Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-05, Section: A, page: 1647.

Directors: William Wright Kelly; Kathryn Marie Dudley; Brian Masaru Hayashi.

My study investigates the processes of ethnic identity construction among second (or 1--5) generation middle class Chinese and Korean Americans in suburban New Jersey and New York City through their various experiences of growing-up, coming of age, dating, and marriage. I address questions concerning (1) how my Chinese and Korean American informants improvise their "avenues of flight" throughout their growing up, coming of age, dating, and marriage, (2) what the "intended" and "unintended" consequences of their improvisations are, and (3) in what ways cultural constructs such as race, and ethnicity are used as organizing principles in their efforts to make sense out of their experiences.

I argue that my Chinese and Korean American informants try to discover new life possibilities through developing a capacity for contradictions or a tolerance for ambiguity, and through the creative process of "improvisation" or "transculturation," under the constraints of the resources and conditions available to them. Despite my informants' desire to discover a "happy medium" in-between conflicting cultural ideas, in many cases the decisions made leaned toward one side or the other, often with "prices to pay." Sometimes, people managed to find a halfway of doing things. However, oftentimes this "happy medium" could only be achieved by "double work," which few people were eager to try. In the process of discovering their avenues of flight, ideas of race and ethnicity, sometimes with the help of naturalizing discourse, were used as organizing principles which helped to make sense of their experiences.