![\"Starting](\"http:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/lori-weintrob\/files\/2013\/04\/Immigration.png\")
<\/a>Starting from left: Amy Tan (Best-Selling Author), Jeremy Lin (basketball player for the Houston Rockets of the NBA), and Judy Chu (first Asian-American elected to Congress)<\/p><\/div>\n
During the past generation Chinese Americans have been depicted in the media as a \u201cbeloved model minority\u201d (Kwong, IX). Despite years of social and legislative discrimination, the Chinese have arguably become the most successful immigrant group in America. Today, the median income of Chinese Americans is higher than the median income of Caucasians\u00a0(Kwong, IX).\u00a0A greater percentage of Chinese Americans live in upper or middle class neighborhoods than Caucasians\u00a0(Kwong, IX).\u00a0Chinese Americans complete college at a rate twice that of Caucasian Americans, and Chinese Americans are \u201coverrepresented\u201d in the top schools (Kwong, IX).\u00a0The Chinese immigrants of America serve as an example of how a minority group can not only overcome prejudice, racism, and hardship, but can evolve into a successful, well-respected ethnic group.<\/p>\n
History<\/strong><\/p>\n The Chinese began arriving in the late 1840s at around the same time as the old wave of immigrants, the Germans and Irish. The first Chinese immigrants of the West were \u201cno different from white Europeans\u201d (Kwong).\u00a0They were hard working, ambitious, and resourceful.<\/p>\n Regardless of the many positive contributions the Chinese Americans made to the development and progression of America, they were faced with a long and extensive struggle against discrimination. The passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act on May 6th<\/sup>, 1882, which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers, severely limited the immigration of the Chinese to America, and marked the start to a long stretch of legislative, social, and political discrimination against Chinese Americans. John F. Miller, a senator from California argued that the Chinese were like \u201c\u2019inhabitants of another planet\u2019\u201d and encouraged discrimination saying, \u201c\u2019Why not discriminate? Why aid in the increase and distribution over\u2026 our domain of a degraded and inferior race and the progenitors of an inferior sort of men?\u2019\u201d (Chang 134).\u00a0Miller\u2019s view was widely accepted by his fellow politicians and the public in general.<\/p>\n In 1892, the Exclusion Act expired. It was replaced by the Geary Act, which suspended Chinese immigration for another ten years and required all Chinese laborers already living in the United States to register with government for certificates of lawful residence.\u00a0Any Chinese found without a certificate could be immediately deported. The Geary Act also deprived Chinese immigrants of legal protection in the courts by refusing them bail in cases of habeas corpus.\u00a0In 1902, the Chinese Exclusion Act was made permanent. Legislators argued that \u201c\u2019The Chinaman in America is forever and always an alien,\u2019 that \u2018the Mongolian race (is) not a desirable addition to our population,\u2019 and recognized that \u2018(t)he Chinese problem is to the Pacific coast what the negro problem is to the Southern States\u2019\u201d (Chin 37).<\/p>\n The law was finally repealed with the Magnuson Act on December 17, 1943, which brought an ending to 61 years of official racial discrimination against the Chinese.\u00a0The Chinese Exclusion Act was the only act of legislation in the United States that prevented immigration on the basis of race.\u00a0With the passage of the Magnuson Act, Chinese migration greatly increased and discrimination against Chinese decreased. The Chinese came to America in large numbers, and became better interwoven within society. Mr. Tam spent the early years of his childhood in a small town in Canton, China. \u00a0The failing conditions of the Chinese economy caused the village to experience times of hardship. The Chinese government, \u201cwas so rife with corruption and incompetence\u201d that it brought the economy to the \u201cbrink of disaster\u201d (Kwong 217).\u00a0In the year 1948, within a six-month period, prices rose by a factor of 85,000. A sack of rice, which cost 112 yuan, would cost 63 million yuan six months later (Kwong 217).\u00a0The dwindling conditions in Tam\u2019s village lead Tam\u2019s grandfather and uncle to immigrate to the United States. Tam’s father moved to Hong Kong\u00a0and his mother didn’t join the father in Hong Kong until he was\u00a0five years old. A few good memories Tam recalled included celebrating the Chinese New Year annually, eating his favorite foods (Dim Sum and Wanton-Noodle Soup), and buying fresh meat and vegetables at the Hong Kong street markets for each meal. While in Hong Kong, Tam’s mother was a homemaker and his father was a garment contractor.<\/p>\n Tam grew up in Canton,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 also known as Guangzhou<\/p><\/div>\n In June 1967, when Mr. Tam was 16, he left Hong\u00a0Kong\u00a0with his family to immigrate to the United States. Hong Kong at the time was in a state of \u201cpolitical turmoil\u201d. Mr. Tam and his family left to escape the deteriorating political and economic conditions in China, and came to America in search of opportunity. Tam had distinct memories of\u00a0how\u00a0Chinese\u00a0schools changed during this period of British rule: he remembered being forced to attend Catholic school and learn English in order to properly assimilate.\u00a0So many Chinese came to Hong Kong for security purposes that British authorities put up barbed wire to prevent the entrance of more refugees.\u00a0On May 23, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a presidential directive that allowed refugees in Hong Kong who had been born in Mainland China to immigrate to America.