Essay on Chinese Americans

Richard Rodriguez article, “The Chinese in All of Us (1944)”, argues that many different cultures have contributed to making up the American culture. Rodriguez backs up this claim by sharing

People always seem to be changing themselves because they want the approval of others and are worried what others think of them. They aren't happy about who they are, maybe its looks, or maybe its race that they are concerned about, either way people try to change who they are. In ABC, the author Yang reveals many common stereotypes about chinese people and the struggle they might have in fitting in. Chin-kee one of the main characters is very stereotypical and impacts Danny and Jin’s life greatly. Jin Wang the main character faces some problems fitting in because of his race and the stereotypes associated with it and changes himself in order to fit in.

Whether I am an Asian who grew up in America or an Asian American, I still face the same problems, because “Asian” is a part of my identity.

The Chinese culture is built around thousands of years of tradition. Understanding these Chinese beliefs and social influences may benefit you when attending to someone of this culture.

The air would always be humid and stuffy while riding the bus to school, and the slightest bump in the road would result in tossing up the kids like salad. The backseat would provide carriage for all the popular and tough kids shouting out at pedestrians on the street or flipping off a middle finger to the bus driver that would shout for them to calm down. I despised those kids in the back. They were the same people that made my life a living hell, while growing up and attending an American school.

The tale “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luch Wang depicts the story of three characters, Monkey, Jin, and Danny. They all have the problem of fitting into their new environments. Jin Wang has to deal with Asian stereotypes. Danny has to deal with embarrassment of his cousin. Lastly, Monkey has to deal with the fact that there is no position for him in the heavenly ranks. However, over time, these characters have to come together to fit in. Yet the question remains: what exactly about fitting in is the problem? Although Jin Wang takes the form of Danny to reject his Chinese roots, the embarrassment of Chin-Knee shows he cannot hide behind a false American identity, thereby delineating that race is the source of his problem.

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific, escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Many more Chinese immigrants began arriving into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived did not plan to stay long, and therefore there was no push for their naturalization. The immigrants left a country with thousands of years of a “decaying feudal system,” corruption, a growing

people in all the East are so well adapted for the clearing wild lands and

     What culture they had was to be forgotten – a difficult and practically impossible feat. The Chinese-Americans faced a wall of cultural difference that could only be scaled with the support of their parents and local community. The book review of Bone by Nhi Le stated clearly how “ … the first generations’ struggle to survive and the second generations’ efforts to thrive … ” made the transition into American culture possible. Overcoming barriers such as language, education, work ethic, and sex roles was just a beginning to the problems that all Asian – Americans faced.

America consists of a melting pot when it comes to races and cultures. However, society tends to fall back onto stereotypes to distinguish each racial community. In the case of the Asian community, there are a vast number of common stereotypes that are used to label Asians. For example, one common stereotype is Asians who are foreigners. There are countless Asian people who have resided in the United States for all of their lives, yet Asian Americans are often seen as perpetual foreigners. This kind of representation disregards the fact that America is home to generations of Asian Americans who have also been a part of building America from the ground up. This stereotype is frequently mirrored in film and television with Asian characters who

My mother immigrated to Los Angeles from Taiwan when she was seventeen years old. Her parents emigrated from China to Taiwan for a better life before she was born. Even though I’m only half-Chinese…and a Chinese-American at that, Chinatown and Chinese culture are very much a part of my life. Eating Dim Sum- (a Cantonese specialty prepared in small portions carried over in small steamed baskets)— was a family tradition every Sunday. Chinese holidays were taken very seriously, and I always loved receiving hóngbāo, red envelopes filled with money during certain holidays. My mother made sure that she spoke Chinese to me as a baby,

The Formation and Development of Chinese Communities in Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, Georgia: From Sojourners to Settlers, 1880-1965 written by Daniel Aaron Bronstein examines the transition of Chinese “from being perceived as ‘outsiders’ before the 1940s to being treated as ‘honorary whites’ by the late 1960s,” and creates a trans-regional narrative in which the generational differences of Chinese-Americans played a significant role in shaping Chinese-American community and identity.

Although Jin Wang tried to disguise his Chinese identity to become a “normal” American teenager, the author pressurizes Jin to embrace his racial identity because it is inevitable to extirpate it. The author

Chinese Immigrants lived in very poor conditions. Tiny rooms packed with about 20 to 30 immigrants. Mice and Rats were everywhere, and the chinese were catching diseases very often, and because there were no good vaccinations many died from those diseases. Living in those conditions was very relentless, but still more and more immigrants from China came to work on the railroad or mine.