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Available From UC Press
Far from the Model Minority
Face, Class, and Transnational Chinese Families
Far from the Model Minority centers the voices of five undocumented and mixed-status Chinese immigrant families in New York City and their sending communities in Fuzhou, China. Challenging dominant narratives about Chinese Americans and the model-minority myth, these families have experienced multigenerational exclusion from educational pathways and developed mobility strategies focused on "face"—particularly the need to gain, save, and avoid losing face for their families.
In China, low social standing led them to prioritize immigration and remittance work over education, as overseas success became the primary way to garner face. In the US, undocumented status and poverty created new barriers to their and their children's acculturation. Moreover, the intersection of undocumented life and the culture of remittances often undermined the intended face gain for families back home and reinforced social stagnation. Based on four years of ethnographic research, Jia-Lin Liu's work explores how these transnational families respond to enduring structural exclusions by reimagining success, mobility, and dignity across borders.
In China, low social standing led them to prioritize immigration and remittance work over education, as overseas success became the primary way to garner face. In the US, undocumented status and poverty created new barriers to their and their children's acculturation. Moreover, the intersection of undocumented life and the culture of remittances often undermined the intended face gain for families back home and reinforced social stagnation. Based on four years of ethnographic research, Jia-Lin Liu's work explores how these transnational families respond to enduring structural exclusions by reimagining success, mobility, and dignity across borders.
Jia-Lin Liu is Assistant Professor at Cal State LA. Informed by her years as a bilingual social worker, her work examines how Chinese immigrant families experience US immigration and education, with attention to social class, culture, and trauma.
"Far from the Model Minority is a beautifully written, empirically and theoretically rich book. Its portrait of an invisibilized group complicates our fundamental understanding of who Asian Americans are."—Stacey J. Lee, Vilas Research Professor and Frederick Erickson WARF Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison"Jia-Lin Liu's compelling narrative illuminates an often-overlooked Chinese immigrant population in the US. What's particularly intriguing is her exploration of these immigrants’ distinct perspectives on success, social mobility, and the imperative to ‘gain and keep face’ for the family."—Soo-Yeon Yoon, Associate Professor of Sociology, Sonoma State University