Experiences Of Chinese Immigrants Research Articles

Chinese Ethnicity and the American Heroic Artisan in Henry Grimm's The Chinese Must Go (1879)

Henry Grimm's The Chinese Must Go appeared at peak of vitriolic anti-Chinese sentiment that broke out in California in 1870s. (1) This racial drama touched on national debate over the Chinese question and used theatrical performance as persuasive ideological force to advocate exclusion of Chinese immigrants from United States. According to David Roediger, this farce provided a way for men to carouse after at Anti-Coolie Club, white working-class male preserve for communal bonding. (2) Unlike most of nineteenth-century yellow-face performances that distorted Chinese immigrants mainly for comic effect, Grimm's play enunciates rigorous dialectical criticism of Chinese. Drawing upon work of recent scholars such as Yong Chen, James Moy, and Floyd Cheung, who have used Chinese language sources such as newspapers, letters, diaries, diplomatic writings, and Chinese government reports in order to explicate what was done to Chinese and how Chinese reacted to it, this essay examines place of Chinese workers in late nineteenth-century American ethnic/gender hierarchy. (3) I explore issues concerning Chinese immigrants by assuming various perspectives along spectrum from Euro-American to Chinese, arguing from such vantage points that ethnicity and gender play significant role both in reiterating negative stereotypes and in complicating or resisting them. While James Moy claims that Grimm's farce indicates that earlier American construction of deceitful Chinese was required to rationalize strategy that white Americans would later employ in their dealings with Asians, (4) I would suggest that Grimm's melodrama criticizes not only Chinese supporters but anti-Chinese agitators as well. The play's satire on white workers may partially explain why, in fact, there is no record of performance of play at any established theater in San Francisco, (5) while later production at Bird Cage Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, outside California where play is set and characters are satirized, is known to have received thunderous applause. (6) Floyd Cheung maintains that Grimm's play articulates American racial stereotypes that waver between frighteningly feminized and menacingly masculine. He observes that play's depictions of Chinese as threatening reveal an underlying Euro-American anxiety about masculinity. (7) Cheung's reading corrects Dave Williams's assertion that late nineteenth-century American playwrights portrayed Chinese only as effeminate, powerless, and comical, rather than as economically or culturally dangerous. (8) Yet Grimm's play manifests not only an ambiguous gendering of Chinese, but an equivalent contradictory gendering of white workers. While seeming to be masculine in driving off Chinese with violence, for instance, white worker could be regarded as feminized because of his failure to compete legitimately for respectable work. In The Chinese Must Go, contradictory gendering of both Chinese and white laborers stems not only from Euro-American gender anxiety, but from misconceptions of Chinese immigrant experience in United States. I. Feminization of Chinese Laborers Grimm's portrayal of Chinese workers appears to convey populist antagonism against Chinese. The play depicts Blaine family in San Francisco and their reliance on Chinese helpers for their daily housework. William, tailor, and his son Frank blame Chinese labor for their financial tribulations and attempt to justify their ill treatment of Chinese by claiming that they are deserving of punishment. Not coincidentally, their surname--Blaine--is likely to allude to contemporary politician, James Gillespie Blaine (1830-93), Speaker of United States House of Representatives, known to have strongly favored Exclusion Acts against Chinese immigration. (9) The title of play, in fact, was borrowed from slogan of Workingmen's Party of California, white labor union that sought anti-Chinese legislation. …

Linguistic Regionalism and the Emergence of Chinese American Literature in Sui Sin Far's <em>“Mrs. Spring Fragrance”</em>

