Li’s “Beyond Chinatown, beyond enclave: Reconceptualizing contemporary Chinese settlements in the United States” focuses on Chinese immigrations and the changes it’s been going through throughout the history. First, I wondered why different ethnic groups form communities to almost shut themselves out from the mainstream society. Then I realized, being an immigrant myself, I was significantly more comfortable around the people from my country. In the early immigration era, prejudice caused these Chinese to seek comfort from the people of their own kind, which resulted in Chinatown.
One of the most interesting points in this article is that Li mentions Chinatown and immigration pattern is changing. He lists six stages of “Chinese settlement patterns and community forms”. From the stage-to-stage, Chinese immigration’s expansion and evolution were significant. A stunning fact is that a war actually benefited these immigrants significantly. The World War II essentially became the stepping-stone for them. Chinese started to move out of their safe haven and settle in suburban areas.
Li also mentions that later Chinese immigrants are more educated, well trained, and have higher status than previous immigrants. I thought the example of monster house was hysterical in certain ways. Previously, immigrants had to adapt to the already existing society, forming their own town to seek comfort and opportunities. As mentioned in the article, now the residents have to adapt to the foreign immigrants at some point. In the past people would have dreamed for an issue like monster house to come up. It just shows how dominant Chinese immigrants have become in this society.
Prejudice against Asian immigrants is still present in the current society. I’ve seen numerous adults doing business in Asian enclave, not learning English nor interacting with the mainstream society. In my opinion, no matter how globalized the world is, there always will be some sort of tension between races. Clash of different cultures have led to racism and segregation – problems with immigrants will not go away easily.
