ASAM reading journals paper

Introduction

Rethinking Chinese America

Schools were in full session in late April. Tests were scheduled and papers and projects

were due soon. But few graduating seniors with college admissions in hand would let

schoolwork spoil their celebratory mood. The air was filled with a palpable excitement. The few

weeks ahead would be about proms, graduations, and gatherings reaffirming friendships before

bidding farewell.

Within the Chinese American community, excitement was mixed with high anxiety over

the mysterious college admissions process. The success (or failure in some cases) of the soon-to-

be-college students prompted many questions from parents with younger children: Why was a

particular student accepted by one college but rejected by another? Why did John win a

scholarship while his equally outstanding friend Larry got nothing? What exactly were the

universities looking for? How much did they weigh extracurricular actives versus grades and test

scores? And how should the younger high-school students prepare themselves for the upcoming

challenges?

Chinese American parents’ high anxiety over the college admissions process and their

strong desire to push their children ahead of the game were well-anticipated by ethnic

educational services. No time would be wasted. Before the departure of the senior class,

programs were already scheduled to engage parents of younger children. On April 26, 2008, for

example, a two-day “Education Show & Seminars” program was held in Los Angeles. This event

was sponsored by Shijie ribao [the Chinese Daily News], the most popular Chinese language

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newspaper in the United States; the Elite Educational Institute; and several professional services.

Highlighted by eighteen lectures and thirty exhibit tables, this education fair offered bilingual

information on a wide range of topics. However, lack of English proficiency was not the reason

for those who drove for hours to Los Angeles from all over southern California to attend these

seminars; most participants were well-informed. They came to this event because they believed

that their ethnic service providers would have more to offer than what was available from their

local high schools. It was a great opportunity for strangers from similar cultural backgrounds and

with the same anxieties to mingle and exchange information and knowledge with one another,

using a familiar language. The lectures and materials were about American colleges and

universities, but all were delivered and disseminated in a unique Chinese American style. This

was apparent in the program highlights, including catchy topics such as “Realizing the Ivy

League Dream: the Three Musts in College Application,” “How to Ace the SAT!” and simply,

“The Road to Harvard.” Only those in the know were invited to speak; among them were

admission officers or members of university recruitment teams, alumni of the Ivy League, and

professional education consultants.1

In the past few decades, accompanying the rapid growth of the Chinese American

population, many ethnic business districts—the new Chinatowns—have emerged in New York,

Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, and other parts of the United States. Many

different classes and programs are offered to both middle-class Chinese Americans and

immigrants workers, and advice on education is only one of the hundreds of services provided by

Chinese American entrepreneurs. This development reflects a high level of participation in the

ethnic economy from a very diverse Chinese American population. There have been ups and

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downs in the U.S. economy in the past two decades, but even when the price of gas skyrockets

and the unemployment rate peaks, a deserted parking lot is a rare scene in Chinese business

districts. As many Chinese living in the United States have become Americanized, and a

significant proportion of them have achieved middle-class status and become suburb dwellers,

the growth of the ethnic economy and its ability to draw participants from the community as

entrepreneurs, laborers, and consumers are quite phenomenal.

This book is not about how much the Chinese have achieved in the United States; other

scholars have studied that aspect of Chinese American history.2 This study is built upon the

existing scholarship with a clear understanding that a substantial proportion of the Chinese

American population has experienced significant upward mobility. Rather than repeating or

adding to what has been done, the book will approach the ethnic community from a different

angle and analyze the means through which such social mobility is made possible. If as a whole

the Chinese in the United States have achieved remarkable success at a faster pace than people of

other ethnic backgrounds, what of their unique experience has made such a difference? What

price did they pay and exactly who paid it? To this end the book explores the inner workings and

internal dynamics of the community. Through discussions of demographic composition, social

hierarchies, economic networks, and group organizations, it traces the threads that bring the

individuals together and illuminates the relationships among various social groups.

Studying contemporary Chinese America is a challenging task for a number of reasons.

