Chinese American | 华裔美国人

Professor Frank Wu: ​The New Chinese Diaspora - Embracing the Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner?
​Professor Xiaoyan Zhang: "American Democracy in the Eyes of a New Immigrant from China"

Who is a Chinese American?  What is the Chinese American population?  These questions may appear simple on the surface, but they are subject to definitions and interpretations.  They have also evolved over time.

For data collection purposes, the Office of Management and Budget is the official authority to define racial and ethnic categories for the United States.  Today, Chinese American is a sub-category of Asian American, defined as "A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam." 

This government definition generally reflects a recognized social definition.  It is not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically, nor is it linked to the standard geographical definitions.  In practice, an individual associates his or her race and ethnicity by self-identification. 

The U.S. Census Bureau produces official statistics on the Chinese American population according to this definition and self-identified data, which include U.S. citizens and nationals, as well as permanent residents.  Under this definition and interpretation, a Chinese American may also be described as a Chinese in America.  Definition used in social, legal and other applications may vary, such as the requirement of U.S. citizenship. 

Basic Statistics

​The first recorded arrival of three Chinese sailors in the U.S. travelled from Canton (now Guangzhou), China on board the ship Pallas to Baltimore, Maryland in August 1785.  The first recorded Chinese immigrants arrived in the U.S. around 1820. 

​By 1860, the census counted 34,933 Chinese living in California.  More than three quarters of them were miners and laborers who first came to the U.S. during the 1848-1855 Gold Rush and then helped built and completed the First Transcontinental Railroad by 1869.

The 2010 census showed that the Asian population grew faster than any other race group over the previous decade.

Chinese Americans was the largest detailed Asian group, with about 3.3 million people reporting Chinese alone and an additional 700,000 people identifying as both Chinese and one or more additional detailed Asian groups and/or another race. 

According to the 2017 American Community Survey, the Census Bureau estimated a population of Chinese Americans of one or more races to be slightly over 5 million, or about 1.5% of the total U.S. population. 

Additional statistics on Chinese in America are available from, for example, the Census Bureau, the Migration Policy Institute, and the Pew Research Center.

Beyond Statistics

Beyond these statistics, the Chinese American population is complex as it has evolved over the past two hundred years.  Several waves of immigrations have occurred; they were also severely repressed for more than 60 years under the Chinese Exclusion Act.  There are American-born Chinese (ABC) whose roots have been here for generations; there are also recent naturalized citizens and immigrants of diverse economic and educational background who came from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and the rest of the world.

Not surprisingly, more in-depth understanding about the Chinese American population varies according to perspectives, experiences, and even aspirations, notably between ABCs and more recent naturalized citizens and immigrants.  Two prominent Chinese American leaders of such diverse background, who have long been engaged with APA Justice, offer their views on this topic.  They are:

• Frank H. Wu (吴华扬), William L. Prosser Distinguished Professor, ​University of California Hastings College of the Law and author of Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White.   Frank was born in Cleveland, Ohio, son of Chinese immigrants from Taiwan.  His paper, "The New Chinese Diaspora Embracing the Model Minority and Perpetual Foreigner?," was orginally published in Chinese Historical Society of America: History & Perspectives.  Chinese translation of the paper was made by Kathy Liu, Steve Ning, and Julia Pan.

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• ​Xiaoyan Zhang (张小彥), visiting professor at University of Pittsburgh and Chair of United Chinese Americans (UCA).  Xiaoyang was born in Beijing, China and came to the U.S. in the early 1980s.  He is a naturalized U.S. citizen.  Xiaoyan authored the UCA manifesto "From Sojourner to Citizen" in 2018 and shares a paper here "American Democracy in the Eyes of a New Immigrant from China" about his personal experience and understanding.  A Chinese verison is also available. 

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​吴华扬教授: 《新的中国移民 - 拥抱“模范少数民族”和“永久的外国人”？》
张小彥教授​: 《一个来自中国新移民眼中的美国民主》

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谁是华裔美国人？ 华裔美国人口是多少？ 从表面上看，这些问题可能看似简单，但它们需要定义和解释。 它们也随着时间而変更。

出于数据收集的目的，管理和预算办公室是为美国界定种族和族裔类别的官方机构。 今天，华裔美国人是亚裔美国人的子类别，亚裔美国人被定义为“起源于远东，东南亚或印度次大陆的任何原始民族的人，例如柬埔寨，中国，印度 ，日本，韩国，马来西亚，巴基斯坦，菲律宾，泰国和越南。“

这个政府定义通常反映了普遍公认的社会定义。 它不反映生物学，人类学或遗传学的定义想法，也不是与标准地理定义相关联的。 在实践中，各人根据定义自我选择认同个人的种族。

美国人口普查局根据这一定义和自我识别的数据提供有关华裔美国人口的官方统计数据，其中包括美国公民、国民以及永久居民。 根据这一定义和解释，华裔美国人在美国也可能被描述为在美华人或美国华裔。用于社会、法律或其他用途的定义会有差異，例如需要公民身份。

