Chinese American perspectives on family maintenance and racial stereotypes

Chinese-American population holds a unique position in American history. The majority of the initial population of Chinese immigrants arrived in this county under coolie labor contracts, which were similar to the African slaves of the plantations of the South. The Chinese coolies were treated as disposable labor, and given less than full citizen status until the middle of the 1940's. However, this group did not let the American culture assimilate them; rather the Chinese-Americans built their own collective identity, which was a unique reflection of the rich Chinese heritage they left behind.

According to Wei Djao (2003) who interviewed close to a hundred across the world for her book "Being Chinese" there are four factors which contribute to the collective identity building process. She insists that the collective identity building process is a term which does not catch the full measure of the emotion and personality of the process by which a people choose their identity. The acculturation process is a deeply personal journey, and can mean different things to different people as they reach a conclusion with which they are comfortable. The end of the acculturation process is understood as the individual arrives at a self-concept with which the person can identify as his or her own, rather than having that identity forced upon them by another, outside authority.

When the Chinese immigrants were subjected to oppression, control, slavery of the coolie trade, the community stayed strongly associated with their homeland. The idea of the China which they left behind was their only source of comfort, and identity. However, as selected groups of Chinese began to experience a measure of personal, economic or social freedom and acceptance, this opened the door for the individual, and eventually the collective community to shift their identity from that of distinctly Chinese to Chinese-American. Like the black American of the South, as long as forces created the injustice of slavery and related discrimination, they remained a separate and isolated people. But after real and substantive change in the Chinese community, and how the Chinese were treated in American society, the only obstacles that remained were those of self-perception, and learning to see oneself as a welcomed part of the social order, rather than an isolated person.

For the Chinese in the Diaspora, their collective identity was built on four different social constructs. A study (Djao, 2003) confirmed that the Chinese sense of personal identity was based on the following four factors:

Political influences, and laws governing the people, and whether or not their citizenship is accepted, as well as the Chinese own political allegiance.

Cultural individualism refers to the Chinese way of life, the foods, ceremonies and traditions, and the level to which the Chinese culture was accepted by the surrounding peoples.

Ethnic aspects of Chinese identify refers to ancestral groupings among the world's ethno-cultural categories.

Economic conditions of the people and how these conditions compare to the conditions of their surrounding peoples also contribute to the sense of self-identity.

The political dimension of identity is that aspect of self-definition regarding one's personal allegiance to the government of a society. Through this political allegiance a country confers on its citizens the rights, obligations and freedoms which the country offers its people. In the case of the Chinese-Americans, the laws and political system took away rights and privileges at the time when the highest numbers of Chinese were entering and contributing to the country. As a result, at the time of the exclusion the Chinese identified themselves with China, and not with America and the Chinese family stayed distinctively Chinese in it's culture.

Culturally, unlike the Anglo-Europeans who immigrated to the U.S. And created the distinct American culture, the Chinese have remained distinctively Chinese. The foreign born Chinese have learned their cultural heritage from their families, and with each successive generation, the family has striven to remain Chinese, rather than become more American. Over time, the affective nature of the Chinese culture diminishes, however the Chinese people still remain to a greater extent distinctively Chinese. This cultural affectation is present in the language, food, and cultural values and philosophy maintained by the Chinese people in the new host society.

When the economic opportunities are shared by all people in a community, the community will become homogeneous as all members work together toward common goals. However, in the event of the Chinese citizens and families who came to America and to many countries around the world, their experience was that the economic prosperity was reserved for a few, and that they were not in the small clique. Therefore they remained isolated, working with those in the same economic conditions and with those whom they could trust, their cultural brothers and sisters, in order to build toward a Chinese economic future.