 2, 1965 Born in Tainan, Taiwan 1990 B.S. Department of Power Mechanical Engineering National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan 1990-1992 Vocational High School Teacher, Hsinchu, Taiwan 1997 M.A. Institute of Sociology and Anthropology National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan 1996-1999 Public School Sub-Teacher, Hsinchu, Taiwan 1999-2002 Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University 2002-2006 Adjunct Lecturing at Hsuan Chuang University, National Hsinchu Teachers’ College, etc. 2006 Taiwanese Governmental Scholarship for Studying Abroad PUBLICATIONS Peng, P-C. (2006). “Educational Reform and Community-Based Educational Industry: From the Perspective of Critical Pedagogy.” Journal of Elementary Education, 18(2), 3-28. vi FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................... i DEDICATION...................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv VITA.................................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................xiii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF BOXES.............................................................................................................. xv LIST OF METHODOLOGICAL FOOTNOTES ........................................................... xvii Chapters INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PROJECT ............................................... 1 The Emerging of the Research Topic ......................................................................... 1 The Nature and the Purposes of this Research Project: The Complicated Becomings ..................................................................................................................................... 2 The Methods: A Colective Case Study....................................................................... 4 Profiles of the Selected Cases..................................................................................... 7 Data Representation and Translation........................................................................ 11 Organization of the Dissertation ............................................................................... 12 1. AN EMERGING CRISIS ......................................................................................... 18 Overture: They Are Coming!.................................................................................... 20 Immigration and Formation of Ethnic Groups in Taiwan ........................................ 21 A National Crisis at the Gates................................................................................... 24 About the Research Subjects .................................................................................... 26 The Demography of NIC in Taiwan and its National Education System......... 27 Their Families ................................................................................................... 33 Controversies of NIC’ Birth Rate: Ethnic Politics in Taiwan—A Racist Game of Disempowerment:......................................................................................... 43 viii More about the Research Subjects............................................................................ 46 Old Nationalism, New Nationalism, and the Politics of Naming..................... 48 Border Crossing ........................................................................................................ 51 Complicating Border Crossing I: Is Ray, as well as his Mother, a Foreigner?. 52 Complicating Border Crossing II: Those Hard Days........................................ 54 Complicating Border Crossing III: We Are All (sometimes) Hakka ............... 57 Troubling their Chineseness and Foreignness .................................................. 59 2. RESEARCH AS CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT .................................................... 65 Invisibility................................................................................................................