Sultana Choudhry Multifaceted Identity of InterethnicYoung People: Chameleon Identities Burlington: Ashgate, 2010, 236 pp. £55.00 hbk Sultana Choudhry’s Multifaceted Identity ofYoung People: Chameleon Identities is a multi-method study of mixed-race South Asian and white children in the United Kingdom, using a social-psychological approach that ‘seeks to understand the psychological and socio-cultural processes of identity’ (p. 3), and ‘bring about a greater understanding of the ways these children construct their ethnic identity’ (p. 4). The study is based on a Ph.D. thesis, combining several studies: semi- structured interviews with sixty children and forty of their parents, diaries and interviews with a subset of sixteen interethnic participants, and a questionnaire administered to eighty-seven participants. The author begins with two theoretical chapters: first, an overview of theoretical approaches on identity, mostly situated in social psychology, including a discus- sion of classic works such as Mead, Goffman, Erikson, Tajfel and Turner, and Moskovici, followed by a review of ‘the science of ethnic and interethnic identity’, which examines the primordialism vs situationalism debate, identity conflict, and influences on interethnic identity such as family, peers, and media. The fourth chapter overviews the methodology utilized in the study.The analysis follows in the following chapters: chapter five is based on interviews with Asian and white parents and non-interethnic children and adolescents, while chapter six examines experiences and relationships of the interethnic (South Asian and white) parents. The following three chapters are the real focus of the book: identities of interethnic young people. Chapter seven examines the identities that the adolescents pre- sented, singling out four interpretative repertoires: identity in transition; one ethnic identity; interethnic identity; and situational/chameleon-like identity (p. 111). Chapter eight focuses on those young people who adopt ‘chameleon’ or situational identities, while chapter nine examines the constraints and factors influencing identity construction, including family, peers, friends, community, language and cultural knowledge, and physical appearance. Finally, chapter ten summarizes the impact of being interethnic. Here the author argues that the ‘positives’ (‘being able to speak several languages, practise two cultures, having relatives from two cultures, physical beauty, and being able to adopt a fluid situational identity or having multiple identities’, p. 169) far outweigh the ‘negatives’ (primarily racial prejudice). She concludes that the youth were able to overcome the challenge of the marginal-man hypothesis ‘by their understanding of the cultures and ability to fit in and appreciate a range of cultural nuances and requirements. The young people’s empathy with diversity, ability to negotiate cultures very different to each other and move smoothly between ethnic groups is an art to be admired in modern society’ (p. 169). A significant contribution of the research is that it explores a relatively under- studied yet growing population in the United Kingdom – that is, inter-ethnic South Asian/white individuals. As the author points out, most of the research on children of mixed race parents has been on black and white interethnic individuals (p. 3), Book Reviews 242