<\/p>\n Hong Kong in the 1960’s<\/p><\/div>\n Once in the United States, Tam was shocked by the plethora of opportunites available. He recalled how on\u00a0his very first day in New York City, he was immediately offered a pizza-delivery position- he didn’t accept the job but he laughed about regretting it due to his love for pizza. Instead, Tam went on to attend and graduate from high school. Tam then attended the City College of New York for only 2 years, quitting\u00a0due to his father’s need for help in the family’s garment\u00a0business in Chinatown. Though he was never able to finish his college education, Tam is very happy that he was able to make this sacrifice for his younger brother and sisters; all of his siblings were able to get a college degree because of his hard work.<\/p>\n Tam’s wife, Julie, president of the Staten Island Chinese School with the rest of faculty (front row center)<\/p><\/div>\n Tam moved to Staten Island around 28 years ago and has contributed greatly to the local Chinese American community. Tam and his wife founded the Staten Island Chinese School in 1971 and it has burgeoned into an incredible resource for Chinese Americans looking to reconnect with their traditions and roots. The Saturday school allows 110 students, ages 4 to adult, to come expose themselves to a wealth of Chinese traditions, such as tai chi, calligraphy, mandarin and cantonese, kung fu, etc. Tam is very proud of his Chinese heritage and thankful for the opportunities\u00a0America has\u00a0given him.<\/p>\n Children perform the “Delicious Little Date” dance during the 40th anniversary celebration of Staten Island’s Chinese School (Bill Lyons\/Staten Island Advance)<\/p><\/div>\n http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/edit?video_id=q7A7EcuwgAo&video_referrer=watch&ns=1<\/p>\n Mr. Teng<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr. Chuan Teng was born in 1934 and grew up on a farm in Shixing County, in the Quandong province of China. \u00a0Mr. Teng spent the early years of his life helping the family raise cattle and grow rice. At the\u00a0mere age of 6,\u00a0Teng\u00a0learned the basics of calligraphy from his father, a poet and master calligrapher.\u00a0The lessons proved to be an important influence upon Teng, seeing as he is now an acclaimed master calligrapher and his works reside in many Chinese Americans’ homes. When Teng was 8 years old, the Japanese invaded China and murdered many civilians, including Teng\u2019s grandfather. Teng\u2019s father was a\u00a0politician from the Nationalist party and a member of the Chinese army. Consequentially, when the Japanese invaded China, Teng and his family fled to Hong Kong; soon after they fled from Hong Kong to Taiwan.<\/p>\n Shixing County, the village where Chuan grew up<\/p><\/div>\n Author Iris Chang describes the island of Taiwan as the \u201clast hope and refuge of the exiled Nationalist Regime\u201d (Chang 282).\u00a0From November 1948 to 1949, more than five thousand Chinese refugees arrived in Taiwan from the mainland each day.\u00a0Eventually, between one and two million refugees had come to Taiwan, many of which were \u201cformer rank-and-file bureaucrats\u201d (Chang 283).\u00a0Chang compares the \u201csize and character of the dislocation\u201d to the United States theoretically moving its entire bureaucracy to the island of Puerto Pico. According to Chang, the Chinese refugees in Taiwan, \u201cgrew up under a different set of oppressive condition, under a regime-in-exile determined to install and sustain of Taiwan the same strongly authoritarian and oligarchic system of governance with which it had ruled China” (Chang 283).<\/p>\n Chuan’s grandfather, the farmer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (1874-1945)<\/p><\/div>\n With\u00a0hopes to escape communism, Teng and his family immigrated to the United States in 1961.\u00a0Although Teng had attended an undergraduate school in Taiwan, he was determined to further pursue his education. Teng was granted a scholarship and\u00a0 thus completed his master’s degree in economics at Ohio University. Teng\u00a0continued to make impressive strides in his economist career: he worked as a financial system analyst serving companies amongst the likes of Young and Republican and Bristol-Myers Squibb.<\/p>\n Chuan and his family circa 1947 (Chuan is in the back row center)<\/p><\/div>\n After moving to Huguenot, Staten Island in 1973, Teng has continued to make\u00a0great\u00a0contributions to the local Chinese American community.\u00a0With hopes to preserve the Chinese tradition, Teng teaches calligraphy classes at the Staten Island Chinese School IS 73, as well as at the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden in Snug Harbor. Teng is also quite politically active: in 1987 he was president of the Chinese American Voter’s Association of Staten Island and he is also a co-founder of the Asian American Coalition of Staten Island.<\/p>\n Chuan Teng writes names in Chinese characters in the Chinese Scholar’s Garden (Staten Island Advance- Bill Lyons)<\/p><\/div>\n The “New Wave”<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr. Teng and Mr. Tam represent the \u201cnew wave\u201d of Chinese immigrants. This new wave of well-educated Chinese was considered the \u201cUptown Chinese\u201d and had very little in common with the previous Chinese waves of mostly uneducated laborers. This new class experienced immense success with the opportunities offered to them in America. Peter Kwong wrote, \u201cIn less than a decade after arrival, a Chinese college graduate could gain a graduate degree, a professional job, citizenship, an upper-middle-class income, and residence in a desirable neighborhood\u201d (Chang 283).<\/p>\n Today, the Chinese are still seen as a model minority and a valuable asset to American society. Chinese immigrants and their children are contributing to the United States in all sectors of society. For example, Mr. Tam and his wife now run a Chinese school on Staten Island. Mr. Teng teaches calligraphy and has raised two successful children; his daughter, Michelle,\u00a0is a teacher at PS 22 and his son, Michael,\u00a0is a producer for CBS. Mr. Tam and Mr. Teng\u2019s success stories are only two of thousands of Chinese American success stories. Through years of legislative, social, and political discrimination, the Chinese in America have emerged stronger and more successful than ever.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/div>\nMR. TAM AND MR. TENG:\u00a0<\/span>Two Chinese Americans who exemplify the success of the Chinese model minority<\/h2>\n
Mr. Tam<\/h1>\n
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