Stay or Leave — — When Chinese Immigrants in New York Are Getting Older
Relations between China and the United States had been hostile for nearly three decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It wasn’t until 1979 that China and the United States formally established diplomatic relations, which led to an influx of immigrants from mainland China.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, The population of Chinese immigrants in the United States has grown nearly seven-fold since 1980, reaching almost 2.5 million in 2018. Whereas in 1980 Chinese immigrants did not appear among the ten largest foreign-born groups in the United States, China in 2018 replaced Mexico as the top sending country.
Within those 30 or 40 years, the earliest immigrants passed through youth, middle age, and now they are approaching their twilight years. And in those decades, both China and the United States have changed dramatically. In general, before 2000, most Chinese immigrants settled in the United States to spend their whole life. Now, that may be changing.
Although the Chinese are highly educated and often hold highly skilled jobs, Chinese culture is still alien in the United State, even in New York. There has also been an increase in Anti-Asian feeling generally here. If they return to China, they can be assured of superior material life and a familiar cultural atmosphere.
In this article, I interviewed six Chinese Americans over the age of 50 who came to New York — — Lily Chan, who came here 40 years ago following her father; Aide He, who came here after the Tiananmen Square protests; Maoye Ji, who came here in 1992 and ended up as a biologist; Jack Shang, who came here nearly 30 years ago at the cost of quitting a promising job; Shangbiao Ding, who came here in 2009 because he was not happy with the political atmosphere in China; and Mark Gao, who came here in 2012 and is thinking about going back.
Some of them choose to stay, some want to go back, and some are still struggling. They came for different reasons and left for different reasons. As they approach their senior years, how do they feel about the process of crossing the ocean to the United States? What brought them here in the first place? How do they think about the future? This article may help you to get a glimpse.
Lily Chan
Lily Chan is 63 years old and has very little memory of China. She has been in Long Island for about 30 years although she can’t remember the exact number. “I forgot about it because I was working working all day long.” That one sentence sums up Chan’s life when she first came to the United States.
She came to the United States because her father was a sailor and had immigrated to Hong Kong from FuJian in his early years.
In the mid-1980s, Chan’s father arrived in the U.S. with the ship, and he decided to immigrate here with his brother and relatives. “It wasn’t so strict before, you could come over family by family. There was no need to wait, and you could come over in a year.” Chan said
The material conditions in the U.S. were similar to those in Hong Kong at the time, except that she was a little uncomfortable because of the language barrier. “I didn’t feel very good even then, because of the language problem.”
Chan worked half-time to learn the language. From Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Chan went to adult school to study elementary English. After lunch, Chan was a part-time cashier in a restaurant. After graduating, Chan became a full-time cashier.
Most of her spare time is focused on her church, the one she has stayed in for more than 30 years. “The church has joy, warmth, and is like a big family.” The vast majority of her friends are in the church, which is also predominantly Chinese.
She is not as close to her non-Chinese friends, “People here in the U.S. rarely treat you as a real friend, just say hello and have a small talk when you have time.”
Besides church, the people she often comes in contact with are the Chinese students. She rents out empty rooms in her house to students. She mentioned more than once that today’s Chinese students are in good condition. And most of what she knows about China comes from their mouths. “I think mainland China is different. You can do business, and you can make a lot of money. But it’s very hard to make money over here.”
But even so, she never wanted to go back. Over the decades, she has rarely returned to Hong Kong, “There are no relatives over there.” She said.
Another reason for her to stay here is freedom. “One big similarity between Hong Kong and the United States is that no one is there to control you and regulate you.”
Aide He
Aide He was born in 1963. He was a high-ranking graduate student from Chinese Academy of Sciences, but he decided to leave China after witnessing the Tiananmen Square protests. “I felt hopeless.”
After the movement, a large number of Chinese youth left the country. He was admitted to the physics department of New York University. After graduating, he originally wanted to be a teacher, but didn’t get a job, and eventually stayed on Wall Street. Before 9/11, he lived in Manhattan. Now he lives Upstate.
