Gardens, transitions and identity reconstruction among older Chinese immigrants to New Zealand.
Psychologists have foregrounded the importance of links between places and daily practices in the construction of subjectivities and well-being. This article explores domestic gardening practices among older Chinese immigrants. Initial and follow-up interviews were conducted with 32 Chinese adults ranging in age from 62 to 77 years. Participants recount activities such as gardening as a means of forging a new sense of self and place in their adoptive country. Gardening provides a strategy for self-reconstruction through spatiotemporally establishing biographical continuity between participants' old lives in China and their new lives in New Zealand.
Wen Li
Wendy
W
Department of Psychology, University of Waikato, New Zealand. WL116@waikato.ac.nz
Hodgetts
Darrin
D
Ho
Elsie
E
D000069:Acculturation; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology*; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D051639:Gardening; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009520:New Zealand; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification