nineteen sixty nine: an ethnic studies journal

In this paper, I survey the life of Alice Yang, a thirty year-old second generation Chinese-American woman. I begin with Alice's parents – their time in China, their immigration to the United States, and their initial experiences living in America. I then go into detail about Alice's life specifically, describing her childhood and her time growing up until reaching present day. I attempt to place these experiences within the broader contexts of the various social and historical conditions affecting Chinese-Americans at the time, such as the various immigration educational policies in place. Particularly, I analyze how these factors have affected Alice and her family’s lives in their decisions and actions. Furthermore, I discuss the ways in which Alice and her family have either strayed away from the common trends seen with Chinese-Americans, or have helped shaped the observed trends themselves.  In other words, I shed some light on how independent Alice’s life was from her identity as a second generation Chinese American, and how much her life in turn contributed to the trends among Asian Americans witnessed in general.