First, the current Chinese population in the United States is huge compared to what it was in the

late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. There were only 77,504 Chinese residing in the

United States in 1940. Two decades later the number had increased to 237,292. Since the 1965

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Immigration Act abolished the racially biased quota system, the Chinese American population

has doubled every decade. The 2000 census shows a record high of close to 2.9 million Chinese,

even though a significantly large number of undocumented immigrants were probably left

uncounted.3 Second, the demographic composition of contemporary Chinese America is

strikingly different from that of the earlier period. The 1965 Immigration Act, with its basic

provisions for family reunification and practical preferences for certain skilled labor and

professionals, provides a legal framework that works to diversify the ethnic population. Unlike

the immigrant laborers who originated from the Cantonese speaking regions in southeast China,

the new immigrants arrive from Hong Kong, Taiwan, various parts of the People’s Republic of

China, as well as Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. Their diverse regional background

and their differences in former national allegiances are in a sharp contrast to that of the pioneer

Chinese immigrants from rural Guangdong. In today’s Chinese America, several Chinese dialects

are spoken along with English; some individuals cannot communicate with one another within

the community due to their linguistic differences. Third, unlike in the old days when the majority

of the Chinese were constrained to segregated Chinatowns in large cities, post-World War II

opportunities have dispersed the ethnic population, obscuring the geographic boundaries of the

community. To a large extent, racial discrimination during the period of Chinese Exclusion

(1882-1943), World War II, and the Cold War-era worked to facilitate the construction of an

ethnic identity, as Chinese Americans living in the ghettos reached out to each other in solidarity.

Post-war geographic and social motilities, on the other hand, have fragmented the community,

making organization along ethnic lines far more difficult. The heterogeneous rather than

homogenous nature of Chinese Americans today poses a major question to the current study:

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does it still make sense, or is it feasible at all, to view all the Chinese living in the United States

as belonging to one single community?4

Yet it is the amazing strength of ethnicity under new and ever more complex

circumstances that makes studying Chinese Americans tempting. Regardless of the diversity of

the population, the reduction of political pressure from the larger society, and the disappearance

of confined ethnic ghettos, the Chinese have shown an unusual ability to bond. Overcoming their

differences in political ideologies and economic interests, individual Chinese have continued to

use ethnicity as a base of personal identity and collective activities.5 This phenomenon makes it

appealing to approach to Chinese American history from a cultural perspective. Elements of a

culture built on shared history, sentiments, ethos, and language that can be traced back to

Confucian ancient China are not difficult to find, and memories and feelings about the past are

still playing an important role in group affiliations.6 But as many cultural history scholars have

found, culture is not fixed and static, but rather in constant flux under contestation and

negotiation. The ways in which Chinese Americans practice their traditional culture through the

arts, language, religion, festivals, and performance, for example, are often reflections of the

changing circumstances surrounding them in America. The Chinese did not simply transplant

their traditional culture on American soil; they reconstructed or reinvented it constantly.7 A

substantial part of the narratives in this book are based on conversations with individual

participants. While these conversations do reveal sentiments and ethos that can be identified as

related to Chinese culture, the main concern is not what is said or done, but the larger social

context in which these individuals are embedded.

! 5

Instead of assuming that ethnicity is a given, this book traces the ways that ethnicity is

utilized by a large contingent of Chinese of varying social, economic, political, and national

origins to shape their fate in the United States. It explores the historical, economic, and social

foundations of the Chinese American community and the ways that ethnicity is reworked in a

society undergoing rapid change. The new mechanisms that work to connect Chinese Americans

today developed after the decline of the organizational networks built by pioneer Chinese

immigrants, and the ways in which these mechanisms pull otherwise-unrelated individuals

together are drastically different from those of the old days.

