In this article, the authors compare two prominent examples of the East Asian middle-class transnational split family (TSF) form of international migration in which typically the mother accompanies children abroad while the father stays home to economically support the family: the "astronaut families" (taikong) in Hong Kong in the 1990s, and the "geese families" (kirogi kajok) in South Korea in the 2000s. Many scholars have located the origin of this migration form in shared East Asian cultural values of familism; moreover, what appears to unite these East Asian TSFs is their shared instrumentalism. The authors argue, however, that the construct of cosmopolitanism-in which citizens share a deep-seated interest in membership in the global community of developed, liberal nations-allows for the appreciation of the distinctive characteristics of TSF migration in Hong Kong and South Korea. The authors analyze Hong Kong and South Korea's respective popular media representations of the rise and wane of the TSF migration pattern in order to elaborate on their particular cosmopolitanisms. During the rise period, Hong Kong's migration was a strategy to secure the region's foundational cosmopolitan identity, while South Korea's was motivated by the search for a newfound cosmopolitanism. In the wane period, the authors suggest that Hong Kong and South Korean cosmopolitanisms are converging. First, in both locations people have begun to question how effective sojourn abroad is for either acquiring or securing cosmopolitanism. Second, in both areas people have begun to recognize the possibility of living cosmopolitan lives at home.
[Copyright of Critical Asian Studies is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2014.898454]

Understanding the value of monocultural acculturation orientation to the host culture (assimilation) and bicultural acculturation orientation (integration) for language learning is critical in guiding educational policy and practices for immigrant students. This study aimed to enhance our understanding on the relationship between acculturation orientation and second language (L2) learning. It generated two conceptual models to describe how cultural identification affects language learning as hypothesized in different theories on identity and L2 learning and tested these two hypothesized models in the immigration context of Hong Kong. A survey was conducted among a group of senior high school South Asian minority students on their learning of the language of the host culture, Chinese, to provide the basis for comparison. It was found that the students mainly adopted the bicultural/integration orientation and that bicultural orientation was the optimal acculturation orientation for learning Chinese. Bicultural orientation influenced the participants' Chinese language learning outcome through impacting psychosocial well-being and engagement with the target language and community. The findings suggest that we need to take both linguistic and psychosocial adjustment factors into consideration when conceptualizing the role of identity in L2 learning. Furthermore, this study cautions us against a context-independent stance toward the utility of assimilation for language learning.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.887054]

Many Hong Kong schools are concerned about their growing numbers of ethnic minority students. When these students are enrolled in Hong Kong secondary schools, how their cultural diversity is catered for becomes critical. This article examines how teachers narrate the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students, who come from Pakistan, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand. Qualitative data were collected from interviews, through which the narratives of twenty-four teachers from four secondary schools were explored. The study showed that to address cultural diversity, a 'connected' classroom should be established by promoting interpersonal relationships, developing adaptive teaching strategies, keeping the balance between guidance and discipline and strengthening home-school collaboration. Implications for the development of teacher education will be presented.
[Copyright of Pastoral Care in Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2013.811697]