Mother tongue: international negotiations over language and identity among Chinese immigrants in Berlin

Jingyang Yu

- completed -

This dissertation project is an ethnographic study of Chinese immigrants in Berlin, focusing on the process of how the second generation loses and learns the Chinese language within resources from families and institutions. This project includes a 12-month fieldwork at one public primary school, two private Chinese language schools, two Chinese Christian churches, and numerous Chinese immigrant households throughout the city of Berlin. Based on extensive ethnographic materials, the dissertation examines the interactions between two generations of Chinese immigrant families in Berlin, and analyzes their ambivalent relation towards the Chinese language and their Chinese background.