Chinese American

Chinese Americans (Chinese: 華裔美國人 or 美籍華人; Chinese: 华裔美国人 or 美籍华人) represent 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, Taiwan, and their descendants but also immigrants and descendants of overseas Chinese people who migrated to the United States from places as diverse as Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries in southeast Asia.^[5] 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 2009, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.8 million.^[1]

History

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in 1820 according to U.S. government records. 325 men are known to have arrived before the 1849 California Gold Rush^[6] which drew the first significant number of laborers from China who mined for gold and performed menial labor.^[7][8][9] 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.^[10]

However, the Chinese faced racial discrimination in the form of anti-Chinese sentiment and legislation, and 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.^[11] Cantonese, historically the language of most Chinese immigrants, is the third most widely spoken non-English language in the United States.^[12]

Demographics

According to the 2009 American Community Survey, the three metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese American populations were the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area at about 666,000 people, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area at about 562,000 people, and the Greater Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area at about 495,000 people. New York City is home to the highest Chinese American population of any city proper (486,463), while the Los Angeles County city of Monterey Park has the highest percentage of Chinese Americans of any municipality, at 43.7% of its population, or 24,758 people.

The ten states with the largest estimated Chinese American populations, according to both the 2010 Census, were California (1,253,100; 3.4%), New York (577,000; 3.0%), Texas (157,000; 0.6%), New Jersey (134,500; 1.5%), Massachusetts (123,000; 1.9%), Illinois (104,200; 0.8%), Washington (94,200; 1.4%), Pennsylvania (85,000; 0.7%), Maryland (69,400; 1.2%), and Virginia (59,800; 0.7%). The state of Hawaii has the highest concentration of Chinese Americans at 4.0%, or 55,000 people.

The New York City Metropolitan Area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, 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,^[13] and including at least seven Chinatowns. Continuing significant immigration from Mainland China, both legal^[14] 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.

San Francisco, California has the highest per capita concentration of Chinese Americans of any major city in the United States, at an estimated 19.8%, or 157,747 people, and contains the second-largest total number of Chinese Americans of any U.S. city. San Francisco's Chinatown was established in the 1840s, making it the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest neighborhood of Chinese people outside of Asia,^[15][16] composed in large part by immigrants hailing from Guangdong province and also many from Hong Kong. The San Francisco neighborhoods of Sunset District and Richmond District also contain significant Chinese populations.

Other metropolitan areas with large Chinese American populations include 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).

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.

Income and social status of these Chinese-American locations vary widely. 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.

The list of large cities (population greater than 250,000) with a Chinese-American population in excess of one percent of the total population.

Significant Chinese population centers

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.^[17] Similarly education and the civil service were the most important path for upward social mobility in China.^[17][18] The first Broadway show about Asian Americans was Flower Drum Song.^[19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21] The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as business people (77%); high value on education (67%).^[20]

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.^[22] 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.

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.^[12] Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese, with Standard Chinese becoming increasingly more common due to immigration from mainland China and Taiwan.^[12]

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.^[23] 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.^[24]

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.

Socioeconomics

Education

Like many other Asian Americans, Chinese Americans have one of the highest educational attainments in the United States. Chinese Americans often have one of the highest averages in tests such as SAT, GRE etc. Although, verbal scores somewhat lag due to the influx of new immigrants, yet combined SAT scores have also been higher than for most Americans. Chinese Americans are the largest racial group on all but one of the nine fully established University of California campuses. Chinese Americans constitute nearly 13% at the nations top Ivy League universities and as well as a handful of other prestigious institutions around the United States.^[25] They also constitute nearly a quarter of all Olympic Seattle Scholarship winners.^[26] They make up at least 25% of the undergraduate student body at UC Berkley while making less than 2% of the American population, and are more likely to attend college, go to graduate school, and earn higher income than most ethnic groups in the United States.^[27]

With their above average educational attainment rates Chinese Americans from all social backgrounds have achieved significant advances in their educational levels, income, life expectancy and other social indicators as the financial and socioeconomic opportunities offered by the United States have lift many Chinese Americans out of poverty joining the ranks of the American upper middle class. According to the 2009 U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics, 51.9% of all Chinese Americans have attained at least a bachelor's degree (compared to just 27.9% nationally and 49.7% for all Asian American groups). 54.8% of Chinese American men attained a bachelors degree and 49.3% of Chinese American women attained a bachelors degree. 26.2% of all Chinese Americans in the United States possess a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is roughly two and a half times the national average. 54.0% of Chinese Americans work in many white collar professions compared 35.7% for the general American population.^[28]

Employment

Many Chinese Americans work in management, professional, and related occupations such as engineering, medicine, investment banking, law, and academia. They make up two percent of working physicians in the United States. They also hold some of the lowest unemployment rates in nation with a figure of 4.8% compared to a national rate of 9.1%.^[29][28]

In 2007, there were over 109,614 Chinese-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 780,000 workers, and generating more than $128 billion in revenue.^[30]

