Chinese American
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| I. M. Pei · Anna May Wong · Elaine Chao Tsung-Dao Lee · Shiing-Shen Chern · Yo-Yo Ma Bruce Lee · Steven Chu · Vera Wang |
| Total population |
|---|
| 1,930,202–3,538,407 0.64–1.2% of the U.S. population (2007) (includes Multiracial Chinese) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| West Coast, Northeast, Hawaii, Texas, Upper Midwest, Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area |
| Languages |
| Predominantly English, varieties of Chinese: |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
Chinese Americans (traditional Chinese: 華裔美國人 or 美籍華人; simplified Chinese: 华裔美国人 or 美籍华人) are Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of Overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans. Within this community, the term Chinese American is often broadly defined to include not only immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and their descendants but also immigrants and descendants of Overseas Chinese people who migrated to the United States from places as diverse as Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
History
The first Chinese immigrants arrived in 1820 according to U.S. government records. 325 men are known to have arrived before the 1848 California Gold Rush which drew the first significant number of laborers from China who mined for gold and performed menial labor.
There were 25,000 immigrants by 1852, and 105,465 by 1880, most of whom lived on the West Coast. They formed over a tenth of California's population. Nearly all the early immigrants were young males with low educational levels from six districts in the Guangdong province.
But Chinese people were banned from immigrating between 1885 and 1943, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in effect. Since the repeal of the Act in 1943, immigration of Chinese continued to be heavily restricted until 1965. During the 1970s, the vast majority of ethnic Chinese immigration into the United States was from Hong Kong, followed by Taiwan, with relatively few immigrants coming from mainland China. During the 1980s, in part due to the liberalization of emigration restrictions in the mid-1970s, immigrants from mainland China formed a larger proportion of ethnic Chinese immigrating to the United States. Cantonese, historically the language of most Chinese immigrants, is the third most widely spoken non-English language in the United States.
Influence on American culture
Some of the noteworthy Chinese contributions include building Western half of the Transcontinental railroad and levees in the Sacramento River Delta; the popularization of Chinese American food; technological innovation and entrepreneurship; and the introduction of Chinese and East Asian culture to America, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Kung fu.
Chinese immigrants to the United States brought many of their ideas, ideals and values with them. Some of these have continued to influence later generations. Among them is Confucian respect for elders and filial piety. Similarly education and the civil service were the most important path for upward social mobility in China. The first Broadway show about Asian Americans was Flower Drum Song.
In most American cities with Chinese populations, the new year is celebrated with cultural festivals and parties. In Seattle, the Chinese Culture and Arts Festival is held every year. Other important festivals include the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Analysis indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not differentiate between Chinese Americans and East Asian Americans generally, and perceptions of both groups are nearly identical. A 2001 survey of Americans' attitudes toward Asian Americans and Chinese Americans indicated that one fourth of the respondents had somewhat or very negative attitude toward Chinese Americans in general. The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as business people (77%); high value on education (67%).
Chinese American income and social status varies widely, even they are considered as a model minority since their communities are strongly middle class. Although many Chinese Americans in Chinatowns of large cities are often members of an impoverished working class, others are well-educated upper-class people living in affluent suburbs. The upper and lower-class Chinese are also widely separated by social status and class discrimination. In California's San Gabriel Valley, for example, the cities of Monterey Park and San Marino are both Chinese American communities lying geographically close to each other but they are separated by a large socio-economic and income gap.
Citizenship
Legally all ethnic Chinese born in the United States are American citizens as a result of the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision. Upon naturalization, immigrants to the United States must take an oath of loyalty to the United States but are not required to formally renounce their former citizenship. However, the People's Republic of China does not recognize dual citizenship and considers the naturalization of a person as an American citizen to imply a renunciation of PRC citizenship. On the other hand, the Republic of China does not view naturalization in other countries as an automatic renunciation of Chinese nationality.
Demographics
The Chinese American community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, consisting of 22.4% of the Asian American population. They constitute 1.2% of the United States as a whole. In 2006, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.6 million.
Locations
The New York metropolitan area, consisting of New York City and nearby areas within the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, is home to the largest Chinese American population of any metropolitan area within the United States, enumerating 665,714 individuals as of the 2009 American Community Survey Census statistical data, and including at least 7 Chinatowns. Continuing massive immigration from Mainland China, both legal and illegal in origin, has spurred the ongoing rise of the Chinese American population in the New York metropolitan area; this immigration continues to be fueled by New York's status as an alpha global city, its high population density, its extensive mass transit system, and the New York metropolitan area's enormous economic marketplace.
