‘Jij bent Chinese! Ik niet! (You are Chinese! I am not!)’: a case study of Chinese heritage language maintenance in the Netherlands

This paper aims to reveal different stakeholders’ beliefs and opinions on<br/>heritage language maintenance and complementary schools in the<br/>Netherlands, namely those of parents, educators, and students. A case<br/>study was conducted at a Chinese school in the south of the<br/>Netherlands. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with<br/>21 respondents (N = 21) consisting of nine parents, eight educators, and<br/>four students. The results reveal that (1) Chinese parents value their<br/>children learning both Dutch and Mandarin due to economic, sociocultural,<br/>and identity factors; (2) Heritage language maintenance is perceived by parents and educators as vital in ethnic grouping (sense of belonging), connection with the heritage culture, and for instrumental purposes. They also recognise Mandarin as a new diasporic linguistic standard replacing Cantonese; (3) Chinese parents view complementary schools as a platform to strengthen their ethnic<br/>bonding and community formation. Despite students’ perceptions of heritage language maintenance do not align with adults’ (parents and educators) views, their identity construction in complementary schools is in line with adults’ expectations.