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Religiously, the Chinese American community is different from the rest of the population in that the majority of Chinese Americans do not report a religious affiliation. 43% of Chinese Americans switched to a different religion and 54% stayed within their childhood religion within their lifetime. According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 Asian-American Survey, 52% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over said that they didn't have any religious affiliation, despite making up a quarter of the Asian American population. This is also compared with the religious affiliation of Asian American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Of Chinese Americans who were religious, 15% were Buddhist, 8% were Catholic, 2% were Muslim mostly Hui Chinese and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination. Fully half of Chinese Americans (50%)—including 55% of those born in the U.S. and 51% of those born overseas—describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. Because Chinese Americans are the largest subgroup of Asian Americans, nearly half of all religiously unaffiliated Asians in the U.S. are of Chinese descent (49%).<ref name="pewforum.org"/><ref name="projects.pewforum.org"/>
Religiously, the Chinese American community is different from the rest of the population in that the majority of Chinese Americans do not report a religious affiliation. 43% of Chinese Americans switched to a different religion and 54% stayed within their childhood religion within their lifetime. According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 Asian-American Survey, 52% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over said that they didn't have any religious affiliation, despite making up a quarter of the Asian American population. This is also compared with the religious affiliation of Asian American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Of Chinese Americans who were religious, 15% were Buddhist, 8% were Catholic, 2% were Muslim mostly Hui Chinese and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination. Fully half of Chinese Americans (50%)—including 55% of those born in the U.S. and 48% of those born overseas—describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. Because Chinese Americans are the largest subgroup of Asian Americans, nearly half of all religiously unaffiliated Asians in the U.S. are of Chinese descent (49%).<ref name="pewforum.org"/><ref name="projects.pewforum.org"/>


==Politics==
==Politics==

Revision as of 08:32, 27 January 2013

Americans of Chinese Origin
華裔美國人 or 美籍華人 ; 华裔美国人 or 美籍华人
Gary Locke Anna May Wong I. M. Pei
File:Tdlee ccast.jpg
Tsung-Dao Lee Jeremy Lin Elaine Chao
Michelle Kwan Jin Maya Lin
Regions with significant populations
New York City • San Francisco • Los Angeles • Boston • Washington D.C. • Chicago • Philadelphia • Seattle • Houston
Languages
Predominantly English • varieties of Chinese:
Mandarin Chinese (Standard Chinese) • Yue Chinese (Cantonese • Taishanese) • Hakka • Wu Chinese[1] (Taihu Wu • Oujiang Wu), and Min Chinese (Min Nan • Min Dong[2]).
Religion
Buddhism · Catholicism · Protestantism
Taoism · Islam
Confucianism
non-religious and others[3][4]
Related ethnic groups
Hong Kong Americans • Taiwanese Americans
Overseas Chinese

Template:Contains Chinese text Chinese Americans (Chinese: trad. 華裔美國人, simp. 华裔美国人, Cantonese jyutping wa4 yeui6 mei5 gwok3 jan4, pin. Huáyì Měiguórén; t 美籍華人, s 美籍华人, Cantonese jyutping mei5 jik6 wa4 jan4, p Měijí Huárén) are people of full or partial Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – ethnicity who hold American nationality.[6] Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well as from other countries in Southeast Asia and South America that include large populations of the Chinese diaspora.[7] Overall demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia and South America into the broadly defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China and the United States refer Taiwanese Americans as a separate subgroup of Chinese Americans.[8][9][10]

The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community in North America. It is also the fourth largest in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese American community comprises the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 25.9% of the Asian American population as of 2010. Americans of Chinese descent, including those with partial Chinese ancestry constitute 1.2% of the total U.S. population as of 2010. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.8 million.[5] In 2010, half of Chinese-born people living in the United States lived either in California or New York.[11]

History

Main article: Chinese American history
See also: Yellow Peril, Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States, Chinese immigration to Hawaii, and Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in 1820 according to U.S. government records. 325 men are known to have arrived before the 1849 California Gold Rush[12] which drew the first significant number of laborers from China who mined for gold and performed menial labor.[13][14][15] There were 25,000 immigrants by 1852, and 105,465 by 1880, most of whom lived on the West Coast. They formed over a tenth of California's population. Nearly all the early immigrants were young males with low educational levels from six districts in the Guangdong province.[16]

