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Culture Wars and the Future of Cultural Democracy
The impulse for my Chinese family to migrate to the United States of America was similar to that of other immigrants living in this country. My family migrated to the United States or Jinshan (the gold mountain) purposely to look for better economic opportunities. My family was compelled to leave China due to the lack of employment opportunities. My parents were attracted to the United States of America by the availability of job opportunities where they were forced to move to the country to work as contract laborers (Taikaki 320). Since the Chinese first arrived in the United States in the 19th century, their communal experience as a minority in terms of race is significantly different from other racial minorities and European immigrants.
Chinese were isolated for discrimination using laws, which were passed, in the states they resided. In 1882, they were the first immigrant community to be targeted for denial of citizenship and exclusion by the American congress. Their meeting with Euro-Americans was formed not only on their self-perceptions but also by the varying bilateral relationship between China and America. From a historical perspective, the experiences of Chinese immigrants can be enshrined in my own family experiences in migrating to the United States.
In 1852, the Governor of California, John Bigler, insisted that the Chinese should be excluded on the basis that they could not be assimilated into the American culture. In an 1854 case, Hall vs. people, the California Supreme Court decided that Chinese evidence against the whites was not permitted in a law court. The court was of the opinion that if this was to be allowed, then it meant that the Chinese were also to be permitted equal citizenship and voting rights, take jury positions, be allowed to testify and even take legislative positions. Judicial decisions and congressional statutes barred the immigrants from naturalization. This made them disenfranchised politically in the name of democracy and this exposed them to deliberate and continuous violation of their legitimate rights.
The immigrants could not comprehend why America used gunboat diplomacy to allow the Chinese immigrants on one hand. On the other hand, they used diplomacy to exclude the Chinese Americans. This conflict between hypocrisy and American democracy led to the emergence of modern nationalism amongst the Chinese immigrants. This led to fight for equal rights by the Chinese at home and the orientation of the collective will aimed at liberating China from what they viewed as imperialist domination (Daniels 125). The Chinese Americans associated the oppression experienced in America to the powerlessness of China.
In Chinatown, ghetto life was hard, but this did not imply that it was stagnant. The politically disenfranchised and legally discriminated Chinese Americans battled racism using diplomatic and litigation channels, set-up their foundation in Chinatown, actively engaged in numerous political movements and economic development projects in an attempt to modernize China. The immigration generation had only one purpose in mind, to improve China and themselves. Integration was viewed as impossible and for the generation born in America, they sought to be assimilated, but the mainstream society was inhospitable to them.
By the 19th century, majority of the Chinese immigrants had no hopes in America and the oriented started focusing their lives on the eventual possibility of going back to their home country. Having this mentality of temporary residence in the US, they developed a high level of tolerance for racial discrimination and hardship. The immigrants maintained a prudent Chinese lifestyle, which involved observing Chinese festivals and customs through district and family associations and living modestly. They sent remittances to children, wives, and parents, regularly maintained village charities, and ancestral halls. Parents sought to instill Chinese culture and language in their kids and mostly took them to Chinese schools within the community and where possible back to China. The parents motivated their children to excel in the American educational system and arranged for their children’s marriages. In this era, the main aspiration of the immigrants was to work hard, accumulate sufficient wealth, and finally, retire back to their villages of origin.
The immigrants joined social organizations such as family associations and district associations. Such associations stood for the collective well-being and interests of people from similar counties or villages and people bearing similar family names. These associations established temples and schools, helped members to find housing and jobs, arbitrated disputes, provided comfort and aid to members, and sponsored cultural and social events.
A majority of the associations had sub-divisions in different Chinatowns, allowing members to tour one city to another. The collection of these associations made up the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association, which was put-up in each city (Zhou 259). This was viewed as the ghetto government, whose purpose was to resolve disagreements among organizations and individuals to represent the interests of the community with both Chinese and American governments using litigation, civil disobedience and passive resistance. At other times, they used grass root protests and diplomatic channels to air their concerns. On many occasions, these associations became too oppressive and powerful, and this resulted in the obstruction of political and social progress.
