The Paradox of Chinese-American Identity in San Francisco

What It Means to Be Chinese and Chinese-American

What does it mean to be Chinese-American? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to first ask what it means to be Chinese. To be Chinese in China means to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, or another dialect particular to one's region. It is to carry either a rural or urban identity in one's manners, customs, and birth. In other words, it is to hold a distinctly territorial and ethnic identity within a highly complex, evolving country that is still coming to terms with the legacy of Maoism. China today continues to build a global economy that must delicately balance its past traditions with the demands of the international marketplace.

To be Chinese-American, however, is to be one of many immigrant groups within the equally complex young nation of America. America is a mosaic of different cultures and ethnicities rather than a composition of past provincial identities. A tourist might gaze at the face of a woman or a man in San Francisco's Chinatown and see simply a Chinese-American. In fact, that individual may be a recent immigrant with a strong cultural allegiance to his or her home country and a particular dialect. Or that individual might not speak Chinese at all — might identify only as Asian-American, a cultural designation with no meaning outside the United States.

After all, within the geographical region of Asia itself, individuals of all backgrounds hold strong nationalist allegiances. But in the United States, people from across the Asian region have formed a common cultural and political identity in order to advocate for their legal and civil rights. The category of Asian-American is, in this sense, a distinctly American invention — a product of the immigrant experience rather than of any geography or history originating in Asia.