The Chinese came to California in large numbers during the California Gold Rush, with 40,400 being recorded as arriving from 1851–1860, and again in the 1860s when the Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, many on five year contracts, to build its portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese laborers worked out well and thousands more were recruited until the railroad's completion in 1869. Chinese labor provided the massive labor needed to build the majority of the Central Pacific's difficult railroad tracks through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across Nevada. The Chinese population rose from 2,716 in 1851 to 63,000 by 1871. In the decade 1861-70, 64,301 were recorded as arriving, followed by 123,201 in 1871-80 and 61,711 in 1881-1890. 77% were located in California, with the rest scattered across the West, the South, and New England.[17] Most came from Southern China looking for a better life; escaping a high rate of poverty left after the Taiping Rebellion. This immigration may have been as high as 90% male as most immigrated with the thought of returning home to start a new life. Those that stayed in America faced the lack of suitable Chinese brides as Chinese women were not allowed to emigrate in significant numbers after 1872. As a result, the mostly bachelor communities slowly aged in place with very low Chinese birth rates. As a result of the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision, ethnic Chinese born in the United States became American citizens.

Demographics

See also: Demographics of the United States and list of common Chinese American surnames
Further information: List of U.S. cities with large Chinese American populations

Statistics of the Chinese population in the United States (1840–present)

The chart on the right shows the total number of ethnic Chinese in the United States since 1850.[18]

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18504,018—    
186034,933+769.4%
187063,199+80.9%
1880105,465+66.9%
1890107,488+1.9%
190089,863−16.4%
191071,531−20.4%
192061,639−13.8%
193074,954+21.6%
194077,504+3.4%
1950117,629+51.8%
1960237,292+101.7%
1970435,062+83.3%
1980806,040+85.3%
19901,645,472+104.1%
20002,432,585+47.8%
20103,347,229+37.6%

[20]

Percentage of Chinese population in the United States, 2000.

According to the 2010 Census, the three metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese American populations were the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area at 682,265 people,[21] the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area at 592,865 people,[22] and the Greater Los Angeles Combined Statistical Area at about 473,323 people. New York City is home to the highest Chinese American population of any city proper (486,463), while the Los Angeles County city of Monterey Park has the highest percentage of Chinese Americans of any municipality, at 43.7% of its population, or 24,758 people.

The states with the largest estimated Chinese American populations, according to both the 2010 Census, were California (1,253,100; 3.4%), New York (577,000; 3.0%), Texas (157,000; 0.6%), New Jersey (134,500; 1.5%), Massachusetts (123,000; 1.9%), Illinois (104,200; 0.8%), Washington (94,200; 1.4%), Pennsylvania (85,000; 0.7%), Maryland (69,400; 1.2%), Virginia (59,800; 0.7%), and Ohio (51,033; 0.5%). The state of Hawaii has the highest concentration of Chinese Americans at 4.0%, or 55,000 people.

The New York City Metropolitan Area, consisting of New York City, Long Island, 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, enumerating 682,265 individuals as of the 2010 United States Census,[21] and including at least eight Chinatowns. Continuing significant immigration from Mainland China, both legal[23][24] and illegal[25] 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.

Also on the East Coast, the Washington, Boston and Philadelphia metropolitan areas have significant Chinese American communities. The Washington, D.C suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia, are 3.9% and 2.4% Chinese American, respectively. Boston's Chinatown is the only historical Chinese neighborhood within New England. The Boston suburb of Quincy also has a prominent Chinese American population, especially within the North Quincy area.[26]

San Francisco, California has the highest per capita concentration of Chinese Americans of any major city in the United States, at an estimated 21.4%, or 172,181 people, and contains the second-largest total number of Chinese Americans of any U.S. city. San Francisco's Chinatown was established in the 1840s, making it the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest neighborhoods of Chinese people outside of Asia,[27][28] composed in large part by immigrants hailing from Guangdong province and also many from Hong Kong. The San Francisco neighborhoods of Sunset District and Richmond District also contain significant Chinese populations.

In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university-college towns, throughout the United States. For example, the number of Chinese Americans, including college professors, doctors, professionals, and students, has increased over 200% from 2005 to 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island, a small city with a large number of colleges.

Income and social status of these Chinese-American locations vary widely. Although many Chinese Americans in Chinatowns of large cities are often members of an impoverished working class, others are well-educated upper-class people living in affluent suburbs. The upper and lower-class Chinese are also widely separated by social status and class discrimination. In California's San Gabriel Valley, for example, the cities of Monterey Park and San Marino are both Chinese American communities lying geographically close to each other but they are separated by a large socio-economic and income gap.

