Asian American Studies

Before the war, Chinese Americans were known as non-citizen immigrants who aren’t allow to go back to visit China. The male immigrants can’t to bring their wives over from China and they weren't allowed to marry whites legally. In fact any white American woman that married a non-citizen Chinese man automatically lost her citizenship under US law. This left Chinese communities across the United States empty of children, filled with aging bachelors, and inexorably dying away. Ironically the renewal of the Chinese American community came about because of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 that destroyed immigration and birth records across the city. The US Supreme Court in Wong Kim Ark v. United States in 1898 had affirmed citizenship

‘The Chinese in All of Us’ is an essay written by Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez is a first generation American, who’s a son of a working class Mexican immigrant. Author of a thin book called Hunger of Memory, that summarized the memories of how he became Americanized, Rodriguez shares how he believes we all are blending and being fluid with individualism but unifying as Americans.

Chinese parents and American parents differ greatly in their parenting styles and a noticeable difference can be seen in the success of their children. The children of Chinese parents often excel in various areas, including in their educational, musical, and professional lives. The children of American parents, however, usually have a harder time excelling in those areas. Chinese parents and American parents hold opposing philosophies about how they view their children, opposing methods about how they raise their children, and opposing effects on the personalities of their children.

Although one’s racial and ethnic identities are predetermined due to genetics, attachment to a particular culture is not a birthright; one has to accept and understand the community in order to fully identify with it. When Robert Chang writes “one is not born Asian American, one becomes one”, he means just that. In Chang’s opinion, having Asian blood and living on American soil is not sufficient to call oneself Asian American, but the connection to the community allows one claim to the title.

According to the article Chinese in America by Jonathan Lee, he describes the experiences of Chinese in America and how they immigrated,

The stories "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" by Amy Chua and "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan portray how children are raised in Chinese-American culture and what beliefs predominate in Chinese-American communities. In Chinese-American culture, mothers approach raising their children differently from many other American parents. While there are many similarities among these Chinese parents, variation can still be seen in the level of persistence and determination each individual parent pours into their parenting. These differences in persistence can be what make the difference in the results.

In 1965, the last legal barrier to Chinese immigrants fell with the signing of a new law that ended immigration quotas based on race. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the story of the Chinese in America was primarily a legal drama, played out on the nation’s borders and in courts. After the new immigration law went into effect, it became a personal story told by one individual and by one family at a time.

After civil war had settled down, many immigrants came to America to live from many countries such as Germany, Ireland, and England. There are as many as 12 million immigrants at this time. Regarding Chinese immigration, they immigrated to the United States from 1849 to 1882. Between this period, America had California Gold Rush, which is one of the reasons Chinese people immigrated. Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was taken into practice, no more Chinese people could immigrate to the United States after 1882. Chinese immigration is the divergent point for Chinese’ lives who lived in America.

The motivations for the Chinese to come to the United States are similar to most immigrants. These motivations are what most people call "The American Dream." These could be looking for a better life, having a better job, running away from political issues. However, for Chinese these American dreams were not too easy to achieve at first compared to other immigrants. Chinese suffered a lot more obstacles and discriminations because they are relatively small and easy to be targeted on. Even more the legal system passed a law in 1963 forbidding Chinese to testify against white men in court. This anti-Chinese action was most critical in the Pacific Coast; as a result, it caused the dispersion of Chinese that had settled in California to the

In this Problem Solution essay, they were asked to write about the theme of “image”, pertaining to Asian-American studies. Students were to come to class and discuss the assignment, developing problems. The topics or problems chosen for the assignment had to be from the “class generated pool of topics”. The students are supposed to brainstorm for a related topic to the theme of “image”, chose a topic to submit to the instructor for approval, forming their ideas to create a rough draft, lastly properly organizing the ideas into a final draft. Also as part of the assignment they are asked to compose a viable and thoughtful solution which addresses the problem they specified. Constructing this assignment allows the

Historian Daryl Joji Maeda called the The Asian American movement “a multiethnic alliance comprising of all ethnicities by drawing on the discourses and ideologies of the Black Power and anti-war movements in the United States as well as decolonization movements around the globe.” By the 1960s, a new generation, less attached to the ethnic differences that plagued Asian immigrant groups, began to grow and work together. The black and white binary race treatment in the US alienated Asian-Americans as an other, causing some to begin their own rally for Asian-American civil rights.

Chinese parents that have immigrated to the United States from China are known to have an Authoritative approach to child-rearing. In a study done by Cindy Lin, parents from China (Taiwan), immigrant Chinese living in America, and American parent’s child-rearing practices were compared. In her study she found that Chinese parents tend to control their children more than American Parents, as well as be less

     The focus of our group project is on Chinese Americans. We studied various aspects of their lives and the preservation of their culture in America. The Chinese American population is continually growing. In fact, in 1990, they were the largest group of Asians in the United States (Min 58). But living in America and adjusting to a new way of life is not easy. Many Chinese Americans have faced and continue to face much conflict between their Chinese and American identities. But many times, as they adapt to this new life, they are also able to preserve their Chinese culture and identity through various ways. We studied these things through the viewing of a movie called Joy Luck Club,

Believe it or not, but American and Chinese culture do have something’s in common. They see eye-to-eye on some aspects. Like providing for their children “Parents work together for the well-being of their children” [Example from Article]. It is true that parents do the best they can to work towards a better financial life for their kids. That’s why many Chinese parents come over to the states, so that they can provide a better life, and a better education. They would also go to great lengths for their children no matter what the cause “Parents will risk their life for their children” [Example from Article]. Any parent would risk their life for their children no matter what ethnicity, or cultural aspect! There is no bond like a parent and their child.

Because America is such a diverse country, there are many differences between cultures of various immigrant groups. Members of each culture, have their own beliefs and values regarding what they think is right. The cultural diversity allows for each person to have a different view of things. Amy Chua’s essay “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior,” she describes her way of parenting her two daughters following Chinese values about education. She explains how Western parents are much more lenient than Chinese parents with their children and education. Chua gives examples of how she raised her daughter Lulu and Sophia which lead them to achieve success. She makes comparisons between Western and Chinese parenting styles throughout the essay and concludes that both types of parents want the best for their children, but just approach parenting it in different ways. In the article, “Chinese vs Western Mothers: Q&A with Amy Chua,” Amy Chua is interviewed by Belinda Luscombe where she clarifies how her Chinese method of parenting did not hurt her children the way many readers thought it did. Chua explains that her relationship with her two daughters is very strong and believes there are many effective ways of parenting in addition to the Chinese approach. Chua’s essay shows the Chinese immigrant approach to parenting and gives insight into why so many children of Chinese parents are so successful. Discussing the cultural differences shows the risk of stereotyping groups where feelings