The Cultivation of Transnational Cultural Capital in Childhood: Experiences of Chinese Global Multiple Migrants

ABSTRACT This study shows how class advantage is transferred to the next generation through parental strategies that cultivate their children's transnational cultural capital from an early age. It combines the concepts of cultural capital and concerted cultivation and adopts a novel methodology, examining parental aspirations (PAs) and strategies from the perspective of the children. The data are derived from the life stories of Chinese global multiple migrants. The article shows that the cultivation of transnational cultural capital amongst elite and middle‐class families in China is linked to traditional, neoliberal and non‐materialistic PAs. It reveals how parental capital is related to their aspirations and shapes their use of six cultivation strategies. It also discusses the contradictions, dilemmas and disagreements relating to concerted cultivation; examines children's agency and places the findings within global and national contexts. The results provide insights into culturally specific class mechanisms of intergenerational reproduction of privilege in an era of globalization.