From The Peopling of New York City

Contents 1 Overview 2 Early Immigrants 3 Assimilation Today 4 References

Overview

When the Chinese first arrived in New York City, they were met by harsh social conditions and an eat-or-be-eaten world. They were thought of as heathens, foreign and dangerous. Many immigrants had been farmers, and even those who were not were shocked upon arriving in New York, by the multitudes of foreign tongues and cultures, so many immigrants doing all they can to survive and prosper. The Chinese typically did not speak English, nor did they understand the diverse culture into which they were attempting to gain entrance. Slowly, however, they were able to assimilate into New York City, and specifically they were able to form a community in Manhattan that is still growing today, the lower East Side's Chinatown.

Early Immigrants

Since the Chinese both looked and acted so foreign, many wanted to convert them to Christianity. A portion of the first wave of migrants had already been converted to Christianity by missionaries that had traveled to China, but most were of the religions of their homeland and were not receptive to Christianity (see Religious Practices of Chinese Immigrants).

In the early years, the Chinese experienced large amounts of racism, just as the other ethnic groups that were steadily trickling into New York City. Unlike other ethnic groups, however, they experienced prejudices from both the community and the government, which affected and continues to affect their assimilation into American culture today (see more about the Exclusion Acts).

Assimilation Today

"The bitter experience of Chinese immigrants in this 'country of immigrants' and 'nation of nations,' was by no means enviable. The discriminatory and irrational exclusion acts of 1902, 1904, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, [and] 1924 had subsequently perpetuated stereotyping and prejudice against Chinese-Americans in the U.S. The legal status assigned to them is secondary against their wish and constitutional rights."^[1] The lasting effects of about sixty years of discrimination is still strongly felt by the Chinese ethnics today. Their sojourners' mentality continues to guide them because, for the most part, they feel unwanted by the country.

In fact, Chinese-Americans are the least acculturated immigrant group in the United States. Their common characteristics are the institutions of family social organizations based on lineage, speech, and place of origin. These institutions preserve their cohesiveness and socioeconomic solidarity. Despite the prolonged cultural contact with the other ethnic groups in the U.S. for over a century, the Chinese immigrant community follows a way of life that is distinctively Chinese.

In New York, there are more foreign-born Chinese-Americans in the lower East Side's Chinatown than in the other major Chinese communities in the U.S. Because of this, the community of New York "has been transformed into a transplanted Chinese village in a foreign land with the archaic way of life and the social structure akin to the cultural past, which is literally non-existent anywhere today."^[2]

To learn more about how the Chinese have made a living in New York, see the Chinese Class section.

• Return to Assimilation
• Return to Chinese

References

1. ↑ Wan, Enoch Yee Nock. The Dynamics of Ethnicity: A Case Study on the Immigrant Community of New York Chinatown. State University of New York at Stony Brook: 1978.
2. ↑ Wan, Enoch Yee Nock. The Dynamics of Ethnicity: A Case Study on the Immigrant Community of New York Chinatown. State University of New York at Stony Brook: 1978.