Identity and Social Networks

A Case of Chinese Graduate Students in the United States

Cynthia Baiqing Zhang

Through in-depth interviews with 60 U.S. graduate students from mainland China, Cynthia Baiqing Zhang explores how identity and social networks influence each other and how identity shapes behavior. Zhang’s study concludes the sociocultural contexts in the host culture of the U.S. impacts religious identity acquisition and networks of social relation. Zhang further analyzes the ways in which the transfer from the racially/ethnically homogeneous China to the diverse United States and their time in the United States inform the students’ Chinese ethnic identity and networks, and how these factorsmaintain and transcend the divide between Chinese and non-Chinese communities. Finally, Zhang argues the juggling of multiple identities requires changes in identity meanings and corresponding behavior on the part of the students.

Lexington Books

Pages: 160 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-4657-7 • Hardback • October 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-4658-4 • eBook • October 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies, Social Science / Socialization

Identity and Social Networks

A Case of Chinese Graduate Students in the United States

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Through in-depth interviews with 60 U.S. graduate students from mainland China, Cynthia Baiqing Zhang explores how identity and social networks influence each other and how identity shapes behavior. Zhang’s study concludes the sociocultural contexts in the host culture of the U.S. impacts religious identity acquisition and networks of social relation. Zhang further analyzes the ways in which the transfer from the racially/ethnically homogeneous China to the diverse United States and their time in the United States inform the students’ Chinese ethnic identity and networks, and how these factorsmaintain and transcend the divide between Chinese and non-Chinese communities. Finally, Zhang argues the juggling of multiple identities requires changes in identity meanings and corresponding behavior on the part of the students.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 160 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4985-4657-7 • Hardback • October 2019 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-4658-4 • eBook • October 2019 • $105.50 • (£82.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Asian American Studies, Social Science / Socialization

Author

Cynthia Baiqing Zhang is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Central Washington University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Identity and Social Networks

Chapter 2: Context

Chapter 3: Religious Identity and Sociocultural Environments

Chapter 4: Ethnic Identity, Ethnic Network, and the Sociocultural Link between Ethnic and Student Identities

Chapter 5: Evolution of Networks and Multiple Identities: Ethnic, Religious, and Family (Group and Role) Identities

Reviews

Cynthia Zhang has brought a rich sociological analysis to the ways this specific group, Chinese young people who are doing graduate studies in the United States, create identity through social networking. Identity and Social Networks: A Case of Chinese Graduate Students in the United States has implications for our understandings of social networks and identity more broadly.
— Barbara Katz Rothman, City University of New York