Chapter 7
Asian Pacific Americans
Asian Pacific Americans include people from East Asia- China, Japan, Korea; Southeast
Asia- Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia; South Asia- India and the Pacific IslandsPhilippines, Hawaii, Samoa. These people have backgrounds that are unique, as Chinese,
Japanese, and Koreans come from a Confucian tradition, Hong Kong has the British
colonial background, Vietnam has the French colonial background. Vietnamese,
Cambodian, and Thai people have the Buddhist background. People from India have a
variety of influences, including Hindu, Islam, Sikh. Filipino people have the Spanish
background from colonization, as well as Roman Catholic influence. Korea was heavily
affected by Protestant missionary influence, so 70% of Korean Americans are Protestant
Christians.
The largest Asian group in the U.S. is comprised of Chinese, followed by Filipinos. Most
Asians in the U.S. (64%) are born in Asia and come to this country as immigrants. While
44% of Asian Americans have earned a bachelor’s degree (compared to 24% of the
overall US population) in the Hmong and Cambodian/ Laotian group, 50 - 60% had less
than a high school diploma. Among Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, only 14% had a
bachelor’s degree.
Median annual income of Asian American families is %59K (for all US families it is
$50K.) Over 60% of Asian American households are a married couple family. Asian
Indians and Japanese median income is the highest of all Asian groups- Over $60K but
Cambodian and Hmong families’ median income is the lowest- $30 – 35K. Cambodian
and Hmong people also have the highest individual poverty rates- 29% & 37%. Poverty
is also high for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
Asian Pacific immigration began in the 1700s as Chinese and Filipino sailors came on
Spanish ships to Louisiana; and South Asians and Malaysians come on English ships to
the East Coast as slaves. In the 1800s 250K Chinese people immigrated to the US.
Mostly they came to work in the mines and railroads. There was a Foreign Miners Tax
passed to give European American miners an advantage over the immigrants. Even so,
they were paid less than European American workers. Many Chinese came for the gold
rush to California, but after that subsided, they stayed to work the land. Their agricultural
skills transformed California. By the end of the 1800s, the economy was depressed and
Chinese immigrants were scapegoated. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 ended
Chinese immigration to the US. It wasn’t repealed until 1942. In 1885 and 1886, Chinese
residents in Tacoma, Seattle, and Rock Springs, WY were attacked and driven out of
these communities. Asians were not allowed to become naturalized citizens until 1952.
Chinese men were prohibited from intermarriage with white American women due to the
1880 California law that prohibited marriage between a White person and a “negro,
mulatto, or Mongolian.” So there were very few natural born Asian people in the country
since there were so few jobs for Asian women here- primarily they listed prostitution as
their work. Bringing Asian women into the country for immoral purposes was outlawed
in 1875 with the Page Law.
Chinatowns began springing up so Asians could develop their own businesses and
support themselves and retain their traditions. Many went into the laundry business as
this didn’t require a mastery of the language and they were perceived by European
Americans as feminine anyway. Asian Indian men immigrated to California in the first 10
years of the last century, but they couldn’t bring their wives until 1946. Due to the
restrictions under the British colonial rule in India, many educated Indian students would
come to the US for college and not return to India following graduation. When India
achieved independence from Britain in 1947, immigration from India declined.
Japanese people were allowed to immigrate with their families after 1908. Japanese
people also engaged in farming and shop keeping in the US. The first generation were
prohibited from buying land, but their native born children could own land.
Hawaii- many European Americans settled Hawaii and brought in many Asian Pacific
peoples to work. Owners of land brought in people from all sorts of Pacific locations to
try to prevent them from becoming the majority. But they did link and even unionize and
today 60% of the population of Hawaii has Asian Pacific American ancestry.
The Philippines- the US gained possession of the Philippines in 1898 after we won the
Spanish-American War. So Filipinos were imported to Hawaii and the West Coast for
farm labor. But during the Depression, in the 1930s 2000 Filipino Americans left the US
under pressure to “repatriate” – to leave the jobs for European Americans. This
“repatriation” also included Mexican Americans for the same reason. If Filipinos served
in the US army during World War II, they were allowed to become US citizens.