think, said Co Ek ]u, when I return to China I will a book about the people. What put such an idea into your head? I asked. number of books about the Chinese by Americans, answered Go Ek Ju. see them in the library; they are very amusing. See, then, that when you your book, it likewise amusing. No, said Go Ek Ju. My aim, when I a book about will be to make it not amusing, but interesting and instructive. The poor have to content themselves with for amusement only because they have no means of obtaining any true knowledge of the Chinese when in China; but we Chinese in have fine facilities for learning all about the Americans. We go into the houses as servants; we enter the schools- and colleges as students; we ask questions and we think about what we hear and see. Where there the who will go to China and enter into the service of a Chinese family as a domestic? We have yet to hear about a band of youths, both male and female, being admitted as students into a Chinese university. Sui Sin Far, A Chinese Book on Americans (1) Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton) readily fits none of the categories scholars of Chinese literature have identified, in that she belongs neither to the group of writers who were born in China in the twentieth century, emigrated to the United States, and and publish in Chinese, nor to the group of Chinese writers who were horn in the United States and write in English about things (Chinese) American (Shan 117). (2) Born in England in r865, Edith Eaton grew up with an English father and Chinese mother and later described herself as Eurasian. The family moved from England to North in 1873, first arriving in Hudson, New York, then settling in Montreal, where the young Edith attended school and, as she writes in an autobiographical essay, where she first discovered discrimination when her schoolmates learned that her mother was Chinese. (3) Nevertheless, as an adult Edith adopted the Chinese name Sui Sin Far and moved to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, where she wrote journalistic pieces and fiction based in the Chinese immigrant experience (White-Parks, Sui Sin Far 9). Neither does her fiction reflect the limitations in English has typically placed on Chinese writers. In describing the difference between characteristics of Chinese-language literature in America and writing in English by authors, Xiao-huangYin identifies as a hallmark of Chinese-language literature in the freedom such writers have from the restraints of the social of mainstream society (Worlds 177). Yin observes that while American-born Chinese writers tend to delve into the broad issues of ethnic identity, cultural conflicts, and sentiments of the native-born, what distinguishes Chinese-language writers is their persistent focus on (178). Yet the stories from Sui Sin Far's only book, Mrs. Spring Fragrance, a collection of short fiction published in 1912, manage at the same time to critique the social codes and the political constraints the United States placed on immigrant Chinese in the late nineteenth century, to focus on the complex responses of various Chinese immigrants to their immigrant experiences, and to reflect on the issue of ethnic identity for persons of biracial origin, such as herself. Sui Sin Far remains unique among Chinese writers. According to Annette White-Parks, Sui Sin Far perhaps used the term Chinese-American for the first time in print in the series of sketches of Chinese life in she published in the Westerner in May 1909 (Introduction 174). (4) In other ways as well, critics have considered her unique. Yin, among others, identifies her as the first Chinese woman writer (Worlds 176); S. …

Health Care and Cancer Screening Experience of Chinese Immigrants in New York City: A Qualitative Study

The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess the health care and cancer screening experience of Chinese immigrants in New York City and identify health care delivery system barriers to cancer education and screening activities. A qualitative, exploratory research methodology based on a grounded theory approach was used. Thirty-nine low-income and medically underserved Chinese men and women participated in 4 focus group sessions and 14 in-depth interviews. Findings revealed numerous barriers experienced by participants: red tape and bureaucracy in the health care system, provider insensitivity to their concerns, lack of availability in doctor schedule, long waiting time in clinics, and fragmentation of the medical care system. This study highlighted the importance of cultural relevancy and appropriateness in the design and implementation of effective cancer screening programs for this population.

Nomadism is Our Destiny: Translating Chinese America

When I first read Jeff Chan's short story The Chinese in Haifa, I felt I had found what I was looking for. I was in the throes of giving shape to the subject of my graduation thesis. Being a Comparative Studies student and studying Chinese, I became very interested in the history and experience of Chinese immigrants and in their literature. I am sure that every ethnic group has its own specific ways of adapting to its new post-emigration situation and I was curious to understand how the Chinese had used their ancestors' culture and their former habits in a new reality. MELUS gave me very useful suggestions for my research as well as an idea of the complexity of this literature and I soon discovered that Chinese American authors were quite aware that the search for roots could hide subtle ambiguities.

Global connectivity, local consumption, and Chinese immigrant experience

Acquiring consumer goods and services in the destination country signifies a different type of immigrant experience. This is especially pertinent in world cities where there is a strong presence of ethnic economies and where co-ethnic businesses and mainstream businesses compete against each other. The consumption pattern of immigrants is influenced not only by their pre-migration shopping habits, but also their post-migration transnational behaviour. In this paper, we focus on the consumption experience of Chinese immigrants in Toronto, which hosts one of the largest Chinese ethnic economies outside Asia. Based on a random survey and two focus group discussions, we explore how Chinese immigrants choose between ethnic Chinese and mainstream supermarkets, electronic stores and travel agencies. In theory, Chinese and non-Chinese stores providing similar goods and services are substitutes. The study however reveals intriguing results. Chinese and mainstream travel agencies are substitutes but Chinese and mainstream supermarkets and electronic stores are complements. Such differences reflect the importance of ethnicity and culture in immigrants’ consumption behaviour. The paper provides new evidence on immigrant integration in the domain of consumption and contributes a consumer perspective to the literature on ethnic economy and transnationalism.