His relatives, including his parents, are still in China, and He has often returned to China. The most recent one was in 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic. China’s material condition is getting better. “In the beginning, the gap was really big, it really looked like an old society and a new society, and China slowly caught up,” He said.
His hometown has also developed rapidly. “I can’t find my way home. They are all high-rise buildings. The original place has changed.”
He tried to return but he was not used to it. “There is nothing you want to watch on TV, and then what you want to watch online is often blocked. The world you see is completely controlled. You can only see what others want you to see.”
In He’s eyes, most Chinese “are still in the pursuit of a full meal, a better meal, and don’t realize that actually eating doesn’t cost that much money, that much energy.”
In contrast, he believes that New York is a very cultural place. “The place I live now is full of educated people, which can be seen from their behavior.”
His dislike of the Chinese carries over to foreign countries. “Let’s say a lot of Chinese people come and open massage parlors or nail stores, which are embarrassing. They’re doing the business of rubbish. So I think I’m pretty different from them. I don’t really agree with them.”
Retrospectively, He’s ill feelings toward China may have been planted at a very young age — — the Cultural Revolution punishments in the 1960s and 1970s left a deep impression on He. what he agreed with most is the relatively fair and just values of the United States. “For example, if I drive a car and get a ticket, I don’t need to pull strings. All I need is to pay for it. If the governor got the ticket, he still pays the same. So it’s relatively fair for everyone.”
Despite the recent Asian hate in the U.S., He has a different opinion. “I was not discriminated in the United States as much as I was in China, because I had been to Shanghai in the 1980s. There were very obvious discrimination against you as you cannot speak Shanghainese, you know.”
Because of his identification with American values, he no longer considers himself Chinese, but “Chinese American.”
However, He said that the United States has also disappointed him recently. “The governor of New York was recently engaged in a sexual harassment, and he refused to step down. So the U.S. is now getting me down too, getting me to think that the U.S. and China are getting more and more alike.”
That said, the overwhelming advantage of New York in terms of living environment and quality of life compared to China still makes He decide to stay in the US. “Anyway, I don’t think about going back, not when I was young and not when I’m old.”
What really matters to HE is who he can talk to with when getting older. But he admitted having difficulty making friends with non-Chinese. As for the Chinese, he has a more ambivalent attitude: “There is still an innate sense of identification within the Chinese, even though you don’t want to identify with them.”
Maoye Ji
Maoye Ji was born in 1965. He works as a biologist. He owns property in both China and the United States. Because of his job and the epidemic in the U.S., Ji is currently staying in China. “I thought it was better to live in the U.S. before, but now things have changed, “ Ji said, during a Zoom interview from Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
He further explained, “Now the living standards in China are much better, as the gap between China and the U.S. is not that big. And, things have changed in the U.S. as well.”
The reason Ji decided to further his study in the U.S. is because he “didn’t have the opportunity to continue my study in China because of the domestic system.” As a worker, he could not qualify to take the college entrance examination.
After finishing his studies at Ohio State University, Ji got a good job in Long Island and realized his American dream: “having an independent house and a private car of your own, and end up living the life I want to live.”
Great changes had taken place in China since the first time Ji returned, in 2006. “Around 2012, I felt that the living conditions in Suzhou, especially Suzhou Industrial Park, were almost the same as those in the United States: fresh air, abundant greenery, as well as unfettered internet access,” Ji said.
Additionally, in Ji’s hometown, luxury cars are ubiquitous on the streets. Indeed, the improvement in material conditions is one of the reasons why Ji is considering returning to China to retire. Ji found the richness of the domestic diet and the diversity of social activities very appealing.
That probably explain that why many of his friends have returned to China to develop their careers. Ji said they returned to “follow the opportunities and go wherever there are research funds or start-up funds. And for him, quality friends are more important than family.
But he is not sure how long this will last “Because most of these friends who go back to China retain their American identity,” Ji said.
