最新报告：美国华裔状况

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布

VOA Chinese, Apr. 1, 2009.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-04-01-voa54.cfm
("来自台湾的华裔大多从事专业和管理工作，大陆来的华裔则占华人蓝领工作的绝大多数，来自香港的华裔，其所从事的行业技术等级，介于台湾和中国大陆之间。")

My comment:
(1) The title 最新报告 gives the misleading impression that the report was
just released. In fact, the report was released on or about Nov. 21, 2008--
or half a year ago. (Naturally if one translates 最新报告 as the "latest,"
the title would be acceptable.)
(2) The VOA report is based on

A Portrait of Chinese Americans. Asian American Stidies Program (AAST),
University of Maryland, Nov. 21, 2008.

Note:
(a) The Japanese family name Shinagawa is 品川 in Kanji, where "shina" 品
means "things." The noun "hajime" in Japanese means "first; beginning." (The VOA report transliterates the lead author's name--Larry Hajime Shinagawa--as "拉里·哈基姆·施纳嘎瓦" which is funny.)

Here is an official web site of Associate Prof. Shinagawa.
http://www.aast.umd.edu/director.html

(b) The book--A Portrait of Chinese Americans, which is for sale--is not
available in www.amazon.com, which I just checked.
(c) I assume that the "ST" in AAST comes from "STudies."

(3) There are a few online news reports about this book, such as

Rex Feng, A Portrait of Chinese America: New Study Suggests Economic Glass
Ceiling May Still Exist. AsianWeek, Nov. 21, 2009.
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/11/21/a-portrait-of-chinese-america-new-study-suggests-economic-glass-ceiling-may-still-exist/

Quote:

"Controlling for gender and industry of occupation skews the data slightly.
Chinese American women who have completed at least some college have a
higher median income than non-Hispanic white women. Chinese American workers
display slightly higher median incomes in financial, computer and
engineering occupations [than non-Hispanic whites], while trailing further
behind, up to 44 percent, in legal and medical fields.

"'It makes for a rather bipolar picture of wealth and poverty, high and low
education levels, white and blue collars,' Shinagawa said. 'It¡¯s
a pattern you expect to see after a wave of immigration. But in this case,
the long-term settled population has yet to achieve full equal treatment.'

"Other interesting findings were that Chinese Americans accounted for 24.3
percent of Asian Americans in the United States, making them the largest
ethnic subgroup; 59.5 percent claim mainland China as their country of
origin, with 15.9 percent from Taiwan, 15.3 percent from the Chinese
diaspora and 9.4 percent from Hong Kong; an estimated 70.2 percent of
Chinese Americans are U.S. citizens.

"Another interesting find is that 53.8 percent of all Chinese Americans
lived in either California or New York, giving the two states the nation&
iexcl;¯s highest Chinese American populations. * * * Slightly more than
one in 10 Chinese Americans has a multiracial background.

My comment:
(a) "Chinese diaspora" means those from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore,
Africa, Latin America and so on, excluding the first generation (who were
born in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong).
(b) I would not call myself "Chinese Americans." (Indeed in the 2000 census, I chose "others" and filled in "Taiwanese.") However, this report, for convenience, incorporates Taiwanese into Chinese in general.
(c) The book concludes there is "bimodal"--or "M" as used in Japan and
Taiwan, thanks in part to Dr. Kenichi Ohmae 大前研一--distribution among
Americans of Chinese descent (which I prefer to "Chinese Americans").
(i) However, many Chinese who came from Chinese mainland came to US in the
nineteenth century to build railroad, open restaurants. I do not know if
their descendants have been upwardly mobile.
(ii) Even for recent immigrants from PRC, some have graduate degrees and
some others are illegal aliens with little education. (Illegal aliens from
Taiwan have sharply reduced for the past two decades.) This may explain why a lot of immigrants (legal or illegal) from PRC are blue collars, and why many Taiwanese in US are white collars.
(iii) Still, in the legal and medical fields, Chinese (includng Taiwanese
and Hong Kongers in this study) earn just 44% of non-Hispanic whites.

About five years ago, in the Law board of Mitbbs.com, I said few lawyers --and even fewer judges--in Boston were Asian Americans; that those Asian lawyers who were the first generation spoke poor English, were spurned by white-shoe law firms, got no training after graduation from law schools. Who would hire them, at the risk of life and limbs? Then Some Chinese law students from PRC strongly disagreed, insisting that the situation in Los Angeles and New York cities were swell for Chinese. Now the US Census told a different story, whose 2006 data the University of Maryland mined.

There is the annual Match Day when American hospitals and medical doctors
from US and foreign medical schools participate in the match--similar to
joint entrance examination in Taiwan. A few Chinese a few weeks ago wrote in the Medicalcareer board, again of Mitbbs.com, that they suspected those who got selected actually go to hospitals American medical graduates did not want to go to. Then others defended this was not the case. I do not want to pretend I know what is going on. But I did know a Taiwanese doctor (who received the medical degree from Taiwan but got a master's in public health from Harvard University) who were so diffident that he was happy to get into residency of a community hospital. A few other Taiwanese with similar background got their residency in county hospitals--and they considered themselves lucky.