Other metropolitan areas with large Chinese American populations include the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Dallas, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento and Las Vegas.
In these cities, there are often multiple Chinatowns, an older one and a newer one which is populated by immigrants from the 1960s and 1970s. In some areas, Chinese Americans maintain close relationships with other Asian groups (i.e. Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese and so on).
Between 1990 and 2000, Georgia was home to the fastest-growing Chinese American community, growing at a rate of 116.8% over that decade.
New York City's Lower East Side, San Francisco's North Beach and Los Angeles' Olvera Street are good examples of Chinese-Americans intermingled with other races and cultures.
In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university-college towns, throughout the United States. For example, the number of Chinese Americans, including college professors, doctors, professionals and students, has increased over 200% from 2005 to 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island, a small city with a large number of colleges. Chinese Americans formed nearly 3 percent of California's population in 2000, and over one percent in the Northeast. Hawaii, with its historically heavily-Asian population, was nearly 10 percent Chinese American.
Language
Chinese, mostly of the Cantonese variety, is the third most-spoken language in the United States, almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California. Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese, with Standard Chinese becoming increasingly more common due to immigration from mainland China and Taiwan.
In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca. In addition, the immigration from Fujian is creating an increasingly large number of Min speakers. Wu Chinese, a Chinese language previously unheard of in the United States, is now spoken by a minority of recent Chinese immigrants, who hail from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.
Although Chinese Americans grow up learning English, some teach their children Chinese for a variety of reasons: preservation of an ancient civilization, preservation of a unique identity, pride in their cultural ancestry, desire for easy communication with them and other relatives, and the perception that Chinese will be a very useful language as China's economic strength increases.
Politics
Chinese Americans are divided among many subgroups based on factors such as a generation, place of origin, socio-economic level, and do not have uniform attitudes about the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, the United States, or Chinese nationalism, with attitudes varying widely between active support, hostility, or indifference. Different subgroups of Chinese Americans also have radically different and sometimes very conflicting political priorities and goals. It is for this reason that Chinese Americans do not have any unified political groups or any unified political viewpoints.
In the days leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, John Kerry was favored by 58% of Chinese Americans, with George W. Bush being favored by 23% of Chinese Americans and 19% undecided.
In recent decades, many Chinese Americans have started pursuing careers in politics and succeeded in getting elected and/or appointed into political office. In particular, several prominent Chinese Americans have in recent years served as members of the President's cabinet and other federal offices. Elaine Chao became the first Chinese American cabinet member in American history when she was appointed in 2001 to serve as Secretary of Labor under President George W. Bush, a position she held until 2009; she also was the first female Asian American to serve in a cabinet post in American history. In addition, Gary Locke became the first Chinese American governor when he was elected to this position for the state of Washington. He currently serves as Secretary of Commerce. Steven Chu became the first Chinese American Secretary of Energy. Judy Chu became the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress as the Representative for California's 32nd district on July 15, 2009. Others include Mike Eng, Hiram Fong, Daniel Akaka, March Fong Eu, Matt Fong, Thomas Tang, Norman Bay, Leland Yee, John Liu, Charles Djou, David S. C. Chu and David Wu.
During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Americans, like all overseas Chinese, generally speaking, were viewed as capitalist traitors by the People's Republic of China government. This attitude changed completely in the late 1970s with the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Increasingly, Chinese Americans were seen as sources of business and technical expertise and capital who could aid in China's economic and other development.
References
Further reading
External links
- Factfinder Chinese Americans 2005 American Community Survey
- The Rocky Road to Liberty: A Documented History of Chinese American Immigration and Exclusion
- Museum of Chinese in the Americas
- Chinese Culture Center & Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco
- Organization of Chinese Americans
- Chinese Historical Society of America
- The Asians in America Project - Chinese American Organizations Directory
- "Paper Son" - one Chinese American's story of coming to America under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
- Becoming American: The Chinese Experience a PBS Bill Moyers special. Thomas F. Lennon, Series Producer.
- Chinese American Contribution to Transcontinental Railroad - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
- Emerging Information Technology Conference (EITC), organized by several Chinese American organizations
- Famous Chinese Americans Comprehensive list of famous Chinese Americans organized by professions. Includes short biographical notes and Chinese names.
- Chinese Information and Networking Association (CINA)
- Northwest Chinese Professionals Association
- The Yung Wing Project hosts the memoir of the first Chinese American graduate of an American university (Yale 1854).
- Chinese American Museum
- Documentary about the Golden Venture tragedy
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American
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