Alonso de Vandelvira, Libro de Traças de cortes de Piedras, c 1575-

In the interviews, all of the parents expressed the view that Chinese culture is very important for their children. One of the reasons for this is that the parents want their children to know where they are from and learning Chinese culture is an essential way to help them to maintain their identity.

XXX (name of the Child) is fully aware and deeply proud of her Chinese ethnicity – it is integral to who she is as a person - to her identity. She celebrates

this identity in school by, for instance, at Chinese New Year bringing in little red bags with chocolate money inside for everyone in the class and these are distributed to all by the teacher. So, while she recognises and celebrates her unique identity she does not experience this as a “difference” that separates, she experiences it as an identity of which she is very proud and others respect. – T4, Parent 12

The second reason is that many Chinese parents think that China is developing fast and learning Chinese culture can give their children more opportunities in the future.

I think the future of the world is in China and I also think their future is in China too. They can speak Chinese but if they want to develop in China in the future they must know Chinese culture. Chinese language is a part of the cul- ture. If they can only speak Chinese but don’t know any of the Chinese culture then their knowledge of China is not complete. Even if they can read Chinese literature, such as poems from Tang dynasty or the novel Three Kingdoms, they won’t understand much if they don’t know about Chinese culture.

– T3, Parent 9

The parents have different ways to teach Chinese culture to their children. The most com- mon ways that parents of Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3 children normally use are to speak Chi- nese at home, celebrate Chinese festivals, send their children to weekend Chinese schools, encourage their children to read Chinese books and watch Chinese TV programmes, and sent their children back to China to visit relatives during summer holidays. The main way that the Type 4 children examined in this research learned Chinese culture was to go to a weekend Chinese culture school that predominantly teaches Chinese music. There, the chil- dren can learn traditional Chinese dance, singing and music instruments, and have a social network with other Chinese children. This culture school also has the largest population of Type 4 children among all of the Chinese schools in Ireland.

The following quotes give some examples of how parents help their children to learn about Chinese culture.

I let them watch Chinese cartoons online. We also celebrate every Chinese festival including the Chinese New Year. I bring my kids back to China nearly every year. I think most of the Chinese parents are like me and if you interview other parents you will find out that they all try to send their children back China every year. First of all they need to meet their relatives in China. Secondly they can experience life in China.

– T3 Parent 9

(We help our child to learn Chinese culture) by active commitment to and participation in the Chinese XXX cultural school’s programme of teaching tra- ditional dance; by natural socialization with all of the members of the school – children and adults; by reading to her (since she was an infant) stories about China and Chinese culture; by attending Chinese events; by celebrating Chi- nese festivals such as New Year and the Moon Festival; by holidaying in China with a group (mostly American) of families who had also adopted children from China and traveling throughout the country to experience at first hand the reality life in China.

– T4 Parent 12

The principal of the Chinese culture school emphasised that it is very important for ethnic Chinese children in Ireland to love China and Chinese culture. She pointed out that pa- triotism could not only be taught through words, but also by letting the children see their achievements and feel honor from Chinese culture. For example, students in the Chinese culture school undertake about twenty performances in different Irish and Chinese festivals each year, and they have achieved a large number of awards. They also raised money for different causes. For example, they raised money after the Indonesian tsunami in 2006, gave economic support to Irish athletes in the Special Olympics in Shanghai in 2007, raised money for aid following the Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008 and so on. The principal also stressed one of vital factors to help Chinese children integrate into Irish society is to

participate in all kinds of activities.

How can you integrate if you don’t participate in Irish activities? Integra- tion needs participation, no matter whether you are good or not! (Laughter) . . . So, one of our aims is to cultivate the children’s confidence. The other aim is to have our children integrated into the local Irish culture and to integrate both Irish and Chinese culture together. These are our main aims.

– Chinese Principal 1

These three Chinese weekend language and culture schools enroll nearly 200 ethnic Chinese students in total. From this, it can be seen how important parents think that Chinese culture is for their children.