Chinese Immigrant Cultural Experience in America: An Overview

Introduction

The Chinese experience in America is one marked by a combination of opportunity and oppression. Perhaps more than many other immigrant groups less distinguishable by physical features, Chinese immigrants were subjected to wide-ranging and sustained discrimination upon their arrival en masse in the mid-nineteenth century and onward. However, the Chinese would also play a critical role in the industrial and geographical evolution of the United States, first as laborers and eventually as an inextricable part of America's ethnic and cultural makeup. The discussion hereafter considers the various cultural conditions and predilections that have defined the Chinese experience in the United States.

Historical Background

The Chinese first began to arrive in substantial numbers to the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, simultaneously, the California Gold Rush. These forces, emanating from just across the Pacific in California and the American West, called to Chinese immigrants to such an extent that, as the Library of Congress (LOC) (2009) reports, in the era following the Civil War — between 1870 and 1900 — their immigration comprised a significant portion of the 12 million new citizens arriving from overseas. Indeed, the LOC reports that in 1882, federal law was passed to prevent further Chinese immigration (LOC, p. 1). The Chinese Exclusion Act would mark a low point in America's frequently racialist immigration policies.

This was a remarkable decision considering the important role already played by the Chinese in helping to achieve many of the goals of the Industrial Revolution. According to Wei (2002), Chinese immigrants "became a significant part of the labor force that laid the economic foundation of the American West. Chinese could be found throughout the region, laboring in agriculture, mining, industry, and wherever workers were needed. They are best known for their contribution to the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, the completion of which united the country economically and culturally." (Wei, p. 1)

That the United States would turn on this population underscores the xenophobic tendencies against which the Chinese would historically have to insulate themselves while trying to adjust to life in America. As Wei goes on to report, for those already in the United States hoping to earn money to bring their families over, the immigration policy imposed a heavy toll of permanent separation. Additionally, while the Chinese population dwindled across the first decades of the twentieth century, those who remained suffered some of the most virulent exclusionary and segregationist policies seen by any group since the end of slavery in the United States. Wei reports that it was not until the United States allied with China in World War II that these immigration restrictions were softened, and eventually removed altogether with the Immigration Act of 1965 (Wei, p. 1).

Social Structures and Customs

Decades of exclusion and discrimination imposed particular social structures on the Chinese who had arrived in the United States both before and after the Exclusion Act. The difficulty of adjustment to life in America and the persistence of social and legal conditions that isolated the residential lives of Chinese citizens gave rise to the insulated urban communities that became known as Chinatowns across the country. The social structure within these communities was very much defined by the conditions of immigrant life and the imperative to sustain an important cultural identity. Accordingly, Wei notes that social structures differed considerably from those in China because of the deconstruction of the most important unit of Chinese life — the family. According to Wei, "the worst effect was to undermine the one thing that was most precious to the Chinese, their families. Chinese men were forced to live lonely bachelor lives in the almost all-male society that was Chinatown. Meanwhile, wives and children were forced to remain in China, supported by remittances from the United States and rarely seeing their husbands and fathers. Such separations made it difficult to maintain strong family ties." (Wei, p. 1)

As a result, social structures in the United States depended significantly on strong brotherhood and mutual support among Chinese men. Particularly across the first century and a half of their inhabiting the United States, immigrant men depended on one another for the creation of a sustainable internal economy, a context in which spiritual practices could be collectively observed, and the forging of a new identity within America. Chinatown thus became at once a symbol of the Chinese struggle and of its achievements in planting roots in America. As the Asian American Alliance (2010) points out, this makes Chinatown a unique symbol of Chinese culture — one contextualized by life in America yet resistant to full assimilation. It functions as a great support system for new immigrants even as it often epitomizes the rough, impoverished urban conditions they face. The Alliance notes that "in Chinatown we have seen the poorest of the Asian culture, but that is not all. Chinatown is more than just immigrants without papers or immigrants who wish to keep a part of their Asian culture in America. It is a community of individuals who can feel like a large family. They have a support network." (AAA, p. 1)

Conclusion

As still remains true for many immigrant populations, and particularly for those possessing easily identifiable physical distinguishing attributes, it remains a challenge to gain a social, professional, and cultural foothold in the United States. However, as the course of its evolution over the last 150 years demonstrates, the Chinese American community has advanced remarkably in status over a relatively short duration.