This book examines the internal class dynamics among individuals in contemporary

Chinese America. Because hostilities and violence had halted Chinese immigration and kept the

immigrants out of the mainstream job market, ethnicity more than class tended to determine

social relations of the community before World War II. Racial oppression and the struggle for

racial equality are central themes of scholarly writings on the early history of Chinese in the

United States. Relatively few scholars have paid attention to class differences partly because it is

assumed that racial oppression against the Chinese determined the ethnic minority’s low

socioeconomic status during the years of exclusion.8 In contrast, access to mainstream

opportunities after exclusion seems to have allowed Chinese Americans to transform from a

lowly class of worthless, excludable, unassimilable sub-humans to a group of hardworking good

citizens most likely to be found on college campuses, in business circles and high-tech industries,

and within well-maintained suburban neighborhoods. Although many social scientists have

challenged the so-called “model minority” theory by providing evidence to show that success

and wealth is not shared by everyone or equally distributed, they often attributed such

! 6

discrepancies to the existence of a large immigrant population.9 The hidden assumption is that

moving up is only a matter of time for everyone who is willing to work hard, and that as a whole

the contemporary Chinese America is very much a middle class community. To reduce ethnicity

to class, however, is to refuse to see the relationship between ethnicity and class. If a large

number of Chinese Americans have advanced in class terms and many more are on their way up,

what about the ones who have failed to do so or have little hope of achieving the same goals?

Does the structure of the ethnic community pave the way for success for some individuals while

denying opportunities to others?

Although always important, material possessions are not the only measure for class

identification. In recent decades, many social scientists have found that class is a form of social

identity constructed by individuals to cement group affiliations. Because of the long history of

Chinese immigration and legal restrictions, and because of the rapid historical, economic, and

social changes that have taken place in both the United States and the immigrants’ ancestral land,

an individual’s social class can be defined in a multitude of ways.10

This book uses class analysis to expose the other side of the Chinese American

experience in the very place where the model minority was born. It shows the difficulties of

everyday survival for some Chinese laborers, and reveals their positions in a new social

hierarchy. Large inflow of the immigrant population has made it possible for the expansion of an

ethnic economy, in which entrepreneurs can maintain a competitive edge given their access to

low-cost labor; workers who do not have access to the mainstream job market due to

marketability or legal restrictions can find employment and survive; and consumers can enjoy

high quality services at bargain prices. While the growth of the ethnic economy enhances ethnic

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bonds by increasing mutual dependencies among different groups of participants, it is hardly a

win-win situation for everyone. As shown in the following pages, the economy functions to limit

possibilities for disadvantaged groups, especially undocumented immigrants.

Relying on a wide range of sources, this study combines historical research with

methodologies commonly used in sociological and anthropological approaches. The assessment

of the scale of Chinese immigration and the size of the Chinese population is largely based on

data compiled by government agencies, including the U.S. census, Immigration and

Naturalization Service (INS) statistics, and publication of government agencies and research

institutions. Most discussions of community dynamics are based on sources produced by Chinese

Americans themselves. I rely on Chinese-language newspapers to trace historical developments

and community activities. The North American edition of Shijie ribao, the largest Chinese

language newspaper that operates through regional service branches in New York, San Francisco,

Chicago, Houston, Vancouver, and Toronto, provides the most comprehensive coverage. This

Taiwan-based newspaper is truly a global enterprise. With branch offices in the People’s

Republic of China and Hong Kong and reporters covering different parts of the world, it offers

transnational links between the ethnic community and immigrants’ ancestral land as well as the

Chinese diaspora. I also consult more than a dozen other Chinese language newspapers published

in California, Nevada, New York, and Texas as well as convention proceedings, special reports,

newsletters, and other miscellaneous publications from more than forty Chinese American

organizations, archives, cultural centers, and churches in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay

areas, Seattle, Washington D.C., New York, and Boston.

! 8

The profile of ethnic businesses is drawn largely from The Chinese Consumer Reports,

The Chinese Consumer Yellow Pages, and The Chinese Business Guide and Directories

published in twelve regions in the United States, including metropolitan areas of the San

Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, New York,

New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Boston. Some detailed information about

certain businesses is obtained from classified advertisements in Chinese language newspapers.

Although the number of specific businesses and organizations analyzed in detail is limited,

together, these materials inform my discussions of the changes within Chinese America.

