From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american,soc.culture.african.american,alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: The Clinton Cabinet
Date: 18 Dec 1992 16:47:59 GMT
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: aerospace.aero.org

In article <BzGJ4x.KK2@newcastle.ac.uk> T.K.Hara@newcastle.ac.uk (T.K. Hara) writes:
>
>CAN SOMEBODY SAY HOW AMERICAN, THE ASIAN-AMERICANS ARE ? WHEN DID THEY EMIGRATE 
>TO AMERICA? TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE THEY INTERACTED WITH OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS IN 
>AMERICA, FOR EXAMPLE IN MARRIAGE ETC.
>THE DEFINITION OF ASIAN-AMERICAN IS 'RATHER GENERAL' IN A WAY AS WELL (IF YOU 
>COMPARE TO WHO IS CALLED AFRICAN-AMERICAN).  
>IT WOULD ALSO BE WORTHWHILE TO HAVE THE PERCENTAGE OF THE INDIGINOUS 
>'ASIA-AMERICANS' IN AMERICA.

I have provided the following observations as an American who grew up around
significant numbers of Asian Americans (all my college roomates were AA
of one flavor or another). Some U.S history has been put in for the
benefit of the original poster, who is from the U.K.:


The Chinese were the first Asian Americans to arrive here in the 1800's. They
were employed in massive numbers in the building of the Union Pacific's
transcontinental railroad (the "Golden Spike" and all that). At Donner Summit,
for example, many hundreds of Chinese laborers were involved in the
blasting of 'Cape Horn'. Many Chinese ended up staying in the Sierra
foothills and settling in Gold Country towns like Placerville. (I worked in
the '60s with a Chinese guy who was FOURTH generation - from Placerville. He
told me a lot of lore from pioneer days.)

Japanese immigrants began arriving in the last days of the 1890's. I believe
the major flow was in the early 1920's. It was in the late 1920's that
the white majority began getting panicky about the ASIAN HORDES and passed
an exclusion act which choked off further immigration and severely restricted
property and other civil rights of Asians. Almost all Japanese-Americans one
encounters in California have ancestors who came over before the Exclusion
Act (the exceptions are those who ancestors came through Hawaii).

In the late 1800's, many Filipino workers came to Hawaii to work the
sugar cane fields. They became a major component of Hawaii's population.

A trickle of Koreans began showing up in the US after the Korean War.
I began seeing Korean restaurants in L.A. in the late '60s and knew a few
Korean kids in the early '60s, but clearly the great bulk of the arrivals
have been in the last 15 years, at least as far as L.A. is concerned.

Thais, Laotians, and Cambodians began appearing in L.A. and environs
in the early '70s - possibly as a result of the growing Vietnam War
and the disruptions in Southeast Asia (the Khmer Rouge, etc.). Vietnamese
started showing up in large numbers in 1975, after the fall of Saigon.

Although Asian Americans are a tiny minority in the U.S. (certainly under
5% nationwide), they appear as much larger in specific areas of the
country - particularly in Southern California, where fairly dense
concentrations have built up. Koreatown (along Olympic Blvd and Western
Ave. in L.A.), and Little Saigon (in Orange County's Westminster) are
typical examples, but smaller concentrations pop up in
all kinds of unlikely places (scads of Thai restaurants
in Hollywood, for example, and in the North Hollywood and Van Nuys areas).

In Lompoc, near Vandenberg Air Force Base, 180 miles north of L.A., there
is a colony of Hmong people - refugees from the Vietnam War. The Hmong
fought with the CIA in the backwaters of the Vietnam War, and were
reputed to be fierce fighters. Large numbers of them (relative to THEIR
population) came to the US after that war.

As for your question about intermarriage, I believe that marriage to
whites is larger for Asian Americans than for any other 'non-white'
minority in the U.S. - it's a staggering 50+% among Japanese-Americans,
who are probably the most acculturated of the AA groups.




Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american