Economics

According to the 2009 U.S. Census, Chinese American men had one of the "the highest year-round, full-time median earnings ($58,158), and Chinese American women had a median income of $47,933. They also have one of the highest median incomes among any ethnic minority in United States with a figure of $69,502, which is nearly 40 percent higher than the national average.^[28]

Notable Chinese Americans

See Also: List of Chinese Americans

Business

When Chinese Americans were largely excluded from labor markets in the 19th century, they started their own businesses. Chinese Americans have owned convenience and grocery stores, professional offices such as medical and law practices, laundries, beauty-related ventures to founding numerous and influential hi-tech Silicon Valley firms and as a result have become very successful and influential in the American economy. Chinese Americans like most Asian Americans have been disproportionately successful in the hi-tech sectors of California's Silicon Valley, as evidenced by the Goldsea 100 Compilation of America's Most Successful Asian Entrepreneurs.^[33]

Several influential Chinese American entrepreneurs such as Patrick Soon-Shiong, Victor Fung, John Tu, and Jerry Yang have become billionaires in the process and top the Forbes 400 regularly. Fashion designer Vera Wang, is famous for designing dresses for high-profile celebrities, started a clothing company, named after herself, which now offers a broad range of luxury fashion products. An Wang founded Wang Laboratories in June 1951. Charles Wang founded Computer Associates, later became its CEO and chairman. Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded the NVIDIA corporation in 1993. Steve Chen is a co-founder of the popular video streaming site Youtube! Inc.

Science and technology

Chinese Americans have made prominent and notable contributions to American Science and Technology. They represent 4% of all American Nobel Prize winners, make up 5.1% of Grace Murray Hopper Award winners, and have been recipients of numerous prestigious scientific prizes such as the Turing Award and the Wolf Prize.^[34][35]

Chien-Shiung Wu was known to many scientists as the "First Lady of Physics" and played a pivotal role in experimentally demonstrating the violation of the law of conservation of parity in the field of particle physics. Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical work demonstrating that the conservation of parity did not always hold and later became American citizens. Samuel Chao Chung Ting received the 1976 Nobel Prize in physics for discovery of the subatomic particle J/ψ. The Chinese American mathematician Shing-Tung Yau won the Fields Medal in 1982 and Terence Tao won the Fields Medal in 2006. The geometer Shiing-Shen Chern received the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1983. Andrew Yao was awarded the Turing Award in 2000.Steven Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research in cooling and trapping atoms using laser light. Daniel Tsui shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998 for helping discover the fractional Quantum Hall effect.

In 2008, biochemist Roger Tsien won the Nobel in Chemistry for his work on engineering and improving the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that has become a standard tool of modern molecular biology and biochemistry. In 2009, Charles K. Kao was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication" and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan won the prize in Chemistry "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome". Ching W. Tang was the inventor of the Organic light-emitting diode and Organic solar cell and was awarded the 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry for this achievement. Min Chueh Chang was the co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill and contributed significantly to the development of in vitro fertilisation at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.

Journalism

Connie Chung was one of the first Chinese-American national correspondents for a major TV news network, reporting for CBS in 1971. She later co-anchored the CBS Evening News from 1993 to 1995. At ABC, Ken Kashiwahara began reporting nationally in 1974. Carol Lin is perhaps best known for being the first to break the news of 9-11 on CNN. Lisa Ling, a former co-host on The View, now provides special reports for CNN and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as hosting National Geographic Channel's Explorer. John Yang has won a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize for his respective work. Juju Chang, Emily Chang, Sharon Tay and Julie Chen have become familiar faces on television news.

Government and Politics

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 United States Ambassador to China. 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. Other Chinese American representatives in various levels of government in the United States 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.

References

Further reading

• Chinese American Understanding: A Sixty-Year Search, Chih Meng, China Institute in America, 1981, hardcover, 255 pages, OCLC: 8027928
• Chinese Americans and Their Immigrant Parents: Conflict, Identity, and Values, May Pao-May Tung, Haworth Press, 2000, paperback, 112 pages, ISBN 0-7890-1056-9
• Chinese Americans: The Immigrant Experience, Dusanka Miscevic and Peter Kwong, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2000, hardcover, 240 pages, ISBN 0-88363-128-8
• Compelled To Excel: Immigration, Education, And Opportunity Among Chinese Americans, Vivian S. Louie, Stanford University Press, 2004, paperback, 272 pages, ISBN 0-8047-4985-X
• The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, Iris Chang, Viking, 2003, hardcover, 496 pages, ISBN 0-670-03123-2
• Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American, Shehong Chen, University of Illinois Press, 2002 ISBN 0-252-02736-1 electronic book
• ABC Struggles in the Church
• On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese American Family, Lisa See, 1996. ISBN 0-679-76852-1. See also the website for an exhibition based on this book [1] from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.
• Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, Frank H. Wu, Basic Books, 2003, hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0-465-00640-3

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