Contents
Chinese American
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
華裔美國人 or 美籍華人
华裔美国人 or 美籍华人
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I. M. Pei · Anna May Wong · Elaine Chao
Tsung-Dao Lee · Jerry Yang · Maya Lin
Michelle Kwan · Steven Chu · Bruce Lee
Total population
1,930,202[1]–3,538,407[2]
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 Spoken Chinese:
Mandarin Chinese (Standard Mandarin), Yue Chinese (Yuehai Cantonese, Taishanese), Wu Chinese[3] (Taihu Wu, Oujiang Wu), and Min Chinese (Min Nan, Min Dong[4]).
Religion
Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism[5]
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, Taiwan[6], 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, and the Philippines.
The first Chinese immigrants arrived in 1820 according to U.S. government records. Fewer than 1,000 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.[7][8][9]
There were 25,000 immigrants by 1852, and 105,465 by 1880, most of whom lived on the West Coast. Most of the early immigrants were young males with low educational levels from the Guangdong province.[10]
Like the Europeans, Chinese people were some of the earliest immigrants to live in the U.S. But Chinese 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]
History
Chinese immigration to the United States has come in great numbers. Similar to other American immigration experiences, Chinese immigration has resulted in both hardship and success.
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 must take an oath of loyalty to the United States but are not required to formally renounce their former citizenship.[13] 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. The Republic of China ("Taiwan") allows dual citizenship, and it does not recognize American naturalization, by itself, as renouncing citizenship.
According to the 2006 American Community Survey, 1,330,361 or 37% of Chinese Americans (including Taiwanese and multiracial people) are native-born citizens, and a further 1,319,137 or 59% of foreign-born Chinese Americans are naturalized citizens.[14]
Major contributions
- Building Western half of the Transcontinental railroad
- Building levees in the Sacramento River Delta
- Chinese American food
Influence on American culture
Analysis indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not differentiate between Chinese Americans and Asian Americans generally, and perceptions of both groups are nearly identical.[15] 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.[16] The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as business people (77%); high value on education (67%).[15]
Values
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]
Demographics
The Chinese American community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 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.[2]
As a whole, Chinese American populations continue to grow at a rapid rate due to immigration. However, they also on average have birth rates lower than those of White Americans, and as such their population is aging relatively quickly. In recent years, adoption of young children, especially girls, from China has also brought a boost to the numbers of Chinese Americans, although most of the adoptions appear to have been done by white parents.
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, comprising significantly over 600,000 Chinese Americans as of 2009, and including at least 6 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.