Identity and Social Networks

Book excerpt: Through in-depth interviews with 60 U.S. graduate students from mainland China, Cynthia Baiqing Zhang explores how identity and social networks influence each other and how identity shapes behavior. Zhang’s study concludes the sociocultural contexts in the host culture of the U.S. impacts religious identity acquisition and networks of social relation. Zhang further analyzes the ways in which the transfer from the racially/ethnically homogeneous China to the diverse United States and their time in the United States inform the students’ Chinese ethnic identity and networks, and how these factorsmaintain and transcend the divide between Chinese and non-Chinese communities. Finally, Zhang argues the juggling of multiple identities requires changes in identity meanings and corresponding behavior on the part of the students.