Significant Chinese population centers

New York City is home to the largest Chinese American population.
San Francisco is home to the second largest Chinese community in the United States in number and the largest in percentage.

A list of large cities (250,000+ residents) with a Chinese-American population in excess of one percent of the general population.[5][dubious – discuss]

Rank City State Chinese-Americans Percentage
1 San Francisco California 172,181 21.4
2 Honolulu Hawaii 38,330 10.2
3 Oakland California 34,083 8.7
4 San Jose California 63,434 6.7
5 New York City New York 486,463 6.0
6 Plano Texas 13,592 5.2
7 Sacramento California 20,307 4.4
8 Seattle Washington 27,216 4.1
9 Boston Massachusetts 24,910 4.0
10 San Diego California 35,661 2.7
11 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 30,069 2.0
12 Stockton California 5,188 1.8
13 Los Angeles California 66,782 1.8
14 Portland Oregon 9,113 1.7
15 Chicago Illinois 43,228 1.6
16 Anaheim California 4,738 1.4
17 Houston Texas 29,429 1.3
18 Austin Texas 8,886 1.2
19 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 3,402 1.1
20 Riverside California 2,985 1.0

Influence on American culture

Some of the noteworthy Chinese contributions include building Western half of the Transcontinental railroad and levees in the Sacramento River Delta; the popularization of Chinese American food; technological innovation and entrepreneurship; and the introduction of Chinese and East Asian culture to America, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Kung fu.

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.[29] Similarly education and the civil service were the most important path for upward social mobility in China.[29][30] The first Broadway show about Asian Americans was Flower Drum Song.[31]

In most American cities with Chinese populations, the new year is celebrated with cultural festivals and parties. In Seattle, the Chinese Culture and Arts Festival is held every year. Other important festivals include the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Analysis indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not differentiate between Chinese Americans and East Asian Americans generally, and perceptions of both groups are nearly identical.[32] 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.[33] The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as entrepreneurs (77%); high value on education (67%).[32]

Language

Chinese, mostly of the Cantonese variety, is the third most-spoken language in the United States, almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California.[34] Over 2 million Americans speak some variety of Chinese, with Mandarin Chinese becoming increasingly more common due to immigration from mainland China and Taiwan.[34]

In New York City at least, although Mandarin is spoken as a native language among only ten percent of Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect among the greatest number of them and is on its way to replace Cantonese as their lingua franca.[35] In addition, the immigration from Fujian is creating an increasingly large number of Min speakers. Wu Chinese, a Chinese language previously unheard of in the United States, is now spoken by a minority of recent Chinese immigrants, who hail from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Although Chinese Americans grow up learning English, some teach their children Chinese for a variety of reasons: preservation of an ancient civilization, preservation of a unique identity, pride in their cultural ancestry, desire for easy communication with them and other relatives, and the perception that Chinese will be a very useful language as China's economic strength increases. Cantonese, historically the language of most Chinese immigrants, is the third most widely spoken non-English language in the United States.[36]

Religion

Religions of Chinese Americans (2012)[3][4]
Religion Percent
Buddhism
 
 15%
Catholic
 
 8%
Protestant
 
 22%
No religion and others
 
 52%

Religiously, the Chinese American community is different from the rest of the population in that the majority of Chinese Americans do not report a religious affiliation. 43% of Chinese Americans switched to a different religion and 54% stayed within their childhood religion within their lifetime. According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 Asian-American Survey, 52% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over said that they didn't have any religious affiliation, despite making up a quarter of the Asian American population. This is also compared with the religious affiliation of Asian American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Of Chinese Americans who were religious, 15% were Buddhist, 8% were Catholic, 2% were Muslim mostly Hui Chinese and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination. Fully half of Chinese Americans (50%)—including 55% of those born in the U.S. and 48% of those born overseas—describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. Because Chinese Americans are the largest subgroup of Asian Americans, nearly half of all religiously unaffiliated Asians in the U.S. are of Chinese descent (49%).[3][4]

Politics

Chinese Americans are divided among many subgroups based on factors such as age, nativity, and socioeconomic status and do not have uniform attitudes about the People's Republic or the Republic of China, about the United States, or about Chinese nationalism. Different subgroups of Chinese Americans also have radically different and sometimes very conflicting political priorities and goals.[example needed]