In the American ghettos where the Chinese immigrants resided, there emerged a series of catholic and protestant missionaries. They built schools and churches, which were utilized in trying to assimilate and convert Chinese people to Christianity. In addition, there emerged reformers and political factions from China who sought to engage Chinese Americans to work and support their causes, and advanced their ideas of modernizing China. The missionaries, reformers and political factions were all viewed as agents of change. However, they worked at cross-purposes and on different constituencies. The missionaries aimed at incorporating them, whereas, the reformers sought to instill political and cultural loyalty to China. Nearly all main Christian churches, built schools and missions are found in the Chinatowns in San Francisco. This is the biggest state in America, and the heart of the political, cultural and economic life of the North America’s Chinese. In general, the churches were triumphant in winning the individuals who were born in America, as opposed to the immigrants.
The lesser population of the Chinese that was exposed to American education but were segregated soon recognized their inferior status. Most of them became ashamed of their culture, status and appearance. The need for acceptance and self-hatred became their dominant obsession. This meant that they had to disown their linguistic and cultural heritage in an attempt of being Americanized. This entailed the absorption of American social behaviors, values, personality traits and the conversion to Christianity.
However, in the period before the Second World War, the Chinese denial of cultural and racial heritage did not earn them the social acceptance that they desired. Most of the immigrants found themselves isolated from the mainstream (Daniels 329). These individuals were barred from competing for jobs despite the fact that they had the required qualifications. Some of them were forced to decide whether to continue living in America as second-class citizens or going back to China, where their culture and language had become alien to them, considering their attempt to be integrated. The Chinese people living in America did not know whether to continue living in the United States where getting a job had become difficult or to return to China where there were no jobs at all.
For the generation that had immigrated, their only choice was to focus on their future in China. They were occupied by the concept of modernizing China and concentrated their energy and attention to China as they linked their inferior class in America to the powerlessness of China due to domination by the western nation. Nevertheless, the reformers who came from China always had generous supporters and audiences among Chinese immigrants in America. Between the efforts of political reformers and missionaries, numerous political parties and churches were built and sectarian newspapers and schools were established. Newspaper industries and schools were some of the most enduring and influential organizations in Chinese America. Collectively, they played a crucial part in propagating the culture of Chinese among themselves and introducing ideas of nationalism and modernity to their country.
From the brief history of Chinese immigrants, their experiences are in many aspects similar to those of my family. The push factors include the lack of employment opportunities in China and the need to improve their standard of living. The pull factors include the better economic opportunity, higher standards of education, and better living standards. In the United States, the vacant economic niche is the lack of cheap labor (Taikaki 257). In the past and present, the deficit in cheap labor has attracted many immigrants to the United States. In the United States, Chinese immigrants have contributed a lot to the economy of the United States from their labor.
According to a research in 2002, there are approximately 286,000 firms that are owned by Chinese in the US, these firms have employed over 649, 100 immigrants, and make over $105 billion in revenue. In California, where my family lives, there are approximately 110,823 Chinese-owned firms, which are approximately 38.7% of all firms. These firms generate over $56 billion annually. In New York, there are 57,673 firms, with revenues of approximately $10.2 billion. However, Chinese immigrants encounter a lot of competition from other immigrants such as African immigrants and Hispanic immigrants. These immigrants also target the labor market in the United States and compete with the Chinese in the provision of cheap labor. My family was helped to immigrate to the United States through networking with friends living in the United States. Our family friends connected my family with organizations that employ Chinese immigrants, and it was through this that my family members were employed.
Similar to earlier immigrants, my family also experienced a lot of rejection and discrimination. When my family migrated to the United States, there was still a lot of discriminatory distrust of immigrants and Chinese-Americans. This was indicated by the campaign donor scandals and the Wen Ho Lee spy charges. In addition, there have been recent accusations that China’s sovereign wealth funds that these funds have the potential of undermining the financial institutions in America. These factors have lead to the discriminatory distrust that the Chinese immigrants are experiencing.
In conclusion, people from different countries immigrate to America in such for greener pastures such as employment opportunities and more advanced education systems. This is the same reason as to why individuals from China had to move to America. My family also moved to America in search for job opportunities (Taikaki, 2010). My family faced the same problems that were faced by other individuals living in America. This is where we experienced discrimination and to some extend the American government placed rules and regulations against further migrations to America specifically for individuals from China. This resulted from an increment in cheap labor that was provided in the United States.
Works Cited:
Daniels, Roger. Asian America: Chinese and Japanese in the United States since 1850. Santee, CA: University of Washington Press, 1988. Print.
Taikaki, Ronald. Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Retrieved on June 16, 2010, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpq722mR6nE
Taikaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Print.
Zhou, Min .Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Community Transformation. New York, NY: TempleUniversity Press, 2009. Print.
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