Japanese Americans during World War II- Japanese Americans weren’t just incarcerated
during WW II because of fears of sabotage (no incidents of sabotage by Japanese
Americans were ever reported) but because they were very successful agriculturally in
California and were thought of as a threat to European American farmers. 2/3 of the
Japanese incarcerated in camps during WW II were US citizens….And all Japanese on
the west coast of CA were incarcerated, as opposed to almost none in Hawaii or other
parts of the US. No German Americans or Italian Americans were incarcerated.
Curiously, Japanese American men in incarceration were recruited to serve in the US
military in Europe and the Pacific… Thirty five years later the US government
apologized to these people and in 1988 enacted redress legislation of $20K to each
survivor or child of a survivor.
The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 at the point when China was an ally of
the US during the war. Many immigrated after that time. After the Communist
Revolution in China in 1949, Chinese students who were in the US were allowed to stay
as refugees. After the Korean War, Korean and Japanese women were allowed to
immigrate as wives of US soldiers. Many Koreans immigrated after the Korean War. In
the 1970s and 80s, many Korean children were adopted by US citizens until Korea was
seen as not caring for their orphans.
Vietnam War ended in 1975 and refugees began emigrating from Southeast Asia. Many
former military aids to the US emigrated because they had language skills and they were
at risk if they remained in Vietnam under the Communists. Many had been in
“reeducation camps” under forced labor conditions, had family members executed, and
had fled to Thailand. Hundreds of thousands had fled in small boats into the South China
Sea. 100,000 died in these attempts to gain their freedom. The 1980 Refugee Act allowed
50K refugees come into the country yearly as well as providing assistance for 36 months.
Korean Americans are a cohesive group in the US due to their language barriers and their
link through their Christian religion. Koreans in CA had often been victimized by African
Americans – the Rodney King riots occurred in response to white police officers being
acquitted for beating Rodney King- but the riots vandalized and destroyed many Korean
businesses.
Asian American identity began to coalesce in the late 1960s as the Civil Rights
movement swept the country. The Third World Strike in 1968- 1969 actually shut down
San Francisco State College for 5 months. It did result in the establishment of the first
School of Ethnic Studies. Paradoxically there began a myth of the Asian as the “model
minority” – seeing their success educationally as due to their hard work, conservatives
said that why would other oppressed groups do the same thing without benefit of
affirmative action.
The Asian American Psychological Association was founded in 1972 to offer social
support and encourage research and training of Asian students as well as improving
mental health services for Asian Americans.
Bigotry does affect Asians, however, since they are often seen as unsociable and so
successful they affect the opportunities of other groups. In 1982, Vincent Chin was
murdered by 2 White autoworkers who were angry at the competition of the Japanese
auto industry. They thought he was Japanese. They received a light sentence and neither
served any time in jail. Another case of people in the US failing to distinguish a US
citizen from an Asian citizen occurred in Los Alamos National Laboratory in NM. Wen
Ho Lee was a naturalized citizen who worked as a physicist. Rumors began that lax
security had allowed weapons technology to be leaked to China. Lee was of Chinese
ancestry so he was targeted. He was fired on the basis of these rumors, without any
evidence. Then he was indicted on 59 counts of sharing secrets with an enemy. He was
put in solitary for 278 days. Asians and scientists around the world criticized the US’s
treatment of Lee. Finally the US dropped all charges but one count of mishandling
classified information, to which Lee pled guilty, and he was released. Lee was ultimately
scapegoated by the Los Alamos Lab due to his Chinese ancestry.
Asian Cultural Value Dimensions:
Collectivism- thinking of one’s group and its needs before oneself/ viewing individual
achievement as family’s achievement
Conformity to norms- conforming to family and gender role expectations/ concern about
bringing disgrace to one’s family reputation/ reciprocating others’ gifts
Emotional self-control- not expressing emotions freely
Family recognition through achievement- achieving academically and not bringing shame
to one’s family by failure
Filial piety- respect for elders/ obligation to care for one’s parents
Humility- modesty, not being boastful
Gender role stereotyping is common in Asian culture, but not as pronounced as in
European American culture. Japanese values are more traditionally Asian than other
Asian groups. The culture they are trying to maintain is that of 100 years ago when they
began immigrating to the US. Filipino Americans are less traditionally Asian than others
from East Asia. This may be due to early Spanish influences in their culture.
Acculturation occurs the more generations develop within a family in the new country.
Enculturation is adherence to one’s culture of origin. A bicultural orientation is
considered most adaptive. Some things are more biological however, so even after a few
generations, seriousness and introversion are strong in these Asian people.
