Chinese are a highly socialized community with strong family ties. They are loyal and respect hierarchy, but also seek to balance work and home life.
Despite the fact that they were discriminated against, the Chinese built thriving communities in North America. Many established their own businesses, including laundries, grocery stores and restaurants.
Origins
In the 1870s and 1880s, Chinese settled many small towns in the West. They worked as cooks and domestic servants for affluent families, operated hand laundries, and built successful restaurants. They also became involved in agricultural businesses, fishing and mining industries and leather goods manufacturing.
Associations based on surname, language and village ties formed in these communities. These groups were a source of community support and helped to maintain cultural identity for their members. Association rosters and lists can provide valuable clues for tracing your family history.
After World War II, the repeal of the Exclusion Act and the McCarran-Walter immigration reforms brought new influxes of Chinese to the United States. This new group was much more educated and acculturated than previous immigrant groups.
Culture
Due to China’s massive size and lengthy history, the culture of the Chinese varies greatly. Depending on where Chinese people come from and the dialects they speak, their religions, beliefs and cultural practices can be quite different.
Chinese tend to put family and social obligations above work in terms of importance. They also value relaxation, as evidenced by their one to two hour lunch breaks and week-long holiday celebrations.
Despite the discrimination against them, many of the older Chinese still emphasize Confucian values and celebrate the lunar new year. Additionally, in the United States, they have created organizations and charities that promote their heritage. These groups allow members to feel a sense of community when living far from their home towns. They also serve as a quasi government and provide social services, arbitrate disputes, and guard treaty rights.
Education
The Chinese community has developed a wide range of educational services. These are largely non-profit or for-profit entities offering academic and non-academic extracurricular tutoring.
The Chinese language schools that serve the American community offer instruction in Mandarin and Chinese culture. They have large enrollments and also provide a variety of other services, such as administering Hanban-authorized Chinese standardized tests, preparing students for the SAT and SAT II Chinese and math exams, and hosting summer camps.
Despite the enormous differences in the two countries’ cultures and political systems, educators in both places have shared pedagogical ideas over the past century. Educators in China have more recently embraced Deweyan community education as a model for empowerment. (Christens and Perkins, 2008) (See Table 2). The authors are both adult community educators who have spent time in Shanghai and in the U.S.
Religion
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) discourages the practice of religion among its ninety-eight million members and the vast majority of China’s population. Its view is that superstition reflects a backward mindset that is incompatible with socialism. It imposes a strict line on religious beliefs and discourages public participation in ceremonies.
It is difficult to pin down the number of Chinese who are religious. In surveys, the wording of the question often focuses on whether or not people identify with a specific organized religion. This is a problem because Western definitions of religion and measures of church participation are less well suited to the spiritual beliefs and practices common in East Asia.
The constitution allows freedom of religious belief. However, the government does not tolerate groups it deems “heterodox cults,” and they are subject to periodic crackdowns.
Employment
Socially, Chinese are a close-knit, inward-looking community. This stems partly from the experience of exclusion, when they were largely isolated and did not engage in political activities. They have also tended to place a high value on family. It is not uncommon for three generations to live under one roof, especially among older immigrants.
In the United States, a strong sense of community and a deep understanding of Chinese culture have helped immigrants succeed in their adopted homes. This success is evidenced in the many Chinese businesses that make up America’s Chinatowns, and the Chinese Americans who run them. These businesses are a vital economic force and a source of cultural identity for Chinese Americans.