| Yhteenveto: | Research on the bilingual identity of heritage language learners is a field emerging at the turn of
the 21st century. This study explored the Chinese identity and Finnish identity of a group of
Chinese heritage learners aged from 5 to 16 from the perspective of identity-as-narrative. The
main goal was to find out how Chinese heritage learners identify themselves with the Chinese
language and Finnish language by taking photos and other story-telling. The research design is
based on visual methods for meaning-making and on the concept design in the field of pedagogy
of multiliteracies. Contents analysis and narrative analysis were employed to analyze the visual
identity narratives produced by participants, which yielded several findings regarding 1) the
common resources used for Chinese-Finnish identity construction, 2) the multidimensional and
individualized characteristics of the construct of heritage learners’ language identity, 3) the
specialness of Chinese identity in compared to Finnish identity, and 4) bilingual identity as both
experienced lives and imagined possibilities. These results are to some extent similar to the
expertise, inheritance and affiliation meanings of language identity articulated in previous
research, but also bring about some new meanings that are attached by heritage learners to the
Chinese and Finnish language. At last, this study concludes that visual methods are young-learner
friendly because it facilitates expression and communication with minors and it prompts
researchers to explain meaning-making of identity from young learners’ points of view. The
research project is also of pedagogical importance because it serves to scaffold learners’ learning
of Chinese literacy.
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