Nonetheless, Chinese Americans are clustered in majority-Democratic states and have themselves trended Democratic in recent presidential elections  – polling just before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election found John Kerry was favored by 58% of Chinese Americans and George W. Bush by only 23%,[37] as compared with a 54/44 split in California, a 58/40 split in New York, and a 48/51 split in America as a whole on Election Day itself. In 2013, Chinese Americans were the least likely Asian American ethnicity to be affiliated with a political party.[38]

Chinese Americans were an important source of funds for Han revolutionaries during the later Qing dynasty, and Sun Yat-sen was raising money in America at the time of the Xinhai Mutiny which established the Republic of China. During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Americans, like all overseas Chinese, generally speaking, were viewed as capitalist traitors by the People's Republic of China government. This attitude changed dramatically in the late 1970s with the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Increasingly, Chinese Americans were seen as sources of business and technical expertise and capital who could aid in China's economic and other development.

Immigration

Economic growth in the People's Republic of China has given mainland Chinese more opportunities to emigrate. A 2011 survey showed that 60% of Chinese millionaires plan to emigrate and 40 percent of Chinese millionaires selecting the United States as the top destination for immigration.[39][39][40][41][41][42][43] mostly to the USA or Canada.[44] The EB-5 Investment Visa allows many powerful Chinese to seek U.S. citizenship, and recent reports show that 75% of applicants for this visa in 2011 were Chinese.[45][46] Chinese multimillionaires benefited most from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in the U.S. Now, as long as one has at least US$500,000 to invest in projects listed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where it is possible to get an EB-5 green card that comes with permanent U.S. residency rights, but only in states specified by the pilot project.[47][48]

Socioeconomics

Main article: Model minority

Education

Overall, as a demographic group, Chinese Americans are highly educated and earn higher incomes when compared to other demographic groups in the United States.[49] Educational achievements of Chinese in the United States are one of the highest among Asian Americans and also among all ethnic groups in the United States.[50] Chinese Americans often have some of the highest averages in tests such as SAT, GRE, etc. in the United States. Although verbal scores lag somewhat due to the influx of new immigrants, combined SAT scores have also been higher than for most Americans. Chinese Americans are the largest racial group on all but one of the nine fully established University of California campuses.[51][52][53][54] They are disproportionately represented among US National Merit Scholarship awardees, and constitute 13% of the nation's top Ivy League universities and other prestigious institutions of higher education around the United States. They are more likely to apply to competitively elite higher education institutions.[55][56][57][58] They also constitute 24% of all Olympic Seattle Scholarship winners, 33% of USA Math Olympiad winners, 15.5% of Putnam Math Competition winners, and 36% of Duke Talent Identification Grand Recognition Ceremony attendees from the Dallas Metropolitan area.[59][60]

International students studying at various higher education institutions around the United States account for a significant percentage of the international student body. International undergraduates, who make up 8 percent of Duke's undergraduate body, come from China more than any other country.[61][62] International Chinese students also comprise 11 percent of the nearly 5,800 freshmen at the University of Washington.[63] Mainland China is the top sending country of international students to the United States.[64][65] As a result of its growing economy and large population, more middle-class families from China are able to afford American college tuition, bringing an influx of Chinese students to study abroad in the United States. With a more diverse educational background and higher level of English proficiency, international Chinese students also value American degrees, as it gives them a notable advantage over their college-educated counterparts in China by the time they return to their native country to seek employment.[66] Many Chinese international students are also brand name conscious, choosing elite higher education institutes including the Ivy League; as well as University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, Case Western Reserve University, California Institute of Technology, New York University, Duke University, Rice University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Emory University, and University of Southern California as their target schools.[67][68][69] International Chinese students are also widely found at many elite liberal arts colleges such as Barnard College and Mount Holyoke.[70][71] Students from China gravitate towards Americans colleges and universities for their high quality and the style of education which stresses interdisciplinary approaches, creativity, student participation and critical thinking.[69] Chinese students comprise 18 percent of the international student population in America, and make up 32.2 percent of the undergraduate students and 48.8 percent of the graduate students. Chinese international students tend to gravitate towards technical majors that involve heavy use of mathematics and the natural sciences. 27.5 percent of international Chinese students study business management, finance, or economics, 19.2 percent study engineering, 11.5 percent study the life sciences and 10.6 percent study math or computer science.[72]