Other Americans do tend to see Asian Americans as foreign, often asking them, “Where
are you from? What language do you speak?” Identity denial occurs in situations in
which a person is not recognized as a member of the in group - American citizen.
As a result of identity denial, many Asians engage in identity assertion- trying to prove
one belongs. These people may assertively join groups that are iconically American and
deny knowledge of their home country and culture.
Family Issues
European Americans and Asian Americans think very differently about their children’s
successes. European Americans give themselves credit for their kids’ successes and
excuse or avoid responsibility for their failures, but Asian Americans tend to feel great
shame at their poor parenting if their children fail or get into trouble with the law.
Intergenerational cultural gaps occur as children adopt more US traditions and styles the
longer they remain in the US. But conflict doesn’t usually cause intense conflict unless
there is loss of attachment to the parent. Another problem for some children is that they
become culture brokers for their parents. Children pick up a new language much easier
than adults, so children are engaged to serve parents’ needs in the greater culture. This
flip of the common relationship between parent and child can be problematic and result in
the child feeling burdened by the parents’ difficulties. After a generation the younger
children may lose or never learn the native language, cutting off relationship with that
older generation. Also as younger people acculturate and see US parents/ children being
more emotionally expressive, it can develop a dissatisfaction in the children, seeing their
parents as emotionally unresponsive or uncaring. But teens don’t tend to act out unless
they no longer feel bonded to the parents.
Areas of potential family conflict include:
Family expectations- how much time to spend with family, learning one’s own language
Education and career issues- time spent studying, which school to attend
Dating and marriage- when to date, whom to marry
Immigrants do tend to have a stronger sense of family obligation than non-immigrants.
Asian students find that family obligations limited the time they had available for their
friends. The trade off is that these youth gain a sense of identity from their family
participation.
Mental Health issuesSocial anxiety may be perceived by others due to their issues of humility and value of
interdependent behavior. Asian American may score higher on social anxiety, but it may
not be a real problem for them, simply an artifact of testing. Asian Americans do tend to
express distress more via physical symptoms than honest emotional expression. Even
expressing emotional distress can be repressed because it could be seen as burdening the
group/ family. Asian Americans are less likely to seek social support for distress, as they
fear impacts on their other relationships. Physical symptoms may be a safer way of
getting help.
There are stressors associated with acculturation, adapting to a new lifestyle, language,
and loss of social support from the original country. And even acculturating doesn’t mean
less distress. Depression is associated with length of time in the US among Chinese
Americans. It’s possible that the longer people live here, the more they experience and
understand the effects of discrimination. Filipino Americans have been affected by a
colonial mentality which involves perceptions of cultural inferiority due to centuries of
colonization by Spain and the US. Colonial mentality includes denigration of the Filipino
culture, embarrassment about Filipino traditions or physical features, skin color, body
type, and tolerance of discrimination against Filipinos. Colonial mentality does associate
with depression within Filipino people.
Even positive stereotypes about Asian people- intelligent, hardworking, math-oriented,
self disciplined, they may also be seen as a threat to other groups’ opportunities. Actual
discrimination/ unfair treatment is more associated with psychological disorders than
acculturation stress. And subtle discrimination, being treated as invisible, is more
associated with depression than overt discrimination.
School achievement
Hard work, self-discipline, and obedience are emphasizes and these values do enable
school achievement. This more authoritarian model (Tiger Moms) is different from the
authoritative model that most European American parents ascribe to. Authoritative
parenting emphasizes reason, control and warmth. This parenting style is more associated
with closeness between parent and child, positive youth effort in school and higher
grades. Cultural practices associate with higher academic success for Asian Americans
because immigrant parents see educational excellence as a means to economic/social
mobility. Parents may see the opportunities their children will have as a result of
education that they can not aspire to themselves. This may not be the case after being in
the US for generations. Immigrant Chinese American students have higher grades than
US-born Chinese Americans, who have higher grades than European Americans. And
while the stereotype is that Asian Americans have a facility for math/science, it’s also
true that math/sciences don’t require the same language skills for success. Careers in
these areas also offer more opportunities for Asian Americans because of the stereotype.
In another fictitious job application study, job applicants with Asian names were rated as
highly qualified for high-status jobs, regardless of their actual listed qualifications.