Over time, Chinese immigrants have settled in a variety of countries. They established Chinatowns and worked as traders and laborers.
In Philadelphia, about half of the city’s Chinese residents live in 3 contiguous neighborhoods centered on Chinatown. Across the United States, most Chinese reside in California and New York.
Family Life
The family is the core of Chinese culture. It is all about showing respect and loyalty to one’s parents and ancestors. A huge emphasis is placed on filial piety and ensuring that one’s parents are taken care of in their old age.
Traditionally, patrilineal descent meant that membership in a clan was determined by one’s father and only males could inherit family land or other inheritance. Today, however, many families are more focused on financial success and putting their children in good educational institutions.
Relationships within the family are typically emotionally founded and mate selection is free. This is particularly true among the well-off urban middle class. The Chinese government’s one child policy had a significant impact on the family dynamic. It has forced families to rethink their priorities.
Education
Early Chinese immigrants developed strategies to preserve their cultural heritage in their new communities. In America these included community organizations, cultural festivals and language schools. They also maintained a sense of their heritage by celebrating traditional Chinese holidays such as the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China’s educational system has been geared toward economic modernization. The government has made nine years of compulsory education a national goal and established a state education commission. The country now places a high priority on developing a skilled workforce.
It hoped that by 2000 all rural areas and inland cities with moderate development would have at least a junior high school level of education. The country also hoped that the number of university entrants from these regions would rise.
Work
Chinese work hard to build guanxi, a network of friends and acquaintances that helps them in times of need. In addition to building these relationships, they also prioritize family ties and demonstrate filial piety.
This is especially important for those who immigrated far from home. This was the case for many of the people who worked on the railroad that went through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across Nevada in the 1850s. They were often isolated in separate camps, but managed to coordinate a work stoppage with remarkable efficiency and unity.
Global Volunteers’ China Country Manager Bao Li works closely with each team and facilitates their orientation to help acclimate volunteers to local culture, and encourage participation in community events and day-to-day life. She also supports teams with all of their work projects.
Religion
As China’s middle class has grown richer, many have sought spiritual comfort outside officially sanctioned religion. Educated urban Chinese have embraced Protestant Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, and New Age-inspired practices that blend religious concepts with self-help advice. Many have also adopted fengshui, a practice associated with Taoism.
The Chinese government considers many of these faiths to be “heterodox cults,” and crackdowns are common. The state aims to sinicize religion, shaping faiths to promote Communist Party ideology and values. It has also pushed to ban religious groups that do not fit the mold. In turn, many Chinese believe the party’s effort to control religion has backfired, and have found new forms of spirituality to fill the void.
Politics
Almost every survey or paper using standard direct question techniques shows that Chinese citizens express high levels of regime support. This may vary by sample, time period and questions used, but the general picture is consistent.
Research also indicates that a significant minority of citizens find the current authoritarian system stifling, and favor more open political institutions (though not necessarily multi-party democracy). This group is often associated with higher economic status.
Observers have difficulty knowing which faction an individual belongs to, since this is often based on informal networks and private rather than public connections. Researchers attempt to use small, sometimes trivial, pieces of information, such as mutual places of birth or schools attended, to guess factional links. These are often inaccurate. Nevertheless, this data is valuable for understanding Chinese politics and society.