The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Double Threat to Chinese Americans’ Mental Health

Objective:To explore the double psychosocial threats of the COVID-19 pandemic,targeted behavior toward Chinese Americans,and the correlates to their mental health.Methods:A quantitative,cross-sectional,and descriptive design was utilized by using a purposive convenience sample of 301 Chinese Americans over the age of 18 residing in the United States.Online data collection was conducted through the social media platform WeChat from April 8–21,2021.Descriptive statistical analysis was used for the participants’demographic charac-teristics,Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support(MSPSS),Double Threat Situations,COVID-19 Racial Discrimination,and General Anxiety Disorder-7(GAD-7).Stepwise logistic regression was conducted to verify predictors for anxiety levels by GAD-7.Results:In this sample(N=301),127(42.19%)were male and 174(57.81%)were female.The average age was 41.67(SD=5.89).Among MSPSS subscales,social support from family(MSPSS-Fam,79.73%,n=240)and social support from significant others(MSPSS-SO,73.75%,n=222)were high.231(76.74%)reported threats due to their Chinese ethnic background during the COVID-19 outbreak.Predictors for the high anxiety level by GAD-7 were COVID-19 racial discrimination from the local community(OR=0.47,95%CI=0.39–0.71,p<0.001),media/online(OR=0.36,95%CI=0.26–0.53,p<0.001),the perceived threat from the COVID-19 virus(OR=0.33,95%CI=0.23–0.51,p<0.001)and Perceived racism threat from Chinese back-ground related to COVID-19(OR=0.31,95%CI=0.21–0.49,p<0.001).Conclusions:COVID-19 double-threats(The virus and racial discrimination)situations are significantly related to the high level of anxiety among Chinese Americans.The sense of belonging and social perceptions of Chinese immigrants is closely related to public health problems in Western societies and needs to be addressed at all levels.Ourfindings call for the attention of health-care workers to specific racism double-threatened situations and high mental health risks,as well as direct and indirect ethnic discrimination that Chinese Americans are experiencing during this pandemic,the long-term influ-ences and effective coping ways related to this issue should be explored in further research.

Gender differences of lower urinary tract symptoms in older Chinese Americans

Objective To describe whether or not there are gender differences in lower urinary tract symptoms(LUTS)prevalence and risk factors in community-dwelling older Chinese Americans.Methods We performed a secondary analysis of a prospective cross-sectional population-based survey of Chinese Americans aged 60 years and older between January 2011 and December 2013 in English,Mandarin,Cantonese,Taishanese,or Teochew.A clinical review of systems was used to assess LUTS,which included urinary frequency,urgency,burning and/or pain,blood in urine,and urinary incontinence.Results Of the total 3157 people queried,42%were men and 58%were women.More men reported LUTS compared to women(32.9%vs.28.6%,p=0.01).In a multivariable analysis,female gender(adjusted odds ratio[aOR]0.60,95%confidence interval[CI]0.49-0.73),being married(aOR 0.79,95%CI 0.65-0.97),and smoking(aOR 0.66,95%CI 0.49-0.88)were found to be protective,while traditional Chinese medicine use(aOR 1.51,95%CI 1.28-1.78),heart disease(aOR 1.54,95%CI 1.24-1.91),and anxiety(aOR 1.69,95%CI 1.25-2.28)were most strongly associated with increased odds of LUTS.When examining genders separately,being married was found to be protective only in women.Meanwhile,unique factors found in men were hypertension,heart disease,and practice of Tai Chi.Conclusion In this large population-based study,LUTS were more prevalent in older Chinese American men than women.We also found gender-specific factors that influenced the odds of reporting LUTS;however,traditional Chinese medicine use was the only factor that was shared by both genders.Future longitudinal investigations are needed to elucidate these underlying mechanisms to provide evidence-based and culture-specific guidelines for this rapidly growing population.