--

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布

VOA Chinese, Apr. 1, 2009.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-04-01-voa54.cfm
("来自台湾的华裔大多从事专业和管理工作，大陆来的华裔则占华人蓝领工作的绝大多数，来自香港的华裔，其所从事的行业技术等级，介于台湾和中国大陆之间。")

My comment:
(1) The title 最新报告 gives the misleading impression that the report was
just released. In fact, the report was released on or about Nov. 21, 2008--
or half a year ago. (Naturally if one translates 最新报告 as the "latest,"
the title would be acceptable.)
(2) The VOA report is based on

A Portrait of Chinese Americans. Asian American Stidies Program (AAST),
University of Maryland, Nov. 21, 2008.

Note:
(a) The Japanese family name Shinagawa is 品川 in Kanji, where "shina" 品
means "things." The noun "hajime" in Japanese means "first; beginning." (The VOA report transliterates the lead author's name--Larry Hajime Shinagawa--as "拉里·哈基姆·施纳嘎瓦" which is funny.)

Here is an official web site of Associate Prof. Shinagawa.
http://www.aast.umd.edu/director.html

(b) The book--A Portrait of Chinese Americans, which is for sale--is not
available in www.amazon.com, which I just checked.
(c) I assume that the "ST" in AAST comes from "STudies."

(3) There are a few online news reports about this book, such as

Rex Feng, A Portrait of Chinese America: New Study Suggests Economic Glass
Ceiling May Still Exist. AsianWeek, Nov. 21, 2009.
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/11/21/a-portrait-of-chinese-america-new-study-suggests-economic-glass-ceiling-may-still-exist/

Quote:

"Controlling for gender and industry of occupation skews the data slightly.
Chinese American women who have completed at least some college have a
higher median income than non-Hispanic white women. Chinese American workers
display slightly higher median incomes in financial, computer and
engineering occupations [than non-Hispanic whites], while trailing further
behind, up to 44 percent, in legal and medical fields.

"'It makes for a rather bipolar picture of wealth and poverty, high and low
education levels, white and blue collars,' Shinagawa said. 'It¡¯s
a pattern you expect to see after a wave of immigration. But in this case,
the long-term settled population has yet to achieve full equal treatment.'

"Other interesting findings were that Chinese Americans accounted for 24.3
percent of Asian Americans in the United States, making them the largest
ethnic subgroup; 59.5 percent claim mainland China as their country of
origin, with 15.9 percent from Taiwan, 15.3 percent from the Chinese
diaspora and 9.4 percent from Hong Kong; an estimated 70.2 percent of
Chinese Americans are U.S. citizens.

"Another interesting find is that 53.8 percent of all Chinese Americans
lived in either California or New York, giving the two states the nation&
iexcl;¯s highest Chinese American populations. * * * Slightly more than
one in 10 Chinese Americans has a multiracial background.

My comment:
(a) "Chinese diaspora" means those from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore,
Africa, Latin America and so on, excluding the first generation (who were
born in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong).
(b) I would not call myself "Chinese Americans." (Indeed in the 2000 census, I chose "others" and filled in "Taiwanese.") However, this report, for convenience, incorporates Taiwanese into Chinese in general.
(c) The book concludes there is "bimodal"--or "M" as used in Japan and
Taiwan, thanks in part to Dr. Kenichi Ohmae 大前研一--distribution among
Americans of Chinese descent (which I prefer to "Chinese Americans").
(i) However, many Chinese who came from Chinese mainland came to US in the
nineteenth century to build railroad, open restaurants. I do not know if
their descendants have been upwardly mobile.
(ii) Even for recent immigrants from PRC, some have graduate degrees and
some others are illegal aliens with little education. (Illegal aliens from
Taiwan have sharply reduced for the past two decades.) This may explain why a lot of immigrants (legal or illegal) from PRC are blue collars, and why many Taiwanese in US are white collars.
(iii) Still, in the legal and medical fields, Chinese (includng Taiwanese
and Hong Kongers in this study) earn just 44% of non-Hispanic whites.

About five years ago, in the Law board of Mitbbs.com, I said few lawyers --and even fewer judges--in Boston were Asian Americans; that those Asian lawyers who were the first generation spoke poor English, were spurned by white-shoe law firms, got no training after graduation from law schools. Who would hire them, at the risk of life and limbs? Then Some Chinese law students from PRC strongly disagreed, insisting that the situation in Los Angeles and New York cities were swell for Chinese. Now the US Census told a different story, whose 2006 data the University of Maryland mined.

There is the annual Match Day when American hospitals and medical doctors
from US and foreign medical schools participate in the match--similar to
joint entrance examination in Taiwan. A few Chinese a few weeks ago wrote in the Medicalcareer board, again of Mitbbs.com, that they suspected those who got selected actually go to hospitals American medical graduates did not want to go to. Then others defended this was not the case. I do not want to pretend I know what is going on. But I did know a Taiwanese doctor (who received the medical degree from Taiwan but got a master's in public health from Harvard University) who were so diffident that he was happy to get into residency of a community hospital. A few other Taiwanese with similar background got their residency in county hospitals--and they considered themselves lucky.


--