The New Chinese America: Class, Economy, and Social Hierarchy

1. Contemporary Chinese American Population: The Documented and the Invisible

Chapter 1 Contemporary Chinese American Population The Documented and the Invisible Yamei Zhu was born in 1963 in Shanghai,China’s most populous city.An only child, she was pampered by her parents.After high school,Yamei got a job at a transportation company and worked her way up to become its controller.She married an electrician in 1988 and moved in with her in-laws.“My father said that he wouldn’t let me marry unless it was into a good family,” recalledYamei.“When he found out that we had to share the same room with my in-laws—a curtain was used for privacy— and there was no indoor plumbing, his eyes filled with tears.” After the birth of Yamei’s son, Lulu, the small room became even more crowded.1 In the 1990s, the Chinese government’s market-oriented economic reforms injected new vitality into Shanghai. Foreign banks and insurance companies set up offices, and international retail stores appeared in the city’s old and new commercial districts. The expansion of the city’s industrial and trade capabilities drew business investors, tourists, and shoppers from all over the world, which provided greater opportunities for business-minded locals. Supported by her husband and her in-laws, Yamei quit her job and opened a small eatery with a girlfriend. She made more money, but after two years she and her husband still could not afford an apartment of their own.As Lulu grew older she became increasingly concerned about his future, and the thought that the teenager might not be able to get through the extremely competitive college admissions process played a big part in her decision to leave China. Yamei flew from Shanghai to Los Angeles in early 2001. Although she had papers certifying that she was the deputy manager of a toy 17 Th e N e w C h i n e s e A m e r i ca 18 factory in Shanghai and a letter from an American company inviting her to inspect a new series of products, she had never been affiliated with a toy factory in Shanghai, nor was she expected by any person or corporation in Los Angeles. These false documents, obtained from an underground migration service, had used up her family’s entire savings and would expire shortly, but they made it possible for her to enter the United States. The rewards would outweigh the risk, they believed, if she were successful. At the beginning of the twenty-first century there are approximately half a million ethnic Chinese in the United States without legal status. These individuals are largely invisible to the outside world. Since the 1990s, human smuggling and the Chinese American underground have received much media coverage and academic attention.2 But beyond that, undocumented immigrants within Chinese America are hardly addressed. The focus on smuggling activities has created false assumptions that all undocumented immigrants were smuggled into the United States, and that all of them came from the People’s Republic of China. It is important to note that a significantly large number of undocumented Chinese did not jump ship; many passed border inspection using valid travel documents. It is important to include in our research not only undocumented immigrants from the PRC but also those from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other parts of the world.After all, the study of Chinese American experience embraces ethnic Chinese from all over the world.And regardless of their socioeconomic background, native-place affiliation, and reasons for leaving their homeland, the majority of the undocumented Chinese rely on the same ethnic networks to survive. This chapter reassesses the Chinese American population by foregrounding undocumented immigrants. Contrary to existing scholarship that treats undocumented immigrants as a marginalized group associated with the ethnic underworld, it argues that these immigrants are an indispensable component of the ethnic economy and an integral part of contemporary Chinese America. The Documented and Undocumented in Official Government Records The history of Chinese immigration to North America dates back to the late 1840s.Although the Chinese were the first Asians to come to the United States, they were outnumbered by the Japanese in 1910 and Contemporary Chinese American Population 19 by the Filipinos in 1930. Not until the 1980 was this situation reversed. The 2000 census recorded that, with a population of approximately 2.9 million, Chinese are now the largest Asian...