Health disparities in Chinese Americans with hypertension: A review

Hypertension is a leading risk factor for stroke and cardiovascular disease in the United States.Chinese Americans have poorer control of high blood pressure than Caucasian Americans and are at higher risk for hypertension.This review presents and discusses the factors known to be associated with health disparities affecting Chinese Americans with hypertension,including biological,genetic,sociocultural and environmental factors,as well as health behaviors,and health literacy.Culturally appropriate interventions are needed to decrease racial and ethnic health disparities.

Conflict and Reconciliation between Two Generations of Chinese Americans over Identity in The Joy Luck Club

Chinese American literature is generated by the history of Chinese American immigrants. In Chinese American literature, issues over identity have been repeatedly mentioned as an eternal theme.Amy Tan, as a representative of a dual cultural identity of the Chinese American writers, published her saga novel The Joy Luck Club as a maiden work in 1989. The novel describes the emotional stories between the four Chinese women with different characters and different fates that abandoned the national calamity and family hatred and moved to the United States and their daughters who were born and grew up in the United States.

In Her Mother’s House:Mother-Daughter Dissonance in Post-1990s Chinese American Fiction

This paper attempts to examine the trope of“home”and the depiction of mother-daughter dissonance“in her mother’s house”in post-1990s Chinese American fiction.The research selects four novels in the case study and focuses on how mother-daughter dissonance“in her mother’s house”is presented,what cultural connotations the trope of“home”carries and how they are affected by such extra-contextual factors as racism,sexism and classism.In comparison with two representative mother-daughter narrative works in pre-1990s period,the new characteristics and connotations of“home”in mother-daughter dissonance in post-1990s Chinese American fiction are revealed.

The difference of Teaching Mode of Graphic Design Major in Chinese and American Universities

This article is based on personal visits to Louisiana State University in the United States.It analyzes and introduces the hotspots of curriculum design,training methods,learning environment,professional ability and quality training of graphic design majors in American public comprehensive universities.Analyze the teaching concepts and methods that are inspiring for the relevant design courses for our country from a personal perspective,and gain insights into the deep-seated problems in the cultivation of design innovation capabilities in China and the United States,in order to arouse everyone’s reflection and further develop our country’s design educational reform ideas.

Chinese and American Students, Hand in Hand

IT was midsummer when Beijing International Airport received a group of 500 young guests - a delegation of college students from California, USA. They came for the "New Century, Silk Road" activity. In the following two days, they not only visited the Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the China Millennium Monument, but also got together with 500 of their Chinese counterparts at the China Millennium Monument southern square. During their visit to world famous Tsinghua University, American students talked animatedly with contemporaries and teachers.

On Prostitutes in American and Chinese Literary Works

The prostitute image is one of the research topics in literary criticism. Prostitutes are the victims of the desire of human beings. Behind the sexual transaction, evil forces that drove poor women into prostitution are concealed. In the following four literary works: The Sun Also Rises, A Street Car Named Desire, The Crescent Moon and Husband, the inner beauty of prostitutes as a wife or a mother is highly praised and the dark side of the contemporary society is exposed. The thesis begins with the depiction of four prostitutes' individual shining points and weaknesses in personality. And then it describes the family backgrounds and social backgrounds the four prostitutes lived in, and states the influence of those backgrounds on them respectively. The thesis finally puts forward the realistic significance.

The Chinese Ant and the American Grasshopper

The world’s top saver and its biggest spender will both benef it if their financial attitudes show more convergence. CHINA is like the ant and America is like the grasshopper.

Face to Face Talk——Chinese and American Scholars Discuss Tibetan Issues

In early 2002,Zhu Xiaoming(Vice-President of the China World Ethnic Society),Huo Zhongquanand Hong Tao(both research fellows with the China Ethics Research Center)met with Americanexperts on China with the Research Office ot the US Congress and the US Think Tank,includingKerry B.Dumbaugh,Alfred D.Wilhelm Jr,David G.Brown and Thomas G.Lum.They held talkson issues of common concern.Following are excerps of their talk on the Tibetan issue.

