Internet, not as English-speaking Americans or Cantonese-speaking Chinese.
Yu Qing's and Tsu Ying's experiences in the bilingual Hong Kong chat room involve socializing to an
ethnicity of being Chinese that is different from the clear distinction of Cantonese-speaking Chinese and
English-speaking Chinese-American. Whereas this distinction seemed to be a choice they had to make as
they learned to speak English in their local U.S. context, they were able to construct a third position with
their peers in the online environment through adopting a mixed-code variety of English. This new
position, in turn, has emboldened the girls' behaviors in the social context of a U.S. west coast city, where
they are socially positioned as immigrant English learners. For Yu Qing and Tsu Ying, the choice to
speak English in the American context is no longer simply a choice of being a Chinese emigrant or a
Chinese-American according to the ethnic and language ideologies of the US. Their new identity
constructed on the Internet has influenced their social positioning as ESL learners and their relation to the
English language