Many reasons why immigrants came to US, the land of opportunities more than 20 years ago no longer applicable today. 20年前移民來到美國的眾多原因今天已經不存在 By SF Bay Area China Group, Jan 2 2023 reporting from SF & HK

The choice of whether to go back to Asia and groom your children to do so, or not, is an individual one with no right or wrong answers. It is a personal choice.

US was the land of opportunity for many immigrants. In the 60’s there were only two colleges in HK – U of HK and Chinese U. They take the top .001 % of the students with superior grades. Many of us came to US to seek a better education. I was one of them.
However things are very different now. There are plenty of educational opportunities in HK and China. The social and economic opportunities are immense. There is no reason for young families to make the sacrifices to come to the United States.

I was at the SFO women’s bathroom. I saw a young pretty immigrant woman cleaning the mess in the toilet. I think she would probably not need to do that if she had been in China. A very good friends father was an internist in China. He worked as a janitor in SF. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 58. His wife was also an internist. She worked at on Lok as an elderly provider. Uncle was a large hospital’s administrator in Guangzhou . He came to this country and after two years went back to China. His teenage son also left the US with him claiming the US cities are all graveyard communities. Uncle got his old job back as a large hospital’s administrator and retired comfortably years later. He made the best decision. So did his son who graduated from a Chinese college had a good job, married.

The US has a huge allure for immigrants. Many did well and became millionaires and billionaires. My generation escaped the poverty and domestic political turmoils. Todays China is built on the Chinese who sacrificed so much to recreate a big China. I’d feel a little guilty going back to enjoy the laurels sewn by others. But if China would have me I’d be most happy to finish the rest of my life there.

Home is where our loved ones are, no matter where the physical location is. We all have our complaints and criticisms of the U.S., but returning to our roots or ancestral places is no longer an option. All of us have lived, planted our roots by settling in the U.S. (落地生根) and have our children and grandchildren born and raised In the U.S.

There is neither the right nor the wrong choice with the two options above. Who knows what will happen to us if there is a war between China and the U.S. and we are all forced to make choices. During World War II, Japanese Americans, about 110,000 of them, two-third of whom were born in the U.S. and by virtue of their constitutional status, they were citizens of the U.S., yet their constitutional rights were suspended and were treated as “enemies within” the U.S. and placed in concentration camps. (The isseis were born in Japan, but their children, Niseis, their grandchildren, Sansei, and great grand children, Yonseis were all citizens od row US. A small minority, Kibeis, chose to move to or stay in Japan. They were essentially considered traitors.They were essentially forced to make unpleasant choices.

Chinese Americans are now effectively considered “enemies of the U.S.” even though we are all citizens of the U.S. If a war breaks out between China and the U.S., a possibility has become very likely if Biden continues his racist and hostile policies toward China and Chinese Americans. (Remember he sad not long ago, he will not allow China to catch up with us and move ahead of us). Actually, if I understand his policy correctly, he has already given Chinese Americans and Chinese green-card holders a choice under his current policy on those Chinese Americans who work in semiconductor industry in China, Taiwan, and any countries, notably, S. Korea, Japan, etc. that sell or trade their products with China, our enemy. They must either quit their jobs and return to the U.S. or they must renounce their citizenship or green cards, if they choose to continue working in US-banned industries that trade with China in China. In this case, they must 斩草除根 and return to China.

I saw the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhZpWpl4798 showing Xi’s 2012 visit as the PRC vice president with Sarah Lande, who hosted him in Iowa when he first stayed in the US in the 1980s. In the video clip Xi showed his gratitude for learning about America from Sarah. This embodies the Chinese ethos of 饮水思源 (show gratitude to the one who constructed the fountain when you drink from it). Shouldn’t Chinese Americans not feel the same?

It is easy to be discouraged about the dire situation Chinese Americans are in now. But we need to remember that until recently, despite some despicable cases of persecution by our government and random acts of hate crimes, America has been on the whole generous and welcoming to many Chinese Americans in the last few decades. That is why there are so many Chinese Americans here. They are not all stupid.