A large part of the research is based on oral history interviews. Using personal

connections and community networks, I have been able to recruit 128 individuals to participate

in this project. The fifty-eight men and seventy women I interviewed are of diverse political,

socioeconomic, and immigration backgrounds, including laborers and service providers, business

owners and other employers of coethnic workers, and consumers of the ethnic economy; some of

them also hold leadership positions in various community organizations (see Table I.1). A total of

thirty-six individuals interviewed are neither employer nor employee in the Chinese American

economy; their affiliations with the community are limited to that of consumers; religious

organizations; political, business, and intellectual circles; and other social gatherings. About

ninety percent (115 individuals) of those interviewed are immigrants who arrived after 1965 or

are children of these immigrants; the other ten percent (thirteen individuals) belong to the earlier

immigrant generation. Of the 115 post-1965 immigrant interviewees, fifty-nine came from

mainland China, thirty-four from Taiwan, and eleven from Hong Kong. Relatively few—a total

! 9

of twelve—came from other parts of Asia. Fifty-two of the individuals are or were

undocumented immigrants.

[Insert table I.1 about here]

Working with undocumented immigrants requires additional effort because most of them

could not afford to take time off from work. To get to spend time with them, I offered my own

help. I accompanied non-English-speakers to medical clinics and served as an interpreter. I gave

them rides and introduced them to services and English classes. Some individuals also consulted

me on issues relating to their children’s education or domestic disputes, and a couple of them

asked me to communicate with immigration agencies on their behalf. These interactions helped

me understand the everyday struggles of these men and women, which are as important as the

materials I have collected for my research.

While notes and tape-recorded formal interviews offer opportunities to examine

individuals through their life experiences, they do have limitations. The participants are informed

in advance that their identities will not be revealed in the published work, but some still do not

feel comfortable speaking freely. One business owner in her late forties, for example, agreed to

an interview after we met several times. She is lively, resourceful, well connected, and willing to

help. But when the tape-recorder was on, even in the comfort of her own living room, she just

could not be herself. Her tone was controlled, and she brushed aside several questions. She was

reluctant to touch on certain topics; many of the rich and insightful details that she offered in our

previous casual conversations did not surface at all in the recorded interview.11

Beginning in the summer of 2004, I modified my research method. In addition to the in-

depth interviews, I began to collect information in less formal settings. I would still schedule

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meetings with officials or staff members while visiting a community organization. However,

once there, I would also take the time to look around, take pictures, pick up free brochures, check

out news and ads on the bulletin board, and chat with other visitors. In ethnic clusters in New

York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Boston, and other cities, I attended church services,

Bible study sessions, social gatherings, and meetings of organizations. I also conducted research

in employment offices, immigration firms, day-labor jobsites, dating services, bridal shops,

travel agencies, beauty salons, motels, restaurants, and supermarkets (See Table I.2). These field

trips gave me many opportunities to observe and talk to people. In Chinese-operated motels, I

talked to clerks and cleaning ladies and observed interactions between owners/managers and

their employees. In Bible Study sessions, I listened to the prayers of laborers and learned how

these men and women justify their sufferings through their faith in God. These observations and

casual conversations have helped me gain a better understanding of the workings of ethnic

community and allowed me to reach out to many more individuals who are largely invisible to

the academic world.

[Insert table I.2 about here]

Research trips to day-labor jobsites, employment agencies, and immigration firms have

been most rewarding. In metropolitan areas with a highly concentrated Chinese American

population, construction workers would gather on certain street corners every morning, looking

for a chance to work for the day. While waiting for potential job offers, the laborers would share

their tactics in dealing with their employers and let out frustrations from time to time. The ways

these laborers negotiated with their potential bosses—mainly construction contractors or middle-

class Chinese American homeowners—offer invaluable insights into the power relations between

! 11

coethnic employees and employers. Similar negotiations are commonplace inside employment

agencies, where many job seekers are women. The stories that I heard from the workers and

clients gathered in the waiting rooms of immigration law firms reveal rich details of the daily

struggle of many Chinese immigrants who are not as fortunate as average Americans.

