Americans in Hong Kong

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Americans in Hong Kong makeup a part of the foreign residents whom call Hong Kong home. Some are Chinese Americans whom have come to Hong Kong, while others are expatriate Hong Kong Chinese whom have returned to Hong Kong holding American citizenship. There was also a wave of migration of Jewish Americans whom settled in Hong Kong after the 1960s. Most Americans in Hong Kong are not permanent residents and continue to hold single citizenship. Many come to Hong Kong on work assignments; a few also study at local universities.[citation needed]

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[edit] History

The first Americans in Hong Kong were missionaries; their presence was noted as early as 1842, after the lifting of the ban on proselytisation due to the outcome of the First Opium War.[1] In the 1949, with the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, many American missionaries began to depart mainland China for Hong Kong; they were formally expelled in the mid-1950s. At the same time, though, American missionaries in Hong Kong began to play an important role in implementing US policy in there, participating directly in the distribution of aid and the recommendation and processing of refugees seeking to emigrate to the United States.[2] However, the United States government itself was ambivalent towards the presence of Americans in Hong Kong; President Eisenhower once suggested restricting visas for Americans in Hong Kong to those who "really had an obligation" to be there, and indicated his reluctance to provide emergency evacuation to American citizens there in the event of an invasion by China.[3]

Since the handover of Hong Kong, Americans have arguably surpassed the British as the major non-Chinese influence. There are more Americans than Britons living in the territory, and 1,100 American companies employ 10% of the Hong Kong workforce; the current head of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Eden Woon, is the first American to hold the position in the territory's history. In addition, ships of the United States Navy make from 60 to 80 port visits each year.[4] The U.S. Department of State estimated in 2004 that there were 45,000 American citizens living in Hong Kong.[5]

In recent years, there has also been an increase in Chinese Americans (both immigrants and American-born Chinese) coming to Hong Kong as exchange students or to work for a short time, or even to settle permanently. For example, as recently as the 1960s, virtually all exchange students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong were white, but in recent years, Chinese Americans have become one of the largest, if not the largest, demographic exchange student group.[6] The trend of increasing Chinese American migration to Hong Kong has been especially notable in the entertainment industry, the earliest and most famous exemplar of the trend being Bruce Lee; in later years, actors such as Daniel Wu and singers such as Coco Lee, facing the perception of entertainment executives that Asians could not appeal to American audiences, went to Hong Kong in an effort to improve their career prospects.[7] However, this type of return migration has not been practical for those in all professions; for example, Chinese Americans interested in going to Hong Kong as missionaries often faced barriers from church hierarchies,[8] Additionally, American-born Chinese in Hong Kong often face stereotypes that they speak Chinese poorly, do not understand Hong Kong culture, and view themselves as superior due to their American upbringing.[9]

[edit] Notable Americans in Hong Kong

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wang 1996
  2. ^ Leung 2003: 40
  3. ^ Mark 2004: 76
  4. ^ Callick 1998: 72-72
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ Poon 2004: 2-3
  7. ^ Hua 2005
  8. ^ Jeung 2004: 39
  9. ^ Poon 2004: 19-20

[edit] Bibliography

  • Callick, Rowan (1998). Comrades & capitalists: Hong Kong since the handover. Sydney: UNSW Press. 
  • Ford, Stacilee (Spring 2002). "A Woman’s Place is at the Peak: U.S. Women in 19th and 20th Century Hong Kong". Gender Studies Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
  • Ford, Stacilee (Spring 2001). "Who is the American Woman?: U.S. Expatriates in Hong Kong". Xian Foreign Language University.
  • Ford, Stacilee (Spring 2000). "In the Meridian of Her Usefulness: American Missionary Women in Hong Kong". Department of History Seminar Series, Hong Kong University.
  • Ford, Stacilee (May 1999). ""Going Native" in Hong Kong: Gender and Expatriate Narratives". Cultures of Interdependence: The U.S.A. and Asia, Singapore: National University of Singapore. 
  • Ford, Stacilee (January 1999). "Brand New Spaces, Familiar Places: American Women in Hong Kong". Feminist Literature: Global Outlook on Gender Issues, Srinakharinwirot and Salisbury State Universities. 
  • Jeung, Russell (2004). Faithful Generations: Race and New Asian American Churches. United States: Rutgers University Press. 
  • Hua, Vanessa. "Asian American entertainers find demand for their talent overseas very rewarding", San Francisco Chronicle, 2005-11-27. Retrieved on November 24, 2006.
  • Leung, Beatrice (2003). Changing Church and State Relations in Hong Kong, 1950-2000. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. 
  • Mark, Chi-Kwan (2004). Hong Kong And The Cold War: Anglo-American Relations 1949-1957. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 
  • Poon, Felix (December 2004). "ABCs in Hong Kong: Chinese American Identity in a Hong Kong Cultural Context". University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  • Wang, Lixin (1996). "American missionaries and the trend of "opening eyes to observe the world" in China after the Opium War"". American Studies in China 2. 
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