Chinese Americans have been the beneficiaries of the rapprochement between the US and China starting in the 1970s, and of the civil rights movement. As some of us pointed out, tremendous gains have been made, and I am grateful for that. I salute those in our group (whether Chinese American or not) who have been steadfast in fighting against racial injustice throughout the years in their different stations in life.

Now we are witnessing a retrenchment, as if all the gains that were made are being taken away. But we need to note what China is saying: the world is undergoing changes unprecedented in a hundred years, where for the first time the global south has a chance for real economic development and betterment for the lives of its people. One day, this change will affect America as well and hopefully for the better. There is plenty for everyone and anyone to do to help make this happen, no matter where you are.

The few decades of rapprochement were a precarious anomaly, an outlier period. Now it is the reversion to the norm, which is why the movement to hatred is so deep, intense, all encompassing, and so fast. Western notions of enlightened and equal coexistence have always been a PR operation, predicated on or mystifying unequal relations, slavery, exploitation, and expropriation, based on a notion of scarcity and zero-sum.

Chinese Americans have been the beneficiaries of the rapprochement between the US and China starting in the 1970s, and of the civil rights movement. As some of us pointed out, tremendous gains have been made, and I am grateful for that. I salute those in our group (whether Chinese American or not) who have been steadfast in fighting against racial injustice throughout the years in their different stations in life.

As for Chinese Americans being “beneficiaries”, I think that’s a mischaracterization. They fought every inch of the way, fought hard for every right, along with other allies. They are still fighting against a tilted playing field. Nothing was given or granted.

Kiji: You said “the few decades of rapprochement were a precarious anomaly, an outlier period. Now it is the reversion to the norm, which is why the movement to hatred is so deep, intense, all encompassing, and so fast.”

I agree with you on that. I also realize that this anomaly is the result of the following factors: the rapprochement stemming from the mutual need of the US and China to isolate the Soviet Union, the US need to demonstrate to the world that the US system is superior to that of the Soviet Union (hence Johnson’s Great Society program, relaxation of immigration policies and federal investments in ghetto communities like Chinatown), the need for recruitment to staff its high-tech industry after Sputnik and the need to provide support for the immigrant population.

While this anomaly lasted, a wave of Chinese immigration came to the US. Many of the immigrants benefited from this anomaly, and that is why many Chinese Americans still believe in the US as a land of opportunity better than where they came from, although this belief is continually being tarnished as the situation in the US reverts to the norm as you put it. I have seen this changing sentiment in our immigrant friends from China, for example. I just want to point this out so that we understand where they are coming from.

This anomaly only got us so far and only for certain types of immigrants, and it took a huge fight in battering the racism in and entry barriers for institutions like the unions, the police, firemen and politics, every inch of the way as you put it.

The racism facing Chinese Americans has always been there, but it laidlargely dormant while the anomaly lasted, and showed its ugly head in cases like Wen Ho Lee. Now we are seeing it in full blast.

The next question is what may happen in the next few decades. If current trends continue, China, Russia, and the global south will continue to rise and America and the West will continue to decline. At some point Europe may give up, break off from America, and join the rest of the world. Eventually, America can either sink into being an isolated backwater, or give up and join the rest of the world for a better future for all.

So if current trends continue, China will become a leading player in the world, and if and when America comes to terms with that, America will have to make peace with China, and also peace with us Chinese Americans.

The next five years will be the most critical in tipping the balance one way or another. This is a period in which we can play a small but important role.

There are an increasing number of voices both at the grassroots level and in higher establishment levels beginning to speak out, however mutedly, against the madness. Notice that this only began after Pivot To Peace was formed and came out. Before there was seemingly nothing, almost impossible to get any information in English. Now we are overwhelmed with so much information and advocacy from all kinds of sources that I can’t even keep up with it.

Apparently many people felt what was happening but hesitated to speak out. Someone had to dare to go first. Julie had the idea to hold the Hong Kong forum at the Vet’s Building, with several of us here on this list. Brian Becker and ANSWER were brilliant when they conceived the idea of Pivot To Peace.* How could they think of this? From a lifetime of fighting these political battles, and seeing first hand how movements develop.

It was our honor to be the first to dare. “Who dares wins,” as the British SAS says.

Just as past movements swept over countries and changed the world, current and future movements can do the same. We should be prepared for the worst, but fight for the best.