Amid hard times and legal exclusion, Chinese immigrants built self-reliant neighborhoods that were known to non-Chinese as Chinatowns. These communities served as second homes and hubs for commerce.
The core value of Chinese society is harmony, which entails rationality, propriety and compatibility. It also advocates moving from disorder to coordination and asymmetry to symmetry.
Culture
The Chinese have a rich culture and are deeply attached to their country of origin. They maintain a strong sense of tradition and values, and they celebrate festivals on the traditional calendar.
Historically, China was an agrarian society and people lived in rural communities where family and social relations were paramount. This type of social structure led to a strong sense of loyalty and obligation that extended beyond the immediate family.
When Chinese began migrating to America in large numbers, they were met with hostility and prejudice. Some anti-Chinese advocates argued that admitting Chinese immigrants would lower the moral standards of American society and encourage them to practice opium smoking, gambling and prostitution. These attitudes led to the formation of Chinatowns. In addition, many Chinese resisted being part of the new, racially integrated economy by creating their own business opportunities.
Religion
Many Chinese practice religious beliefs and practices that fall into neither of the two major Western religions. This makes it challenging to compare statistics on Chinese religion and belief in general with those from countries where Christianity or Islam are the predominant religious affiliations.
Following Mao’s death and Deng Xiaoping’s ascendency, the CCP returned to its pre-Cultural Revolution stance on religion, allowing Chinese Buddhism and Taoism to revive. However, a strict regulatory framework limits unchecked growth.
Officially sanctioned Buddhist and Taoist leaders and adherents must operate within a system of bureaucratic and interventionist state oversight, including the Buddhist Association of China and the Chinese Taoist Association; the State Administration for Religious Affairs; and the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. In addition, authorities have pressured churches to display political propaganda and recite the national anthem before and after services.
Education
The Chinese have been successful in Latin America, where they have set up large import/export businesses, textile factories and restaurants. In Peru, Venezuela, Panama and Brazil the community numbers over 60,000.
They also contribute to local economies with their banking, insurance and supermarkets. And they have been active in education.
In Cleveland, the Academy of Chinese Culture has been teaching children in the east side since 1966. It has used rooms in schools and churches in CLEVELAND HTS. on weekends to give children instruction in language and history. Its aim is to preserve Chinese cultural values. Those values have been under attack in China. Confucian concepts like modesty, obedience and loyalty are losing popularity. However, the community still maintains traditional holidays and celebrates its own festivals.
Politics
In recent years, the Chinese government has tightened its grip on the state bureaucracy, media, online speech, religious practice, universities, businesses and civil society associations. As a result, Xi Jinping has consolidated power and personal control to levels unseen in decades.
In Xinjiang, peaceful religious practices of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims and Christian “house churches” are subject to surveillance and censorship. Meanwhile, Chinese students and scholars abroad have been subjected to censored writings, demotions, travel restrictions, job loss and even jail sentences for social media posts critical of the regime’s COVID-19 response or Xi Jinping Thought.
In addition, groups with close ties to the United Front Work Department have attracted scrutiny for interfering in foreign politics and economic espionage. These include guanxi networks for businessmen, Confucius Institutes and their affiliates, and university student associations that are overseen by the UFWD.
Economy
Many Chinese businessmen have built successful operations in Latin America. Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay and other nations have large colonies of Chinese people with thriving businesses in industrial, commercial and agricultural sectors.
The first Chinese immigrants to the United States strove to make enough money to send home to support their families and pay back loans they borrowed for passage to America. As a result, they often worked for lower wages than other workers.
Nonetheless, as the Chinese population in the United States expanded, they opened laundries, restaurants, and other businesses that were successful enough to survive anti-Chinese sentiment. These businesses helped to shape the neighborhood that became known as Chinatown in San Francisco. The reform and open-door policies of the early 1990s brought significant changes to the economic system in China.