Adaptation of Chinese Immigrants in America Qianjun Liang To cite this version: Qianjun Liang. Adaptation of Chinese Immigrants in America. Literature. 2012. dumas-00930889 HAL Id: dumas-00930889 https://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/dumas-00930889 Submitted on 14 Jan 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Adaptation of Chinese Immigrants in America Nom : LIANG Prénom : QIANJUN UFR ETUDES ANGLOPHONES Mémoire de master 1 Recherche - 18 crédits – Civilisation Américaine Spécialité ou Parcours : Etudes Anglophones Recherche Sous la direction de ANDREW CORNELL Année universitaire 2011-2012 - 1 - - 2 - Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Andrew Cornell, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. And my deepest gratitude to my parents in supporting me. - 3 - Déclaration anti-plagiat Document à scanner après signature et à intégrer au mémoire électronique __________________________________________________ DECLARATION 1. Ce tavail est le fuit d’u tavail pesoel et costitue u docuet oigial. 2. Je sais ue ptede te l’auteu d’u tavail cit pa ue aute pesoe est ue pratique sévèrement sanctionnée par la loi. 3. Pesoe d’aute ue oi ’a le doit de faire valoir ce travail, en totalité ou en partie, comme le sien. 4. Les popos epis ot à ot à d’autes auteus figuet ete guilleets citatios. 5. Les cits su lesuels je ’appuie das ce oie sot systatiueet référencés selon un système de renvoi bibliographique clair et précis. NOM : ………LIANG…………………………………………… PRENOM :……………QIANJUN……………………………………… DATE : …………06 /07/2012………………………………………… SIGNATURE : - 4 - Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. Contents ................................................................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 - CHINESE IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICA DURING 1848 TO 1920 ............................................... 10 I. Pushing Factors ....................................................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. II. Pushing Factors ............................................................................................................................................. 12 2.1 Expoitation in Hawaii ..................................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. 2.2 "Coolies" Trade ............................................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. 2.3. The Mainland Immigration Policy ................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. III. Arriving in America ............................................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. 3.1 Living in Hawaii ..................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Chinese Community in Hawaii ....................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. 3.3. Chinese Immigrants on the U.S. Mainland……………………………………………………………...19. 3.4. Chinatowns and Chinese Community in America……………………………………………………....21 3.5 Exclusion against the Chinese ................................................................................................................. 23 IV. Chinese Adaption in America .............................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. 4.1 Influence of Political Change at home ............................................................ Erreur ! Signet non défini. CHAPTER 2 - CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA SINCE 1965 .................................................................. 28 I. Prelude before 1965 ................................................................................................ Erreur ! Signet non défini. 1.1 Trasition after the Exclusion Act..................................................................... Erreur ! Signet non défini. 1.2 Wartime Period .............................................................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. 1.3 During the Cold War Period.................................................................................................................... 31 II. The New Comers ........................................................................................................................................... 34 2.1 The Intellectual Comers .......................................................................................................................... 35 2.2 The Policital Refugees ............................................................................................................................ 35 2.3 The Fuzhounese People........................................................................................................................... 36 III. New Ways of Assimilation ........................................................................................................................... 38 3.1 Professional Class ................................................................................................................................... 38 3.2 Weakening of Old Chinatowns ............................................................................................................... 39 3.3 The Fuzhounese Illegal Workers ............................................................................................................. 40 3.4 The Chinese Americans.............................................................................................................................42. CHAPTER 3 - ANALYSIS OF THE ASSIMILATION OF THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA .................. 46 I. The Assimilation of the Chinese Americans ................................................................................................... 47 1.1 Chinese Religious Belief in America .............................................................. Erreur ! Signet non défini. 1.2 New Concepts of Dating Process and Marriage ...................................................................................... 50 1.3 Women's Position in Family Household ................................................................................................. 52 II. Assimilation, A Means of Racism? ............................................................................................................... 54 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 60 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................... 62 - 7 - Introduction Initially, I wanted to write something about racism toward African Americans in the United States. However, later, when I talked with my thesis advisor, Professor Cornell, I decided to take his suggestion to write something about Chinese Americans, since there is also racism toward the other minority ethnic groups in the United States, like the Latinos and the Asian Americans. As a Cantonese woman from mainland China, I am interested in the subject, because not only can I write something that is familiar to me, but also I want to know more about the history of Chinese immigrants than I had never known before. During the process of my research, it seemed that I was looking for the root of my ancestry, since the first group of Chinese immigrants was from Canton. In my thesis, I am studying how Chinese immigrants adapt to life in the United States, because I want to know what immigrants risk loosing about their sense of self and community, and in order to help my reader understand how morals and values change depending on the society one lives in. In my study, there were many questions that I wanted to answer. When did the Chinese immigrants go to America? What kind of people were they? Why did they choose to go to the United States instead of staying at home? How did they manage to arrive in the U.S.? What did they do after arrival? How did they succeed in surviving in the new world? Did they change a lot so as to adapt the new environment? Did they change a lot so that they lost their identity? Were they attacked by racism like the African Americans? Did they live a better life in America? With all these questions, I begin my thesis. First of all, I will give a historical background of Chinese immigrants. And then I will argue how they changed in respect to religious beliefs, dating patterns and attitude toward marriage. Some