Chinese Americans

Chris Choo-Jones
Hist Paper
4/13/2016

Chinese Americans

Chinese americans are defined as americans who have full or partial chinese ancestry. They are one group of overseas chineses, and are also a subgroup of east asian americans, which is a subgroup of asian americans. Many chinese amercans are immigrans with their descendants from china (particularly souther chinese), hong kong, macau, and taiwan. However, both the governemtns of the republic of chin, and the united states refer to taiwanese aericans as a seperate group of cChinese americans.
The first Chinese immigrants arrived in 1820, according to U.S. government records- 325 male laborers mined for gold and performed labor. There were 25,000 Chinese 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 of the early Chinese immigrants were young males with low educational levels from Guangdong. Additionally, many Southern Chinese immigrated to avoid the poverty left by the Taiping rebellion. 40,400 Chinese were recorded as arriving from 1851–1860 during The California gold rush, and again in the 1860s, when the Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, many on five-year contracts, to build its portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The initial immigration group may have been as high as 90% male, because most immigrants came with the thought of earning money, and then returning to China to start a family. Chinese immigration was banned by the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) until 1943 when the Magnuson Act allowed a national quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year.
2012 estimates list the New York Metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay area, and The Greater Los Angeles area as the three metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese American populations. New York City is home to the highest Chinese American population of any city (522,619). A third of a million Chinese Americans are not United States citizens. The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community outside of Asia. It is also the third largest in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand and Malaysia. The Chinese American community comprises the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 25.9% of the Asian American population as of 2010.Americans of Chinese descent, including those with partial Chinese ancestry constitute 1.2% of the total U.S. population as of 2010. Chinese immigrants to the United States brought many of their ideas and values with them.
Noteworthy historical Chinese contributions include building the Western half of the Transcontinental Railroad, and levees in the Sacramento River Delta, popularization of Chinese American food, and the introduction of Chinese and East Asian culture to America, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Kung fu. In most American cities with significant 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.
Varieties of Chinese, mostly Southern Yue Chinese dialects such as Taishanese and Cantonese, make Chinese the third most-spoken language in the United States. Cantonese is historically the language of most Chinese immigrants. In New York City, although Mandarin is spoken only among only ten percent of Chinese speakers. Fujian is bringing an increasingly large number of Min dialect speakers. Wu dialects are also spoken by a minority of recent Chinese immigrants. United States public notices and signage in Chinese are generally in Traditional Chinese.
The Chinese American community differs from the rest of the population in that more than half of Chinese Americans do not report a religion. Pew Research Center's 2012 Asian-American Survey states that 52% of Chinese Americans age 15 and over said that they didn't have any religious affiliation, compared to an Asian American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Because Chinese Americans are the largest subgroup of Asian Americans, nearly half of all religiously unaffiliated Asians in the U.S. are of Chinese descent (49%). Of Chinese Americans who were religious, 15% were Buddhist, 8% were Catholic, and 22% were Protestant.
Chinese Americans have their own style of food, which differs significantly from Chinese cuisine itself. Cantonese cuisine has been the most influential regional cuisine in the development of Chinese American food. Americanized Chinese food typically treats vegetables as a side dish or garnish, while traditional cuisines of China emphasize vegetables. Americanized Chinese cuisine often uses ingredients not native to and very rarely used in China. Chinese American Food varies by region , for example San Francisco and New York are different in the cuisine they make. San Francisco puts more emphasis of fresh vegetables, and is vegetarian friendly with their menu. There are still many authentic Chinese restaurants, but many have chosen to serve americanized chinese food in order to make money. Chinese authentic restaurants do exist, and many in Chinatown, New York, were known for having a secret menu with food specifically for ethnic Chinese. Restaurants provided a living when the Chinese people were excluded from most jobs by discrimination or lack of language fluency. Some traditional Chinese foods have been modified to fit American palates, such as added batter for fried dishes and extra soy sauce. Chinese Americans are strongly educated and tend to earn higher incomes compared to other racial groups in the united states.
While there are many Chinese americans in poverty, the newer generation places a value on education and success. Chinese Americans have some of the highest educational acheivements among Asian americans and Americans overall. Chinese americans are the largest group among US national merit scholarship winners in california. They make up 24% of all olympic seattle scholarship winners, 33% of usa math olympiad winners, 15.5% of putnam math competition winners, and 36% of duke talent identification grand recognition ceremony attendees, showing high demonstration in intellect. 25% of phd recipients are ethnic chinese. The 2010 U.S. Census reports that 51.8% of chinese americans have a bachelors degree, compared with 28.2% nationwie, and 49.9% for asian americans. Additionally, 26.6% of chinese americans possess a post bachelors degree, which is compare to 20.3% for asian americans, and about two and a half times above the national average. Poverty between older generations of chinese immigrants has been one of the biggest causes of high educational acheivement for chinese
americans.\ With their above average education, chinese americans have achieved advances in education, income, life expectency, and other social indicators.
Opportunities by the United states has lifted many Chinese americans out of poverty, bringing them into americas middle class, upper middle class, and high income. The 2010 U.S. census states that chinese american men had a full time average income of $57,061, while Chinese American women had a full time average income of $47,224. Chinese americans have one of the highest average household incomes in the united states, which is 30% higher than the national average, but lower compare with the asian american population. Howeever, Chinese Americans still suffer from economic obstblces. There are still many Chinese americans stuck in poverty, regardless if they are from the newer generation and have ore benefits than their ancestors. While average income remains above some ethnicitys in the United states, 2008 financial crisis studies revealed that Asian men were mot like to have the highest rate of continuous long-term
unemployment.