I made a big effort to reveal positions of underprivileged community members who have

been largely absent in existing scholarships regardless of their indispensable roles. Table I.1.

shows that a relatively large number of the interviewees are laborers, many of whom are

undocumented. Some of the research sites listed in Table I.2 were selected because these workers

often congregate there. Most businesses included in the study tend to be small or medium in size

because these are typical of the ethnic economy.

My selection of research sites and objects invites questions that must be addressed. Are

the participants in the project a accurate representation of the entire Chinese American

population? Why is relatively little space devoted to the most successful members of the

community, the main source of ethnic pride? What can be accomplished by revealing the plight

of the underprivileged, especially that of undocumented immigrants? Would the community be

better off if undocumented members remained invisible? Would any discussion of these

immigrants attract unwanted attention from law enforcement agencies and therefore add more

sufferings to people who are already struggling at the bottom? The question of representation is

important because this book addresses issues concerning the entire community rather than a

particular group. It is now common knowledge that not only has a significant proportion of the

Chinese living in the United States moved up to middle-class status, but also that an increasing

number of individuals have gained upper-class membership. Then why does the book offer few

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details about the accomplishments of Chinese American dignitaries such as entrepreneurs from

the lists of Forbes, Fortune, and Money magazines; politicians holding powerful federal or state

government posts; Nobel laureates and other distinguished scientists and scholars; and star

athletes, entertainers, or television personalities? I certainly have no intention to suggest that

such elite members of the community are less important than the others, but their stories have

been well-documented in numerous scholarly works and media productions. If the book seems to

give less space to the haves than the have-nots, it is only because we know so little about the

latter. But the book is not just about the underprivileged; quite a few interviewees possess

considerable wealth. Moreover, stories told by laborers reveal as much about the comforts and

luxuries of their employers as they do about their own struggles. Most of the domestics

interviewed, for example, worked for upper-class Chinese Americans who dwell in mansions in

exclusive neighborhoods, including those owned by successful business owners and prominent

politicians. The ways in which these laborers are related to the well-to-do members of the

community is the main focus of the book.

Would a book that brings light to undocumented immigrants direct unwanted public

attention to a community that is highly concerned about its public image? I certainly hope not.

As a historian I do not believe that a comprehensive understanding of contemporary Chinese

America or any ethnic community is possible if a particular group of people is excluded,

regardless of the pragmatic reasons behind that omission. At the same time, ignoring the

undocumented has become a convenient way to make the undocumented invisible and turn a

blind eye to their plight. Much has changed since the Civil Rights era. As most Chinese

Americans achieved social mobility, as more individuals became power players in mainstream

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American politics, business, and academics, perhaps it is a good time to look back at the history

of Chinese immigration and reconsider, as Nathan Glazer puts it, “the one great subject of

inclusion or exclusion.”12 As entrepreneurs, homeowners, and consumers in general, many

Chinese Americans are happy to find laborers who will work for them for less or to acquire

quality service and merchandise at good bargains. How could we take advantage of the benefits

offered by these laborers without concerning their rights and welfare? As an integral component

of the community, should the undocumented immigrants also have a place in the community’s

ongoing struggle for civil rights and social justice?13

Most of the interviews were conducted in Mandarin and then translated into English. I

use pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of the individuals who participated in the research, and

in a few cases I also altered the areas of residence of the individuals involved. Real identity of an

individual is revealed if the person is a public figure speaking on behalf of an organization or

institution, or if the story comes from published sources.

Following the Introduction, which has outlined the scope, perspectives, and methodology

of the project, Chapter one provides an overview of the Chinese American population. It begins

with a critical reading of the U.S. census data and immigration statistics from 1950 to 2000,

arguing that the Chinese population in the United States is heavily undercounted; a significant

number of Chinese immigrant laborers who have not obtained legal status are absent in the

census, although many of them may have gained entry legally. Tracing the origins of various

groups of post-1965 immigrants, Chapter one illuminates the complex circumstances that gave

shape to the undocumented immigrant population. It also explores the impact of gendered

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immigrant networks and policies of the United States on the lives of undocumented men and

women.

