(Trend Question) What changes have taken place in the population structure of Chinese Americans from Chinese food flavor to community composition?
China News Service Beijing, May 10th Title: From the flavor of Chinese food to the composition of the community, what changes have taken place in the population structure of Chinese people in the United States?
Author Li Aihui (Associate Researcher at the Institute of Overseas Chinese Studies, Jinan University)
Li Aihui (Photo provided by the interviewee)
On April 26, local time, the 2020 census results released by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that the U.S. population grew by 7.4% in the past decade to 331 million, the lowest growth rate since the 1930s.
What is the Asian population in the United States? According to a report released on April 9 by the Pew Research Center, the Asian population grew the fastest among all ethnic groups in the United States between 2000 and 2019, from about 10.5 million to a record 18.9 million.
As the largest Asian ethnic group in the United States, the Chinese population is now close to 5.5 million. Research shows that new immigrants from different provinces in China have profoundly influenced the entire Chinese community culture and community structure.
Data picture: Citizens buy rice in a Chinese supermarket in Foster City, San Francisco Bay Area. Photo by Liu Guanguan, China News Service reporter
The source of immigration is becoming more diverse, and the proportion of Chinese from Guangdong still has the highest proportion
From the origin of the Chinese population in the United States, Before World War II , Chinese overseas Chinese from Guangdong accounted for 90%. Most of them settled in Chinatowns in the center of big cities such as San Francisco , Los Angeles, Honolulu, Seattle , Portland , New York, Chicago , Boston , Philadelphia and other Philadelphia . Nowadays, the sources of Chinese immigrants are very diverse, and people from all provinces in China immigrate to the United States.
After the new immigration law of the United States was passed in 1965, the advantages of overseas Chinese from Guangdong began to weaken as the origin of Chinese immigrants who moved to the United States from Taiwan were mostly non-Guangdong Province. After the 1990s, the number of professional and technical immigrants outside Guangdong Province, which switched to studying abroad, increased rapidly. Most of these highly educated talents went to the United States to study from well-known universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei, Shaanxi and other places, with a total of more than 1.2 million people.
Guangdong people have a long history of immigrating to the United States, with a deep foundation, a large population base of native Chinese, and a deep degree of integration into mainstream American society. Currently, the proportion of overseas Chinese from Guangdong (including native Chinese) accounts for the highest proportion of the total Chinese American population, accounting for about 30%-40%.
In terms of population size, the second place is Fujian Chinese, with about 1 million. After the 1990s, the number of informal immigrants from Wenzhou, Zhejiang and , the three northeastern provinces of and other places gradually increased.
There is a certain concentration and uniqueness in the composition of immigration types in different regions. For example, most immigrants from Guangdong's Pearl River Delta go to the United States through family reunion, while most immigrants from large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing and Shanghai go to the United States by studying abroad and applying for professional visas.
Data picture: On February 14, 2021 local time, New York citizens in the United States were dining in an old restaurant in Chinatown to experience the Chinese New Year atmosphere. Photo by Liao Pan, China News Service reporter
Mandarin is gradually becoming popular, and mid-to-high-end Chinese restaurants are emerging
With the diversification of the composition of the ancestral origin of the Chinese population in the United States, their daily language use has also undergone significant changes.
According to research, in the 1980s, Cantonese was still the main language of Chinatown in major cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. With the increasing number and influence of new immigrants from mainland China outside Guangdong, Mandarin is becoming increasingly popular in the Chinese community and has become a common language for different dialect groups.
Nowadays, most Chinese schools speak Mandarin, and the number of teaching simplified Chinese characters is gradually increasing. The Chinese Christian Church, which originally used Cantonese as its main worship language, also worked hard to learn Mandarin to attract more new immigrants from mainland China to join the church.
It is worth noting that due to the growth of the scale of immigration in Fuzhou, Fuzhou dialect has become the second largest dialect in Chinatown, New York. In addition, dialects such as Chaozhou dialect , Shanghai dialect , and Wenzhou dialect have gradually appeared.
profile picture: Pedestrians walk in Chinatown, Manhattan, New York.Photo by Liao Pan, China News Service
In addition, the structural changes in the Chinese population have also had an impact on local Chinese cuisine in the United States. Chinese restaurants have developed from Cantonese cuisine to various delicacies such as Beijing, Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Taiwan, Fujian, and Southeast Asian flavors.
