anchoring for one’s sense of identity. Meanwhile significant other is the group whose relationship is the closest to the individual, such as the parents, sisters or brothers,
close mates and teachers or instructors at school environment, etc. To see from both definitions, reference group or significant others can be
different from one individual to another. It depends on how an individual can relate and aspire psychologically to a particular group. If they fit each other, they will have
the closest relationship of other groups. On the other side, an individual can make a relationship to reference group
because he has the roles in the in the society. Roles are the aspects of self that respond to social demands. Moreover, Martin added that an individual or self is a
composite of many selves; each of them consisting of a set of self-perception, which are specific to one or another major role and specific to the expectation of one or
another significant reference group. When an individual or self has passed the preparatory, play, and game stage explained above, he will get a learned repertoire of
roles called personality or later it will be stated as character. The theories above will be used to analyze the Chinese American society
according to the problem statement going to be suggested by the researcher. The theory of socialization is to strengthen that Chinese American socialize themselves to
the American society whatever the result, it is successful or not. The way of socialization is by using the theory of looking glass self and significant others.
D. Dual Education System
Transmitting of knowledge and shaping of values of the students are the goals of
education, including transmitting culture of the mainstream society. In other word it can be said that education in general is equal to socialization.
Transmitting of culture that becomes a significant segmental in upper level of education system in formal institutions is functioned to prepare men for an
elaborating structure of skilled occupations. In brief, education system has something to do with the leading to the mainstream culture so that a country can preserve its
position as the super power nation in the world. The purpose above was in accordance with the desire of American society in
establishing education system. So, there was always a relationship between the American society and the education system applied to the society. It could be stated
that the society in 1960s wanted education as concluded by Raymond E.Callahan in his book An Introduction to Education in American Society:
1. Education should aim to develop the power of critical, independent thought. 2. Education should attempt to induce sensitiveness of perception, receptiveness
to the new idea, and imaginative sympathy with the experiences of others. 3. Education should aim to produce an awareness of the mainstreams of cultural,
literal, and scientific traditions. 4. Education should make available important bodies of knowledge concerning
nature, society, people, the country, and its history. 5. Education should shrive to cultivate an intelligent loyalty to the ideas of
democratic community. 6. Education should equip young men and women with general skills and
technique and specialized knowledge, which support to improve the technological development.
7. Education should strengthen the inner resources and traits of character, which enable the individual to be self-reliant.
American education system, more or less, is a planned process of cultural transmission, consisting of three elements, preservation, innovation, and
dissemination International Encyclopedia of the Social Science, 1968: 528. Education in America as an industrial country is characteristically aimed at the
production of experts in every segment of life so that, the three elements in cultural transmission will be very useful to keep America as a number one industrial country.
Instead of that the American education system has emphasized the assimilation of immigrants into the mainstream culture in this case the Chinese
American second generation is the focus of interest. Later on, the public schools were seen as the major force in bringing about the shift of identity of the generation of
immigrants, especially Chinese American second generation Orstein Miller, 1980: 442.
Because of Americanization, the consequence of American education system toward the later generation of Chinese American immigrants is to lose the old values,
emerging the cultural discontinuity and crisis in personal identity. They lead to the intergeneration problem. It means that the old generation does not agree with the
changes of the new generation. The old one has enrolled them to the public and traditional school in order to make them able to lift up the status of social life without
leaving the high culture of the ancestors. However, the effect of it makes the new generation get away from the old values they do not like, although they still take the
ones they like which support their socialization toward American culture. Meanwhile, it was explained that the Chinese education system was not
designed to produce certain skills, but rather to ensure that the people were broadly equipped with the high culture of the literacy. The education of Chinese is based on
sacred texts, consisted in laymen teaching laymen, and the Hellenic schools were completely secular and designed for the education of a leisure ruling class
International Encyclopedia of the Social Science, 1968: 526.
E. Life and Carrier of Maxine Hong Kingston