Chapter Two discusses the construction of class in Chinese America. The Chinese have

been in the United States for more than 150 years, and the profile of the post-1965 Chinese

immigrants differs from that of immigrants who had come earlier. Contemporary immigrants

come from all walks of life and from many different parts of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong,

Southeast Asia, and many other regions of the world. The concept of class means different things

to different people depending on their diverse geopolitical origins, socioeconomic statuses, levels

of education, and immigration backgrounds; advancement in economic terms is only one of the

many measures used by the Chinese to draw class distinctions. By incorporating the voices of

different Chinese social groups such as American-born Chinese and immigrants, old-timers and

newcomers, mainlanders and Taiwanese immigrants from elsewhere, business owners and

laborers, documented and undocumented, this chapter illustrates the different criteria used by

Chinese Americans to identify social classes. It also shows how the implication of class has

changed over time as the processes of social mobility unfolded.

Chapter Three examines the development of the ethnic economy, emphasizing its role in

enhancing ethnic ties. The concept of an ethnic economy has been used by scholars to describe

the employment sector that involves both immigrant owners and coethnic immigrant employees.

14 In this study, however, I use the term in a broader sense to embrace economic activities in both

the employment and market/service sectors that involve predominantly Chinese Americans, both

immigrants and the American-born. I downplay the immigration background of the participants

because it is simply impossible to separate the economic activities of various groups of Chinese

! 15

Americans based on this criterion. A vast majority of Chinese American families consist of both

American-born and foreign-born members, and most Chinese American businesses serve both

immigrants and their American-born counterparts. Whereas those born in the United States or

who arrived in an earlier era are more likely than the newcomers to be the bosses, it is not

unusual for American-born Chinese to find employment in companies owned by immigrants.

The situation is even more complex if we take globalization into consideration. Thus I consider a

business employing mostly immigrant Chinese workers part of the ethnic economy, even if the

owner was born in the United States. A law firm owned by a non-Chinese attorney may also be

included if most of its employees are Chinese and it serves mainly Chinese clients. On the other

hand, I do not see a company founded by a Chinese immigrant, such as Yahoo Inc., as part of the

ethnic economy for the simple reason that neither its employees nor its customers can be

characterized as predominantly Chinese. What makes the Chinese ethnic economy unique is not

just its access to immigrant laborers (many other ethnic groups also enjoy such an advantage),

but its ability to reach out to coethnic consumers. The fact that “Serve the people” (wei renmin

fuwu), one of Mao Zedong’s most frequently quoted phrases during the Chinese Cultural

Revolution, is now adopted by the New York law firm of Ross and Legan as its advertising

slogan, provides just one example of how businesses and service-oriented professionals try to

connect with the new immigrants, most of them from mainland China. Network services, such as

employment agencies and family motels that work to link immigrant newcomers with coethnic

employers and feed professional service providers with potential clients, receive special

attention. These services play indispensable roles in bringing together different groups of

! 16

Chinese Americans and facilitate the expansion of the ethnic economy to different parts of the

United States.

Focusing on one of the most energetic new regional groups of Chinese immigrants,

Chapter Four explores some of the recent dynamics within the ethnic community. The Chinese

were very successful in organizing themselves half a century ago. Access to mainstream

opportunities after World War II, however, makes affiliation with ethnic organizations less

crucial for the individuals, especially those who have left the Chinatowns. Conflicting political

sentiments about governments in China and Taiwan further weakened the strength of traditional

organizations and worked to erode ethnic solidarity. Despite proclaiming itself the voice of the

entire Chinese American community, today’s Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

(CCBA) has little control over the diverse and dispersed ethnic population. Many affiliates of the

federation (eighty-two are listed in New York) have long reduced their activities to collecting

rent from their business tenants. At the same time, however, some new regional immigrant

groups began to show tremendous vigor within the community. Beginning in the 1980s, Changle