Nowadays, many Cantonese restaurants have developed from small family-style management to modern management, and have built large restaurants with luxurious decoration and oriental style, and have been named after a grand name.
Chinese restaurants operating other cuisines were first brought up by former National Government officials and their families who had retreated to Taiwan after immigrating to the United States. The most representative one is the "Queen of Chinese Cuisine" Jiang Sunyun The "Fu Lushou" restaurant opened in San Francisco in 1968, serving authentic and classic Beijing, Sichuan and Hunan cuisine.
Subsequently, in New York, Chicago, Washington and other places, more and more non-Cantonese restaurants emerged, and they were even popular among non-Chinese diners.
As professional and technical immigrants settled in the suburbs of the United States, mid-to-high-end Chinese restaurants with various local flavors that cater to their needs are rapidly emerging. New immigrants tend to “authentic” rather than “Americanized” Chinese cuisine.
In addition to high-end Chinese restaurants, small Chinese food takeaway stores run by new immigrants in Fuzhou quickly emerged after the mid-1980s. Generally, only one or two helpers are needed for couples to open, which is cheap and good, meeting the needs of low-income groups.
There are also some Chinese restaurant owners with investment vision who follow the business methods of McDonald's and KFC and have started an American chain of Chinese restaurants. The most famous of them is the panda fast food (Panda Express), founded in 1983. Another well-known high-end Chinese restaurant chain is "P.F. Chang’s China Bistro" (P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, also translated as "Huaguan"), which is positioned as a casual restaurant that is more refined than fast food and more relaxing than regular meals.
Data map: On February 7, 2021 local time, snow fell in New York, USA for several days, and Chinatown of Manhattan was covered with snow. Photo by Liao Pan, China News Service,
There are few successors in traditional overseas Chinese groups. Hometown associations and other groups have emerged one after another. Due to the vast territory of China, there are great differences in customs and languages in different places. When someone immigrated to the United States in a certain place, in order to meet the needs of social contact or have difficulties to solve, he naturally found his fellow villagers to help.
In the mid-to-late 19th century, Guangdong's first overseas Chinese established geopolitical halls, blood clan associations, business-related chambers of commerce, and even Chinese associations (official offices) that led all overseas Chinese. Today, most of these traditional overseas Chinese groups still exist, many of which have a history of more than 100 years and have become one of the iconic landscapes of Chinatown.
China After the reform and opening up , the source of new immigrants to the United States has become more diversified. Most new immigrants and old overseas Chinese from Guangdong have great differences in language, cultural background, identity composition, and professional status. They are unwilling to join the existing traditional overseas Chinese group, but instead form new fellow villagers, professional groups, alumni associations, chambers of commerce, etc.
In recent decades, due to the structural changes in the population of Chinese society, fewer and fewer new immigrants and native Chinese people join the traditional overseas Chinese group of Guangdong, and many traditional overseas Chinese groups have aging personnel, lack of successors, and weak influence.
Hometown associations based on the province, county, township and even villages of origin have emerged one after another. Since the 1990s, with the increase in the number of immigrants in various provinces, more and more fellow villagers from a single province, such as the Shanghai and Jiangsu fellow villagers' associations. People who moved to the United States from provinces in East China, North China, Central China and Southwest China have gradually formed a scale, and more fellow villagers' associations have appeared in the United States. The joint efforts of many provinces include the Northeast Association, the Southwest Association, and the North China Association.
Data picture: On May 8, 2021 local time, the "Chinatown Diary" charity photography exhibition jointly organized by several Chinese associations in San Francisco, USA opened in the Garden Corner Square in Chinatown. Photo by Liu Guanguan, China News Service reporter
Among them, new immigrants from Fujian are particularly prominent. According to statistics, in 1998, there were only more than ten Chinese communities from Fujian. By 2005, there were more than 100 Fujian communities of all sizes in the United States, most of which were concentrated in the Greater New York area. There were large-scale joint associations based on the same province, as well as small and medium-sized community associations established with the same county, town, and even villages as the links.