Chinese Immigrants in Vancouver: Quo Vadis?

This paper reports findings from a Vancouver study which examines the settlement and adaptation experience of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver. The study reveals that non-economic reasons, such as the environment, education and citizenship, constituted the primary motivations for Chinese immigrants to move to Canada. Employment and language facilities were the most frequently cited barriers inhibiting their integration into the Vancouver social and economic spheres. Their poor economic performances coupled with the devaluation of both their acquired Chinese education qualifications and labour market experience have hindered integration and increased dissatisfaction with their lives in Canada. Given the logic of our posited triangular migration model we argue that this dissatisfaction will encourage Chinese emigration from Vancouver.

At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882–1943. By Erika Lee. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 331 pp. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8078-2775-4. Paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8078-5448-4.)

This is a first-rate historical study of the experiences of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans during the exclusion era. Basing her work on a meticulous examination of more than six hundred cases from the immigration arrival files of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1884 to 1940 (which became available to researchers only in the late 1980s and were theretofore untapped by historians), other historical archives, and oral history accounts, Erika Lee presents the most detailed and comprehensive descriptions and analyses of all the dimensions and complexities of Chinese exclusion in American history from the 1880s to the 1940s. Lee not only reconstructs the history of the excluded—the Chinese strategies for entering the United States and for survival under the most difficult conditions, their struggle to maintain personal dignity and family cohesion while being forced to live under false identity by the exclusion laws, the long-term impact of such a distorted pattern of life on the Chinese American community, and the Chinese protests against the harsh laws and their efforts to fight for justice and fairness—but also provides a rich narrative and careful analyses of those who enforced the exclusion laws (the immigration inspectors and interrogators as well as other law enforcement officials), how their zealous anti-Chinese attitude was shaped by the then prevailing social Darwinism, how such an attitude became part of the institutional culture at the INS, and how rigid procedures of personnel hiring were established to ensure the perpetuation of that “institutionalized suspicion of all Chinese” (p. 72).

Expatriation experiences of Chinese immigrants in New Zealand: factors contributing to adjustment of older immigrants

This seminal research investigates the adaptation experiences of elderly dependent Chinese immigrants who have come to New Zealand under the Family Reunion Category between 1994 and 1998. The study involved a group‐administered questionnaire to measure the various aspects of the adaptation experiences of 105 elderly dependent Chinese from China aged 50 years and over. The data set was subjected to ANOVA, Kruskal‐Wallis and Factor Analysis to analyse and establish relationships between variables. The results confirmed that there were five main factors that influence the living conditions of the elderly dependent Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. These were, in order of severity, communication in the English language, medical care, transportation, cost of living and interestingly relationships with other family members. The study also confirmed that age, length of time in New Zealand, and the need to stay in New Zealand permanently influenced the adaptability of the elderly Chinese immigrants in New Zealand.

The Hidden Issues of Equality and Outreach in the Chinese Immigrant Experience

The most unequally treated people in America are not any one particular ethnic or gender group, but the immigrants. Because of their inability to survive in the mainstream, the Chinese immigrants are often labeled as racists by the equality activists, and most painfully, also by their own children. Racism is the major cause for the second generation to resent their parents' church. How was this label formed? Who is inflicting the real damage? Does integration necessarily bring equality for all? What is authentic crossing? This paper seeks to explore these hidden issues of marginality, power, and equality.

Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970

Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970

Surviving the City: Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970, and: Seeking Modernity in China's Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927, and: Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States (review)

Surviving the City: Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970, and: Seeking Modernity in China's Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927, and: Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States (review)

Multidisciplinary Research, Comparative Studies, and Chinese American History

Book Review| October 01 2002 Multidisciplinary Research, Comparative Studies, and Chinese American History Holding up More than Half the Sky: Chinese Women Garment Workers in New York City, 1948-92, Xiaolan Bao.Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970, Xinyang Wang. Renqiu Yu Renqiu Yu Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of American Ethnic History (2002) 22 (1): 59–61. https://doi.org/10.2307/27501241 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Renqiu Yu; Multidisciplinary Research, Comparative Studies, and Chinese American History. Journal of American Ethnic History 1 January 2002; 22 (1): 59–61. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/27501241 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of American Ethnic History Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2002 Immigration and Ethnic History Society2002 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Book Review: Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970

Book Review: Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970

Xinyang Wang. <italic>Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970</italic>. (Pacific Formations: Global Relations in Asian and Pacific Perspectives.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2001. Pp. x, 157. Cloth $59.00, paper $22.95

Journal Article Xinyang Wang. Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970. (Pacific Formations: Global Relations in Asian and Pacific Perspectives.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2001. Pp. x, 157. Cloth $59.00, paper $22.95 Get access Wang Xinyang. Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890–1970. (Pacific Formations: Global Relations in Asian and Pacific Perspectives.) Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. 2001. Pp. x, 157. Cloth $59.00, paper $22.95. K. Scott Wong K. Scott Wong Williams College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 107, Issue 2, April 2002, Pages 558–559, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/107.2.558 Published: 01 April 2002

Reviews of Books:Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970 Xinyang Wang

Reviews of Books:Surviving the City: The Chinese Immigrant Experience in New York City, 1890-1970 Xinyang Wang

Surviving the city: the Chinese immigrant experience in New York City, 1890-1970

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Artisans and Peasants from Guangdong Chapter 3 Returning Home or Staying in America? Chapter 4 Living Close to Work Chapter 5 Group Loyalties in the Work Place Chapter 6 Labor Militancy Chapter 7 Conclusion

CONSUMING SATELLITE MODERNITIES

Although the globalized world has multiple modernities, it retains a power vector which is centripetal to developed centres. I propose to use the concept ‘satellite modernities’ to refer to the magnetic sites between centres of high-modernity and developing modernites in the rest of the world. In developing countries, newly modernized cities are reproducing, hybridizing, and domesticating a simplified western modernity, a modernity that is in turn consumed by less developed cities and territories within the same regions. Throughout Asia, these satellite sites draw migrants from all over the region to realize the dreams of the global west in the relative security and comfort of regional localities. In this paper, I investigate the consumption histories and practices of immigrants who have crossed the cultural boundary of post-socialist China into the cultural spaces of Hong Kong in different periods of time. This is a mid-range theoretical exercise that attempts to ground such concepts as modernity, consumption, and identity formation in concrete boundary-crossing experiences of Chinese immigrants.

Spiritual resources of Chinese immigrants with breast cancer in the USA

A synthesis of ethnographic and phenomenological research approaches was used to investigate spiritual resource as the lived experience of Chinese immigrants with breast cancer in the US. The assumptions for the phenomena in this study were based upon Tu’s cultural China and Confucian spirituality, as well as van Manen’s phenomenological perspectives and Kleinman’s ethnographic works. Fifteen Chinese immigrants with breast cancer in the US were recruited. The results reveal six cultural themes including family closeness, traditional Chinese values, religion, alternative therapy, art, prose and literature and Chinese support groups.

The Use of Social Supports by Elderly Chinese Immigrants

This study explores the use of informal and formal social supports among ninety-three elderly Chinese immigrants residing in California. A historical and cultural overview of the Chinese immigrant experience is presented.as a contextual framework. Results showed that family and kin were perceived as the most satisfying sources of support. Barriers to utilization of formal services and agencies were lack, of knowledge of services, language differences and lack of transportation. The implications of these results within the changing dynamics of Chinese-American families are discussed.

Communication and cultural insularity: The Chinese immigrant experience

Through a case study of a Chinese immigrant family's media use within the social and media environment of New York's Chinatown, this article examines the issues of cultural assimilation, pluralism, and insularity. The experience of contemporary immigrants supports the assimilation and the pluralism theses to varying degrees; it also suggests the importance of insularity as a process by which immigrants can maintain their cultural identity in a foreign land.