Abstract Language maintenance and language shift among overseas Chinese has received much attention in recent years. Various models and factors have been proposed to describe, explain and predict language maintenance and language shift among this group. This study investigates Huayu inheritance of the second-generation Chinese immigrants in New Jersey. The results show that while the second-generation Chinese Americans are dispersed among other local ethnic groups and most of them experience the process of language shift from Chinese to English, they still maintain their Chinese proficiency to varying degrees. This study finds that the weekend Chinese school plays a significant role in their Huayu inheritance, and their language attitudes and family environment also play a key role. In the era of globalization, the new Chinese immigrants no longer live in a Chinese community, but are scattered among other local ethnic groups. It has become a major issue on how to take advantage of various favorable factors to develop a new model to facilitate cross-generational inheritance of Huayu.
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