Mental Health Among Taiwanese Americans: Gender, Immigration, And Transnational Struggles (The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society)

Gu examines how Taiwanese Americans' immigration background, gender, and relations in the family and workplace affect their mental health. She argues that Taiwanese Americans' experience of distress is not only gendered but also transnational. Men's and women's experiences differ, and transnational culture influences how they interpret their worlds. While work situations frustrate men, family life bothers women. Their identities are multiple and fluid, and they struggle with their American-ness and Chinese-ness in everyday life. Men feel excluded by the majority culture in the workplace because they are "too Chinese." Women, in contrast, wonder if they should follow Chinese or American norms in dealing with their families.