ASAM paper

Xinyu Shang

ASAM 100AA

Week 9 Reading Journal

The main theme across all these weekly journals is the lives of Asian

communities, specifically the Chinese American community in the United States. The

articles have highlighted the Chinese culture, food, and cuisines, challenges, and

opportunities for Chinese students in the United States as well as the issues of Chinese

immigrants and how it has affected most families in the Asian communities. It is

interesting to understand from the articles readings that in the recent years, as a result of

the increase in the growth rate of Chinese Americans in the United States, several ethnic

districts popularly known as Chinatowns have recently emerged in cities such as Los

Angeles, Houston, New York as well as San Francisco. Chinese American

businesspeople have also emerged in these towns offering services like Chinese

education programs, classes, and advice to both the middle-class and the immigrants.

This is a clear indication of the involvement of the ethnic economy from the diverse

Chinese American communities.

The journals have also established that a substantial number of members of the

Chinese population in the United States have experienced a great deal of upward

mobility. The authors have approached this aspect of the Chinese community from a

distinct perspective and asses the manner in which such mobility was made possible. The

readings have also made a clear observation that research studies, as well as statistics

conducted, indicate that the whole community of the Chinese population in the US has

been successful at a rapid pace when compared to other ethnic populations. This success

has been attributed to the internal workings as well as the inner dynamics of the Chinese

American community. Further, the journals have also outlined that as a result of

hostilities together with violence the Chinese immigration had been slowed down and the

immigrants had been forced out of the job market. Before the Second World War,

ethnicity tended to determine most social relationships more than class.

More so, the interesting aspect of the journals is that the authors have used class

evaluation to reveal the other side of the Chinese communities’ experiences apart from

the mobility success that has been achieved. The readings have included the challenges

of normal day survival of the Chinese students, laborers as well as entrepreneurs and how

this has affected their position in the social hierarchy. The great amount of immigrant

workers inflow has allowed the expansion of the Chinese economy, in which the business

people can be able to maintain their advantage and compete favorably with the other

ethnic communities in the United States. The Chinese workers do not have the

mainstream into the job market as a result legal regulations. Most Chinese students are

being accused of paying other individuals to write their academic work and this is done in

such a way that it can never be proven through the college standards. This is the wrong

profiling of the Chinese American students because these students survive completely on

savings from their parents, with little or nothing left for the future and hence, they cannot

afford to endanger their education.