UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Migration, Social Network, and Identity: The Evolution of Chinese Community in East San Gabriel Valley, 1980-2010 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8c60v1bm Author Hung, Yu-Ju Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Migration, Social Network, and Identity: The Evolution of Chinese Community in East San Gabriel Valley, 1980-2010 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Yu-Ju Hung August 2013 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Chairperson Dr. Larry Burgess Dr. Rebecca Monte Kugel Copyright by Yu-Ju Hung 2013 The Dissertation of Yu-Ju Hung is approved: ____________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements This dissertation would hardly have possible without the help of many friends and people. I would like to express deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Clifford Trafzer, who gave me boundless patience and time for my doctoral studies. His guidance and instruction not only inspired me in the dissertation research but also influenced my interests in academic pursuits. I want to thank other committee members: Professor Larry Burgess and Professor Rebecca Monte Kugel. Both of them provided thoughtful comments and valuable ideas for my dissertation. I am also indebted to Tony Yang, for his painstaking editing and proofreading work during my final writing stage. My special thanks go to Professor Chin-Yu Chen, for her constant concern and insightful suggestions for my research. I am also grateful to all people who assisted me in the process of my fieldwork: Cary Chen, Joseph Chang, Norman Hsu, David Fong, Judy Haggerty Chen, Ivy Kuan, Chuching Wang, Charles Liu, Livingstone Liu, Scarlet Treu, Chien-kuo Shieh, Champion Tang, and Sam Lo. They both served as my interviewees and informants, providing me valuable first-hand materials and access to local Chinese community. I am thankful to other interviewees for their kindly assistance. Besides, I particularly convey my thanks to May Chen and her project of “Three Decades of Chinese Achievements in Southern California – 1980-2012.” Involving in this project profoundly enriched me with valuable primary materials and helped me extend my investigation toward varied local Chinese organizations and individuals. Last but not least, I am very thankful for the support of my family. My iv grandmother, Chou Yang, and my parents, Min-tzu Hung and Cuei-jyuan Ye, all remained supportive in the five years of my Ph.D. study. Their encouragement gives me strengthen to complete my degree. My appreciation is also extended to my brother and sister, for their support and the family-caring effort. v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Migration, Social Network, and Identity: The Evolution of Chinese Community in East San Gabriel Valley, 1980-2010 by Yu-Ju Hung Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, August 2013 Dr. Clifford Trafzer, Chairperson American immigration reform, global economic rearrangement, and international migration inaugurated a new era of Chinese American immigration. The post-1960s immigration was characterized by various countries of origin, diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and residential suburban settlements pattern. The San Gabriel Valley, a vast suburban area of Los Angeles County, is the representative of a new type of Chinese immigration community. Creating an ethnic community in Monterey Park in the 1970s, the Chinese utilized a strategy of northward and eastward migration in the following decades. They expand multiple settlements in the San Gabriel Valley, which was divided geographically and chronologically into three sections ― the ethnoburban core in the west, two later-formed ethnic communities in the north and east districts, each populated by various Chinese groups with different residency lengths, socioeconomic backgrounds and distinctive assimilation patterns. The latest Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley was formed in the late 1980s in four towns, Diamond Bar, Walnut and two unincorporated towns of Hacienda Heights and Rowland Heights. This eastside Chinese society was composed of established middle vi to upper class Chinese mainly re-migrated from west and north territory of the San Gabriel Valley. As an extension of Chinese suburbanization, the evolution of Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley was intertwined with the transformation of ethnicity-exclusivity and transnational ties, interracial conflict and reconciliation, ethnic intergenerational accommodation, and Americanization. Their residential assimilation and development of social and cultural organizations enhanced this ethnic community with dual features; ethnic solidarity and awareness, as well as highly incorporated link to the local community. This influenced their local civic activities and political participation. The combination of cultural diversity and ethnic uniqueness in the development of the Chinese community in east San Gabriel Valley provides an ongoing example of modified spatial assimilation and a way to measure interracial tensions and ethnic intergenerational incorporation. vii List of Content Chapter I Introduction .......................1 Chapter II The Beginning of Chinese Community in Los Angeles Suburbs ...................... 