Throughout history, New York City has been one of the cities with the highest amount of immigrants. Therefore, it has been a “melting pot” of different cultures and languages. Of all the immigrants, Chinese immigrants from different parts of China took up a very large portion, and Chinese is the third most spoken languages in NYC. For the Oral History Project, I interviewed Joyce, who is also in a Chinese family, for her family history of coming to America.
Joyce’s parents came from Taishan City in the Guangdong Province of China. It is a coastal city in the southern part of the province. Taishan calls itself the “No. 1 Home of Overseas Chinese” because an estimated half a million Chinese Americans are of Taishanese descent. In fact, my grandfather, who came to America about 20 years ago, was also born and raised in Taishan.
Taishan, China
Taishan
Before Joyce’s parents were here, her mom’s parents and younger sister had already came to America in 1989. In 1991, Joyce’s mother finally came to America by airplane, and was met by her younger sister as she came. A year later, Joyce’s father also came to join the family, also by airplane. Before coming to America, Joyce’s parents were married in China.
Like many other immigrants from different countries at the time, Joyce’s parents came to America mainly because it was easier to make a living in America. Also, since Joyce’s parents came ahead of time, her mother felt that it was only natural to follow them to join the family. In addition to these main reasons, Joyce’s mom said, because of freedom.
From the reasons that Joyce’s mom came to America, we can see the pattern of immigration because of conditions in the home country. Like many other immigrants, the conditions of their homeland was not as optimistic as the ones in America. At the time, Taishan was still a rather underdeveloped small city with significantly less resources and opportunities than in America. Therefore, in order to get a better life, Joyce’s family decided to move to America.
Prior to coming to America, Joyce’s mom thought America would be extremely beautiful. She thought that after 8 hours of work, she could go relax herself, and the weekends would be free for going out. However, as she started working, she realized that none of these were true; it was all work. Here, she would wake up at 6, go to work at 7, and leave work at 11 at night as a seamstress. Also, she would only have a half an hour lunch break. Even though her work days were long, she felt blessed to have the opportunity of working in America when everyone in her homeland was telling her how lucky she was for being able to move to America. Joyce’s dad, like her mom, also worked long hours with tedious works. He worked at his uncle’s carpentry supply store.
Unlike her mom, Joyce’s dad actually took some lessons in English. Even though his English is still broken, most people still managed to understand him. According to Joyce, “he has A LOT of friends in Chinatown…. For some reason, he gets along with the guys selling things on streets.” Joyce’s mom, on the other hand, saw no need for knowing English and didn’t learn much. She can listen and understand, but often have trouble expressing herself in English.
Joyce’s parents lived in Brooklyn since they came to America until now. Even though they have moved around, they decided to stay in the borough near where they originally stayed. Therefore, Joyce has been living near a Chinese community herself all her life. According to her, “Bay Parkway is becoming increasingly Chinese. It used to be more Italian, I think.” Like the story that Pete told in The Tenants of East Harlem, we can see that there are changes in demographics and social changes everywhere in the city as different immigration groups are moving in.
In Joyce’s family, most of her mom’s side has moved to America, while most people of her dad’s side remained in China. Since coming here, it took her mom ten years to get the paperworks done to become a permanent resident. For the years they have been living in America, Joyce’s parents are still in contact with the family members in China. Once a while, especially during holidays, her mom would call her cousins and aunts. Now, through mobile chat apps, they are able to talk as often as daily. As for her dad, he calls his mom about once a month. With the improvement in technology, Joyce’s family is now able to communicate a lot more.
For Joyce’s family, traditions are something very important to them, and it impacted Joyce for who she is. In response to the family’s traditions, Joyce said,
“We celebrate Chinese holidays exactly like how you’re supposed to, with the incense and lunar calendar dates I didn’t really understand the point of. I don’t really understand the rituals, but I go along with it because my mom tells me what to do. I’m sort of worried I won’t be able to learn them completely… it’s a lot of steps to take in.”
Chinese Religious Ceremony
Like many Chinese Americans, even though their families still embrace a lot of traditions from their home countries, they were concerned that the traditions might be lost along the generations. Since Chinese Americans grew up in an American society and are exposed to more American cultures, it is less likely that they will be able to continue the language and customs of their homeland.
As someone who was born and grew up and in New York City, Joyce is grateful that her parents came to America for giving their children a better life. Like many other immigrants, they wanted their kids to be born in America and have all the better resources than those in their home countries even though they had to leave everything they were comfortable with behind in the home country, including friends and family. Her parents’ sacrifice is a big motivator for Joyce to try her best in every aspect to make her parents feel proud of her and worth the trip to America. As for the Chinese-American identity, Joyce actually considers herself to be more Chinese than American because of the environment she grew up with.
In addition to the better life that her parents provided her with, she is also grateful that she was able to be growing up in such a diverse city.
“I’m immersed in so many cultures here in New York, and haven’t grown up with solely one culture. My neighborhood is really diverse, so I’ve been able to grow up with what you’d expect of the ‘melting pot’ of America.”
Comments