Among American PhD recipients in fields related to science and engineering, 25% of the recipients are ethnic Chinese.[73] According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics, 51.8% of all Chinese Americans have attained at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 28.2% nationally and 49.9% for all Asian American groups. The Census reports that 54.7% of Chinese American men attained a bachelors degree and 49.3% of Chinese American women attained a bachelors degree. In addition, 26.6% of all Chinese Americans in the United States possess a master's, doctorate or other professional degree, compared to 20.3% for all Asian Americans, and is roughly two and a half times above the national average.[26]

Bachelor's Degree or Higher Educational Attainment[26]
Ethnicity Percent of Population
Taiwanese 73.6%
Chinese 51.8%
Japanese 47.4%
Non-Hispanic White 29.5%
Vietnamese 25.2%
Total US Population 28.2%

Employment

Technology conglomerates such as Ebay (pictured above) located within technology centers across the United States, including California's Silicon Valley, remain attractive hotspots for Chinese Americans and foreign-born Chinese entrepreneurs from all over the world.[74]

There has been a significant change in the perceptions of Chinese Americans. In as little as 100 years of American history, stereotypes of Chinese Americans have changed to portraying a hard working and educated minority. Thus, most Chinese Americans work as white collar professionals, many of whom are highly educated, salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed in management, professional, and related occupations such as engineering, medicine, investment banking, law, and academia. 53.1% of Chinese Americans work in many white collar professions compared with 48.1% for all Asian Americans and a national average of 35.1%.[26] They make up two percent of working physicians in the United States.[75] Chinese Americans also make up a third of the Asian American high tech professional workforce and a tenth of the entire Silicon Valley workforce.[76] Chinese Americans also hold lower unemployment rates than the population average with a figure of 4.7% compared to a national rate of 5.9% in 2010.[26]

Many Chinese Americans have turned to the high tech center to jump-start potential computer and internet startups to capitalize on the regions wealth of venture capital, business expertise, and cultural and financial incentives for innovation. Ethnic Chinese have been successful in starting new firms in technology centers across the United States, including California's Silicon Valley. Chinese Americans have been disproportionately successful in high technology sectors, as evidenced by the Goldsea 100 Compilation of America's Most Successful Asian Entrepreneurs.[77] Chinese Americans accounted for 4 percent of people listed in the 1998 Forbes Hi Tech 100 List.[59]

Annalee Saxenian, a UC Berkeley professor, whose research interests include the contribution of Chinese immigrants on America's technology concludes that in Silicon Valley, carried out a study that showed that since 1998, one out of five high tech start-ups in Silicon Valley were led by Chinese Americans. During the same year, 5 of the 8 fastest growing companies had Chinese American CEO's except for Yahoo, whose Jerry Yang was a founder but not a CEO. In Silicon Valley there are at least 2 to 3 dozen Chinese American organizations according to professional interests each with at least 100 members. One prominent organization of which is the Committee of 100.[78] Immigrants from China and Taiwan were key founders in 12.8% of all Silicon Valley start-ups between 1995 to 2005.[79] Almost 6% of the immigrants who founded companies in the innovation/manufacturing-related services field are from Mainland China and Taiwan.[80]

Research funded by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates that in 1996, 1,786 Silicon Valley technology companies with $12.5 billion in sales and 46,000 employees were run by Indian or Chinese executives. Moreover, the pace of entrepreneurship among local immigrants is increasing rapidly. While Chinese or Indian executives are at the helm of 13 percent of the Silicon Valley technology businesses started between 1980 and 1985, they are running 27 percent of the more than 4,000 businesses started between 1991 and 1996.[81] Start-up firms remain a primary source for new ideas and innovation for Chinese American internet entrepreneurs. Many of them are employed or directly engaged in new start-up activities. The proportional share of start-up firms by ethnic Chinese in Silicon Valley skyrocketed from 9 percent 1980-1984 to about 20 percent between 1995-1998.[82] By 2006, Chinese American internet entrepreneurs continued to start 20% of all Silicon Valley start-up firms, leading 2000 Silicon Valley companies, and employing 58,000 workers.[73] They still continue to own about 20 percent of all Information Technology companies that were founded in Silicon Valley since 1980. Numerous professional organizations in perspective in the 1990s as a support network for fellow Chinese American high tech start-ups in the valley.[83] Between 1980 and 1999, 17 percent of the 11443 high-tech firms in Silicon Valley - including some 40 publicly traded firms were controlled by ethnic Chinese. In 1990, Chinese Americans made up a third of the Asian American high tech professional workforce or 11% of the entire Silicon Valley professional workforce. In 1998, Chinese Americans managed 2001 firms, employing 41,684 workers, and ran up 13.2 billion in sales. They also account for 17% of all Silicon Valley firm owners, 10% of the professional workforce in the Valley, and 13.5% of the total sales accounting for less than 1% of the U.S. population at the time.[84]

