A Chinese Acting-Firstborn‘s Immigration Experience

Abstract

This autoethnographic study attempts to illustrate author‘s identity development experience as a first-generation Chinese-Canadian originated from Hong Kong in the early 1990‘s. The purpose of this research is to explore the influence that birth order, intergenerational expectations, and family dynamics has on immigration stress. The literature review explores each of these themes, and the specific areas to be focused on are related to author‘s narrative. The result of the study is the autoethnography itself, which aims to provide heuristics for further research on acculturation stress on the individual level and the familial level. The discussion section aims to draw connections among the aforementioned themes, between the themes and author‘s personal experience. Major works such as Bronfenbrenner‘s ecological systems theory, Santrock and Sulloway‘s perspectives on birth order and sibling dynamics, Sue and Sue‘s theories on Chinese culture and racial identity development model complements this qualitative research.