The Intergenerational Conflicts in Selected Chinese/Indian American Literature

For the early generation of both Chinese and Indian immigrants,their deep immersion in their own language and cultural environment has given their life experience an indelible nostalgia.However,the children of their descendants born in the United States have no such cultural heritage and spiritual burden,their thinking on values,languages,education,occupation,clothing,social communications,etc.are more largely Americanized and culturally identified with the mainstream society.In this way,the various intergenerational conflicts reflected in Chinese and Indian American literature implies the importance of negotiation through the use of shared resource between the old and new identities to balance,adapt and integrate in the adopted land.

On Multimodal Criticism of The Kitchen God’s Wife

Studying the covers of the three editions of The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan,a famous female Chinese American writer,the author finds Chinese cultural elements stood out in publishers’earliest recommendations,but later were replaced by immigrant mother-daughter relationship,and then were overwhelmed by the concern for human beings.It is interesting that this change fits the changing focuses of Chinese American writers in the 21st century.

The Cultural Conflicts and Balance in The Woman Warrior

In The Woman Warrior, Kingston revealed the confl icts between Chinese culture and American culture under the complex social and cultural backgrounds and made her own exploration for cultural balance and integration.

A Cultural Study of Chinese American Women's Self-Identification and Education

This qualitative research aims to investigate the process of how Chinese American women develop their identities while growing up in the United States as daughters of Chinese immigrants.Specifically,the author explores the following questions:How do Chinese American women come to identify themselves as Chinese American,and act this identity in their everyday lives?How does the process of self-identification interact with their interpretations of how they are perceived and recognized?How do they incorporate educational messages from their family and schooling into their own understandings of the social world they live in?How have their understandings of their identity changed along the path with their encountering different social contexts and institutions?Through collecting personal accounts by interviews,the researcher intends to unravel the intersectionality of race,class,gender,and ethnicity,and illustrate how that would affect these Chinese American women's educational experience and life outcomes accordingly.

Building Bridges in a Third Space:A Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experiences of Teaching Chinese in American Chinese Schools

This study explores the lived experiences of Chinese teachers in American Chinese Schools.Max van Manen’s methodology for hermeneutic phenomenological research provides a framework for the study,and the philosophical writings of Heidegger,Gadamer,and Derrida guide the textual interpretations.Pedagogical voices of Aoki,Pinar,and Greene,and cultural journeys of Hongyu Wang and Xin Li reveal possibilities for understanding the experiences of Chinese teachers,as the question is addressed:“What is the meaning of teaching Chinese in American Chinese Schools?”Ten Chinese teachers engaged in a series of open-ended conversations.The conversations illuminate the experience of Confucian teaching meeting American pedagogies around two main themes.First,in following the metaphor of Chinese knotwork,the teachers speak of their struggles and challenges between Chinese Confucian and American pedagogies,reflect on splitting and splicing the knots through changing and adjusting their method of Confucian teaching.Second,they tell of the experiences of building bridges in a third space through dialogically connecting the different cultures and pedagogies in order to seek the appropriate way of teaching and learning Chinese well in American Chinese Schools.

Behind the Real and the Fake:Examining the Chinese Elements and American Values in Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston

The Chineseness of Chinese American literature is often assumed to be an unquestionable premise,but Chinese American writers are in fact ambivalent toward Chinese culture.By revisiting Frank Chin’s persistent accusation of other Chinese American writers’“faking”of Chinese culture,this paper examines the changing attitudes of Chinese American writers toward Chinese culture and the quintessential Americanness of Chinese American writings.Through a comparative analysis of the Chinese elements in the texts of Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston,it is argued that the kind of culture in Chinese American literature is an indigenous American product with a Chinesesounding name invented to survive America and therefore should be properly called(Chinese)American culture.In Chinese American literature,the Chinese elements are employed instrumentally as empowering ethnic markers to fortify the American cultural values at the core of this ethnic American culture.

Back to China to Seek Her Roots——An American mother and Her Adopted Chinese Daughter

LULU went to a Chinese kindergarten in New York's China Town for the first time at the age of three, and when she returned home she had a serious question for her mother. "Mom, why don't I look like you?" The bewildered eyes of Lulu made blond Emily understand that from that day on, the girl she adopted from Anhui Province, China began to reappraise America and her