Old Chinatown is spreading outward, and a new type of Chinese community is formed in the suburbs
Due to the continuous influx of new Chinese immigrants, in the 1980s, the old Chinatowns in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco quickly expanded to surrounding areas, but they still could not keep up with the growth rate of new immigrants, were overcrowded, and rents were rising steadily. Many new immigrants cannot stand the limitations of a small place and can only live in newly developed Chinese settlements or places further apart.
In the 1990s, with the growth of Chinese population and the development of the economy, the scale and number of Chinatowns increased: one is the expansion of the old Chinatown; the other is the center of the old Chinatown, and a new Chinatown was derived from its neighboring towns.
Today, Chinese people live in all states across the United States, ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands. Most Chinese prefer metropolitan areas, but their settlement areas have spread out from the old Chinatown, forming many new multi-ethnic settlements in the suburbs, and some Chinese are scattered in white communities.
Data picture: On April 25, 2021 local time, members of the "Public Safety Patrol" spontaneously established by the Asian community in Flushing, New York, USA, and some people conducted defense training at the community activity center to improve security capabilities. Photo by Liao Pan, China News Service,
The New York Metropolitan City has attracted the largest number of new immigrants, and the number of Chinatowns in the district has increased from 1 to 6. The boundaries of Manhattan Chinatown continue to expand, and Chinese shops have entered the original "Little Jewish District" and "Little Italian District". The most eye-catching thing is that new immigrants from Fuzhou occupy almost the entire East Broadway Street , turning this place into a veritable "Little Fuzhou".
in Queens District Flushing is the second largest Chinatown in New York. It was originally dominated by immigrants from Taiwan, but now the majority of new immigrants from mainland China are now. Brooklyn Sunset Park and Eighth Avenue form the New Chinatown where immigrants gather in Fuzhou; there is also a Chinatown in New Jersey EDison.
The new Chinese community in the suburbs does not have the problems of crowding and messy existing in the old Chinatown, but at the same time it retains some Chinese cultural elements. Unlike the general suburban communities in the United States without obvious ethnic symbols, the emerging Chinese residential groups in the suburbs can basically be clearly identified because there are many shopping centers, Chinese restaurants, and cultural service institutions surrounding them with Chinese or Asian styles.
Data picture: Customers dine on the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco, USA. Photo by Liu Guanguan, China News Service reporter
For a long time, media reports have given people the illusion that Chinese Americans are very successful, but in fact, the proportion of Chinese people with higher education levels than the average level in the United States is higher than the average level in the United States, and the poverty rate is also slightly higher than the average level in the United States. When these new Chinese immigrants with relatively low educational skills first arrived in the United States, most of them settled in the old Chinatown.
Nowadays, more and more new immigrants with good educational background and technical expertise have been able to enter the education, technology, professional fields and white-collar professions in the United States, obtain relatively rich income, and gradually join the ranks of the American middle class. And they also began to choose to live in suburban areas with relatively beautiful environments, spacious housing, excellent school districts, complete facilities and small population density. (End) (Zeng Xiaowei participated in this article)
Li Aihui, associate researcher and master's supervisor at the School of International Relations/Jinan University of Overseas Chinese Research Institute. The main research directions are international immigration, overseas Chinese, and American studies. At present, about 30 academic papers have been published in journals such as World History, World Nation, and Historical Research of Overseas Chinese in . They have published monographs "Cultural Transplantation and Adaptation: The Road to the "Americanization" of Jewish Immigration in Eastern Europe (2010). They have participated in the writing of "Overseas Chinese Development Report" (2015), "Overseas Chinese Society" (2018), "Research on the Role of Overseas Chinese in the Construction of National Soft Power" (2018), "Overseas Chinese and Guangdong's 40 Years of Reform and Opening-up" (2018), and presided over the sub-topics of "The Road to Integration: Transformation and Development of American Chinese Society after World War II" (National Social Sciences Post-State Funding Project), "Changes of American Chinese Society of Guangdong after World War II" (Guangdong Provincial Social Science Project), and "Research on the Role of Overseas Chinese in the Construction of National Soft Power".
Source: China News Network