County (which became a city in 1994) in the Fuzhou district of Fujian, China, became a

launching pad for people willing to pay any amount to come to the United States. Of an

estimated 200,000 Changle immigrants living in the United States in 2001, approximately

170,000 resided in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan areas. Because some members of this

regional immigrant group have been subjected to sensational mainstream media coverage, for

many years the Changle people (or Fuzhou people in general) have been categorically identified

as illegal immigrants and considered the lowest class in the community. Within a relatively short

period of time, however, the Changle people have gathered their own resources to build

! 17

extensive entrepreneurship, and their presence in New York has revitalized the city’s ethnic

economy. Their association has emerged as a powerful force, in sharp contrast to the declining

influence of those century-old establishments. A federation of twenty-six affiliated district

groups, each attached to a native town or village in China, the Changle American Association is

capable of putting thousands of members onto the streets at any given time, something that even

the CCBA, the fountainhead of all traditional district associations, could not anymore. Such

development is most impressive especially because the relatively new association has limited

financial resources; unlike established organizations, it has no control over real estate properties,

and a large proportion of its members are laborers or self-employed business owners. More

important than the primordial ties that originated in their native places are their common

beginnings in the United States. As menial laborers and undocumented immigrants make unity

and mutual support most urgent to the Changle people, the association has worked effectively to

protect the rights and interests of its members. This chapter showcases new political dynamics

within Chinese America, illuminating the ways that new immigrant groups negotiate power and

space with the ethnic establishment.

Undocumented immigrants are treated as an integral part of the Chinese American

community in each of the above chapters. Chapter Five goes further to analyze the relationships

between immigrant laborers and their middle class employers/service providers, and explore the

positions of these two groups in a new social hierarchy. If mobility has been achieved by a large

proportion of Chinese Americans, success is not shared by everyone, for poverty remains

common among the post-1965 immigrants.15 It is arguable that the expansion of the ethnic

economy enhances dependencies between employers and their laborers. Many Chinese American

! 18

businesses may not have been as successful without easy access to low-cost labor and the

patronage of coethnic consumers; without the assistance of the ethnic economic networks it

would be much harder for some immigrants to find jobs and shelter. Such dependencies, though

they seem to be mutually benificial, do not carry the same weight for each of the involved

groups. While Chinese employers are able to turn their disadvantaged fellow community

members into low-wage laborers and move themselves upward at a pace faster than their non-

Chinese compatriots, those who labor for them, especially the undocumented, are susceptible to

exploitation and abuse.16 Moreover, long-term dependency on coethnic employers also works to

prevent these laborers from gaining access to mainstream opportunities. The ethnic consumer

market, which operates in more intricate ways, reveals similar realities. While the competitive

edge of the ethnic economy can benefit consumers of all classes, in areas where every other door

is closed entrepreneurs are allowed to conduct business on their own terms, leaving consumers/

clients with neither room for bargain nor entitlement to any protection. In this sense, the structure

of the ethnic economy is also a factor that perpetuates poverty, as business owners, professional

service providers, and middle-class consumers have far more to gain and far less to lose than

those who are forced to play a part. In conclusion, I raise a few questions to engage future

academic debate.

Although this book provides a broad picture of post-1965 Chinese America, it does not

cover every aspect of the community life or experiences of every regional groups. Chinese

Americans in Hawaii as well as those from Southeast Asia deserve attention but are beyond the

scope of the present study. The selected sketches of individuals and profiles of businesses,

combined with census and other statistics, are presented here to offer one perspective of a fast

! 19

growing and highly diverse American ethnic community. Focusing on the ways that the new

ethnic economy and ethnic social hierarchy are developed, this book demonstrates that Chinese

Americans today are connected to one another in ways quite different from those of the pre-

World War II years. Common ancestry, history, culture, language, and value systems do provide

threads for group affiliations, but ethnic strength is never a given factor. It is the realities of

Chinese in the United States as a minority group, the existence of a large number of

disadvantaged immigrants, and the need to survive for some and the desire to move up for others

that invigorate the ethnic economy and strengthen ethnic bonds.

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