Assimilation of Chinese in America: Changes in Orientation and Social Perception

The assimilation orientation and social perception of 336 Chinese college students were studied. The psychometric findings supported the thesis that as Chinese become progressively removed from their ancestral culture and in greater contact with the dominant American culture, they show a concurrent increase in their assimilation orientation and in their internalization of American perceptual norms. The indexes of progressive removal utilized were generation, citizenship, residence area, and social groups. The Westernized Chinese from British Hong Kong, many of whom were foreign students, constituted a unique group. They were highly internalized, by Western standards, but the least assimilation-oriented.