The Chinese Narcotic Addict in the United States (1966)

From 1935 through 1964, more than 800 Chinese male narcotic addicts were admitted to the Lexington hospital. Of this group, 137 recent male admissions were selected for study. It was found that these Chinese addicts exemplified the sojourner way of life; but they were unsuccessful sojourners. Migrants to America in search of wealth, they were alienated from the dominant American culture. They lived in metropolitan Chinatowns, worked in laundries or restaurants, and were separated from their families. At the time of their current hospitalization for opiate addiction, these patients were an older group-3 years-with a long history of drug use. Evidence of the high incidence of opiate addiction among the Chinese-Americans during the first half of this century is considered. And the reasons why addiction within this minority group has virtually ceased by the 1960's are discussed. It is now established that there are a number of diverse types of narcotic drug addicts in the United States. Included among the major types are white metropolitan addicts, metropolitan Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, southern whites, doctors, nurses, female prostitutes and Chinese addicts.1 In the present paper the social characteristics of the Chinese drug addicts in the United States are delineated and the implications of narcotic use among this minority group considered. From 1935 through 1964, more than 800 Chinese male narcotic addicts were admitted to the U.S. Public Health Service hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. Although this number was but a small proportion (less than three %) of the 32,209 male addicts treated at the hospital during this 30-year period,2 the Chinese are markedlly overrepresented inasmuch as they constitute less than two-tenths of one percent of the United States male population.3 Furthermore, it seems efficacious-in our continuing efforts to explain the phenomenon of narcotic addiction-to study various apparently distinct groups of addicts in order to effect comparisons and thereby broaden our knowledge. The sample selected for study consisted of all addict patients of Chinese ancestry who were discharged from the Lexington hospital during a five-year period, from July 1957 through June 1962.4 There were 137 Chinese male patients and one female discharged during this period. The present report refers only to the 137 Chinese males. Data on each patient was obtained from the medical records of the Lexington hospital. THE CHINESE SOJOURNER LIFE PATTERN The Chinese narcotic addicts hospitalized at Lexington exemplify the sojourner way of life described by Rose Hum Lee.5 Of Chinese birth and ancestry, these young men migrate to America to seek their fortune with the intent * Dr. John C. Ball is Chief, Sociology Unit, NIMH-Addiction Research Center; Dr. Man-Pang Lau is Staff Psychiatrist, Castle Peak Hospital, Hong Kong. 1John A. O'Donnell and John C. Ball, Narcotic Addiction (New York: Harper & Row, 1966). 2 John C. Ball and Emily S. Cottrell, Admissions of Narcotic Drug Addicts to Public Health Service Hospitals, 1935-63, Public Health Reports, 80 (June 1965), Table 2. 3 In 1960, there were 135,549 males of Chinese ancestry living in the United States; U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population: 1960, General Population Characteristics, United States Summary, Final Report PC(1)-lB, Table 44. 4Two-thirds of the 137 patients were also hospitalized at Lexington before 1957 due to the fact that 65 percent of the patients had more than one admission. 5Rose Hum Lee, The Chinese in the United States of Am erica (Hong Kong: Cathay Press, 1960), chap. 5. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.120 on Wed, 14 Sep 2016 05:28:11 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE CHINESE NARCOTIC ADDICT 69 of returning to their homeland and becoming landowners or businessmen. The sojourner is, then, a migrant whose goal is a return with wealth to his native land. He is not interested in acculturation to the host culture; he learns what is necessary for his practical occupational accommodation but otherwise lives a segregated and alien way of life. The Chinese narcotic addicts of the present study were unsuccessful sojourners. Of the 137 Chinese male addicts, 99 (72%) were born in China; all but one of the remaining subjects were born in the United States. This latter circumstance reflects the fact that some of these addicts were the children of sojourner