37 A. The post-1965 Chinese immigration ................. 38 B. The presence of the Taiwanese community in Monterey Park in the 1980s ..55 Chapter III Eastward Migration and Formation of Chinese Community in the East San Gabriel Valley ............... 87 A. The expansion of Chinese Community in west and north San Gabriel Valley .88 B. The development of Chinese community in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley .104 Chapter IV The Development of Chinese Social Organizations ....137 A. The presence of regional Chinese service organizations .........139 B. The Development of Local Chinese Organizations ........... 170 Chapter V The Chinese Incorporation to the Local Community .... 193 A. Interethnic relationship and accommodation ............. 193 B. The Chinese Participation in Local Civic Activities .......... 221 Chapter VI The Chinese Political Participation ............ 245 A. The Development of Chinese Local Politics ............ 247 B. Chinese and Local Cityhood Movement ............. 279 viii Conclusion ........................... 309 Bibliography ........................... 314 Appendix The Interviewee List .................. 375 ix List of Figures 2-1 Immigrants admitted to the United States, 1850-2010: Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong .........................53 2-2 The admission of Chinese non-immigrants, 2000-2010 ......... 54 3-1 The San Gabriel Valley, Southern California ............. 102 3-2 The four-phase expansion of Chinese communities in San Gabriel Valley ............................. 103 3-3 Chinese residential distribution in east district, 1980-2010 ........ 121 3-4 The Chinese commercial Plaza in Rowland Heights .......... 136 x List of Tables 2-1 The Intended residences of immigrants from Mainland China, 1998-2009 ........................... 54 2-2 Percent Chinese in L.A. Chinatown ................. 60 2-3 Chinese immigration to selected U.S. zip codes: fiscal years, 1983-1990 ....60 2-4 Changes in the ratio of ethnic groups in Monterey Park, 1960-2000 .... 61 2-5 Asian ethnicity in Monterey Park, 1970-2000 ............. 61 3-1 Population and ratio of Chinese and Taiwanese in selected cities of San Gabriel Valley, 1980-2000 ........................118 3-2 Chinese and Asian population in selected cities of San Gabriel Valley, 2010 ............................. 119 3-3 Economic and household index of Chinese and Taiwanese individual and family in selected cities of San Gabriel Valley (2000) ............ 120 3-4 Chinese businesses in Selective cities of the San Gabriel Valley, 1996 and 2012 ............................. 134 3-5 The numbers of Chinese banks in Los Angeles: by city or unincorporated area, 1980-2012 .......................... 135 5-1 The ethnicity in four areas of east San Gabriel Valley, 1990-2010 ..... 197 6-1 The result of 39 th district congressional election in 2012 ........ 267 6-2 Chinese elected Officials in east San Gabriel Valley, 1990-2012 ..... 277 6-3 The Chinese City councilors in east San Gabriel Valley, 1970s-2012 .... 278 xi 6-4 The election of Hacienda Heights pseudo-Council, 2003 ........ 300 xii Chapter I Introduction As one of the earliest trans-Pacific-Ocean immigration groups, the presence of Chinese, or Gam Saan Haak (Gold Mountain guests), had dates back to 1849 when they arrived as indentured laborers working in the mines, farms and railroad construction fields in the American West. These early Chinese were exclusively male Cantonese-speaking individuals leaving their families in China, and they were often characterized as “sojourners,” rather than immigrants. Suffering from serious anti-Chinese violence during the late nineteenth century, and faced with discriminatory laws in subsequent years, Chinese immigration was barred after the passage of Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. These early Chinese immigrants were forced to retreat and self-segregate in inner-city ethnic enclaves, Chinatowns, where