基本统计
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1785年8月，三名中国水手在美国首次登陆，从中国广州乘帕拉斯船到马里兰州的巴尔的摩。第一批有记录的中国移民于1820年左右抵达美国。
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到1860年，人口普查统计报告共有34,933名华人居住在加利福尼亚州。 其中四分之三以上是矿工和劳工，他们在1848-1855淘金热期间首次来到美国，然后在1869年帮助建造并完成了第一条横贯大陆的铁路。

2010年人口普查显示，在过去十年中，亚裔人口增长速度超过任何其他种族群体。

华裔美国人是亚裔美国人中最大的群体，共有330万自报是华人，还有70万人自报是华人和其他种族混合。

根据2017年美国社区调查，人口普查局估计，自报是华人或多个种族的华裔美国人口略多于500万，约占美国总人口的1.5％。

更多有关华裔美国人的统计数据可見于例如，普查局，移民政策研究所和皮尤研究中心。

统计以外

这些统计数据之外，华裔美国人口在过去两百年里一直有复杂的变化。 既有几波移民潮; 亦被60多年的《排华法案》严重压制。 有美国出生的华人（ABC），其根源已经存在了好几代人; 还有最近来自香港，台湾，中国和世界其他地区具有不同经济和教育背景的入籍公民和移民。
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​根据各方观点、经验甚至愿望，对华裔美国人口更深入了解而产生的差异，毫不为怪，特别是在ABCs、入籍的公民和最近移民之间的看法。 长期与APA Justice合作的两位具有多元背景的美国华裔领导人就此话题提出了自己的看法。他们是：

• 吴华扬, 加州大学黑斯廷斯法学院 William L. Prosser 杰出教授，《黄人：超越美国黑、白之外的种族》作者。吴华扬出生于俄亥俄州克利夫兰市，父母是台湾移民。​他的文章《新的中国移民 - 拥抱“模范少数民族”和“永久的外国人”？》​原版于《美国华人历史学会: 历史和观点》。中文翻译由Kathy Liu, Steve Ning, 和 Julia Pan提供。

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• ​张小彥, 匹兹堡大学客座教授，美国华人联合会（UCA）主席，社会学博士​。 张小彥出生于中国北京，于20世纪80年代初来到美国。 他是入籍美国公民。 张小彥在2018年撰写了UCA宣言《从过客到公民》，并在这里分享了一篇文章《一个来自中国新移民眼中的美国民主》，讲述他的个人经历和理解，並附中文版本。

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China's Policy:
​Huaren or Huaqiao

• The Chinese diaspora, consisting of both Chinese living overseas who are citizens of China (huaqiao 华侨), and people of Chinese descent who are citizens of foreign countries (huaren 华人), have significantly shaped the making of modern China.
• China’s policy towards its diaspora is primarily governed by its national interests and foreign policy imperatives. However, the Chinese government has been careful to ensure that the huaqiao and the huaren fall into different policy domains: Chinese citizens living overseas are subject to China’s domestic policies, while Chinese descendants who are citizens of other countries come under China’s foreign affairs. Nevertheless, from the beginning, the latter continue to be regarded as kinsfolk distinct from other foreign nationals.
• The huaqiao-huaren distinction is often blurred in ordinary discourse and this has been a source of much misunderstanding. However, it has not been the policy of the Chinese government to blur this distinction, and it is acutely aware of the complexity of the issue and is therefore very cautious about implying any change. As such, when terms such as huaqiao-huaren are introduced in the official lexicon, they are meant to acknowledge certain historical and contemporary realities, and not to deliberately obfuscate the two categories. The use of the combined term is in fact a recognition of
  the clear-cut distinction between the two groups, and is meant to convey a semantic balance in which neither category is emphasized at the expense of the other.
• And more from below by Wu Xiaoan, professor of history at Peking University and director of its Centre for the Study of Chinese Overseas ....

2019/10/07 South China Morning Post opinion: Huaren or huaqiao? Beijing respects the difference and is not coercing foreigners to toe its line

2019 No/ 14 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute: China’s Evolving Policy Towards The Chinese Diaspora in Southeast Asia (1949–2018)

U.S. Policy:
​Nationality, Citizenship, and U.S. Persons

U.S. State Department on Dual Nationality and Citizenship:

• Section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) states that “the term ‘national of the United States’ means (A) a citizen of the United States, or (B) a person who, though not a citizen of the United States, owes permanent allegiance to the United States.” Therefore, U.S. citizens are also U.S. nationals. Non-citizen nationality status refers only individuals who were born either in American Samoa or on Swains Island to parents who are not citizens of the United States. The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a national of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own nationality laws based on its own policy. Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. national parents may be both a U.S. national and a national of the country of birth. Or, an individual having one nationality at birth may naturalize at a later date in another country and become a dual national. 
• U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one nationality or another. A U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to his or her U.S. citizenship. However, persons who acquire a foreign nationality after age 18 by applying for it may relinquish their U.S. nationality if they wish to do so... 
• Dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country. They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. It is important to note the problems attendant to dual nationality. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals often place them in situations where their obligations to one country are in conflict with the laws of the other. 

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For data collection and national security purposes, a "U.S. person" includes citizens, lawfully admitted permanent resident aliens, and corporations incorporated in the United States.  See U.S. Code § 1801 (i): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1801