"Our Child Doesn't Talk to Us Anymore": Alienation in Immigrant Chinese Families

Drawing on ethnographic data on two Chinese immigrant families over a five‐year period, I illustrate how and why growing alienation occurred in these families. My analysis shows that a host of developmental, immigration‐related, and cultural factors lead to growing alienation in parent—child relations. Social class also plays an important role in shaping family relations after migration. This article complicates understandings of the Chinese American home context and provides educational anthropologists with a useful framework to understand changing dynamics in immigrant families.