Though Chinese Americans are also noted for their high rates of self-employment, as they have an extensive history of self-employment dating back to the California Gold Rush in the 1880s,[85] However, as more Chinese Americans seek higher education to elevate themselves socioeconomically, rates of self-employment are generally lower than population average.[86] In 2007, there were over 109,614 Chinese-owned employer firms, employing more than 780,000 workers, and generating more than $128 billion in revenue.[87] Among Chinese-owned U.S. firms, 40% were in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector; the accommodation and food services sector; and the repair, maintenance, personal, and laundry services sector. Chinese-owned U.S. firms comprised 2% of all U.S. businesses in these sectors. Wholesale trade and accommodation and food services accounted for 50.4% of Chinese-owned business revenue. 66,505 or 15.7% of Chinese-owned firms had receipts of $250,000 or more compared with 2% for all U.S. businesses.[87][88][89][90][91][92]

Economics

Chinese Americans tend to follow the residence pattern set by other Americans. Members of the community believe in the symbolic importance of owning homes; accordingly, Chinese Americans tend to save money and make other monetary sacrifices earlier on in order to purchase their own homes as soon as possible.

With their above average educational attainment rates, Chinese Americans from all socioeconomic backgrounds have achieved significant advances in their educational levels, income, life expectancy and other social indicators as the financial and socioeconomic opportunities offered by the United States have lift many Chinese Americans out of poverty joining the ranks of America's middle class, upper middle class, as well as the enjoyment of substantial well being.[93] Chinese Americans are more likely to own homes than the general American population. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 65% of Chinese Americans owned a home, higher than the total population's rate of 54%.[94][95] In 2003, real estate economist Gary Painter of the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate Research found out that when comparing homeowners with similar income levels Los Angeles, the Chinese-American home-ownership rate is 20 percent higher than Whites; in San Francisco, 23 percent higher; and in the New York metropolitan area, 18 percent higher.[96] A 2008 Asian Real Estate Association of America report released on behalf of the American community survey, Chinese Americans living in the states of Texas, New York, and California all had high home ownership rates that were significantly near or above the general population average.[97]

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Chinese American men had a full-time median income of $57,061 and Chinese American women had a median income of $47,224. Chinese Americans also have one of the highest median household incomes among most demographic groups in United States, which is 30 percent higher than the national average but is slightly lower compared with the Asian American population.[26]

Median Household Income: 2010[26]
Ethnicity Household Income
Taiwanese $68,809
Asian $67,022
Chinese $65,273
Non-Hispanic White $52,480
Scottish $52,444
Korean $50,316
Total US Population $50,046

Notable Chinese Americans

See also: List of Chinese Americans

See also

References

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  2. ^ {{cite , Minority Uyghur web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cdo |title=Ethnologue report for language code: cdo |publisher=Ethnologue.com |date= |accessdate=2011-12-31}}
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Further reading

  • Chinese American Understanding: A Sixty-Year Search, Chih Meng, China Institute in America, 1981, hardcover, 255 pages, OCLC: 8027928
  • Chinese Americans and Their Immigrant Parents: Conflict, Identity, and Values, May Pao-May Tung, Haworth Press, 2000, paperback, 112 pages, ISBN 0-7890-1056-9
  • Chinese Americans: The Immigrant Experience, Dusanka Miscevic and Peter Kwong, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2000, hardcover, 240 pages, ISBN 0-88363-128-8
  • Compelled To Excel: Immigration, Education, And Opportunity Among Chinese Americans, Vivian S. Louie, Stanford University Press, 2004, paperback, 272 pages, ISBN 0-8047-4985-X
  • The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, Iris Chang, Viking, 2003, hardcover, 496 pages, ISBN 0-670-03123-2
  • Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American, Shehong Chen, University of Illinois Press, 2002 ISBN 0-252-02736-1 electronic book
  • ABC Struggles in the Church
  • On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese American Family, Lisa See, 1996. ISBN 0-679-76852-1. See also the website for an exhibition based on this book [6] from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.
  • Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, Frank H. Wu, Basic Books, 2001, hardcover, 416 pages, ISBN 0-465-00639-6
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