Chapter 6: Discovering the Third History in America: From “the Self History” to “the Other History” and “the Grand History”

In the 1960s, Ruth Hill Useem, an American sociologist, put forth the concept of the so-called “Third Culture Kids,” or “Trans-Culture Kids” (TCKs or 3TCKs), namely individuals who lived in a foreign land and culture for a substantial period of time. Experiences of this sort cause TCKs to blend native culture with foreign culture and create a third culture, thereby becoming TCKs (Useem & Cotrell, 1996). In such cases, the “First Culture” is the individual’s native culture, or the cultural and social environment of the motherland in which he or she grew up; the foreign culture or environment the individual migrates to and lives in for an extended period of time is considered to be the “Second Culture”; and “the Third Culture” is the new culture created by a TCK who accepts and adopts the second culture and fuses the first and second cultures together.