When consider returning to China, Ji’s biggest concern is medical resources. “The contradiction in medical resources in China is very sharp, and going to a hospital is a huge headache,” Ji said.
What’s more, in Ji’s eyes, “politics in the U.S. is supposed to be more stable,” yet “not the case in China.” In terms of Chinese politics, Ji’s comment is “nobody can do anything about it.”
Jack Shang
Shang was born in 1962 and has been in the U.S. for nearly three decades. He holds several titles — vice president of the Shaoxing American Hometown Association, director of the New York Chinese American Arts Group, and director of the Flushing Adult Care Center. But before coming to the U.S., he had a job that seemed even better — an accountant at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Shanghai, earning a monthly salary of around $450, more than five times the average salary in Shanghai at the time.
“I just felt that my dream was not here, not in the banking system, not in Shanghai. I felt that my dream was outside.”
At the end of 1993, Shang came to the United States with around $500. The first job was a restaurant handyman. A month’s salary was $1,500, including board and accommodation. “The salary was good, but it was hard,” Shang said.
But what was really hard was the feeling of falling — from a senior bank employee to the lowest grade of handyman. Once, after the cook had finished work and the customers had left, Shang started the cleaning work. While doing the cleaning, Shang had mixed feelings: “how could you quit an excellent job and come here to do this job? The cook is laughing at you.”
Shang finally survived, because he thought it was “a necessary process to enter the new world”.
After a month and a half of work, Shang came to Flushing with $2,000. Although he felt very rich, Shang was still anxious. “When we went to Chinatown, three chicken wings were sold for $1, and we didn’t spare to eat them. Although I had more than $2,000 on me, I felt uncertain about the future.”
Soon after, Shang began his career as a delivery boy in Flushing. After ten months, he saved his first $10,000. At this point, Shang began to think about what he really wanted to do for a living. “I want to do my own thing, but do not know what to do. “
In early 1996, Shang started his first business venture. He bought his first car, a minivan, and placed an ad in the newspaper advertising himself as a “mini mover and airport shuttle.” “Do you know how much money I make in a month?” He sounded smug. “I made $7,000 a month! I had never been in business before, and it was a big shock to me.”
In 2010, introduced by a friend, he opened the first Chinese adult day care center in Flushing. According to Shang, before this, in addition to the old Chinese community in Flushing has set up some similar services, other adult day care centers were operated by Jews. Shang said that when opening this adult care center, “a lot of conflict occurred. It is normal as you go to steal other’s business.”
But in the end, Shang managed to open and business was very good. “I know what the Chinese elderly want — — they want to be lively and to develop a lot of interests. That’s why I hire art teachers to give them lessons. I know what the Chinese need,” Shang said. His care center provides Chinese food, calligraphy classes and art lessons, and free transportation, making it a popular choice for Chinese seniors.
Nowadays, Shang knows very little about China — he rarely returns to China. The Chinese elderly at his care center return to China very often. Shang said that their assessment of China is that “it’s OK to have fun and stay for two or three weeks, but not for a long time”.
If he had not left China, Shang said he would have been richer. “My classmates are very powerful. The least powerful one is a bank president.”
But he doesn’t regret it, because he has already achieved his “American dream” — that is, to have his son born in the United States. “I would do my best to indoctrinate him and educate him, and I hope that later they will contribute to the United States.”
Shangbiao Ding
Shangbiao Ding was born in 1954. Before deciding to give the interview, Ding repeatedly asked to make sure that I was not a journalist for media outlets that criticize the Chinese Communist Party, such as the Epoch Times. He said it was a problem to get involved with these media outlets, because “the Chinese government will block all your property.” Ding, who left China and has lived in the United States for more than a decade, is still very careful about politics.
His father was a supporter of the Kuomintang, who were Mao’s enemies. During the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to work in the countryside. Eventually he was able to return to Shanghai and get married. His daughter studied at Stony Brook University at Ding’s insistence.
To support his daughter, Ding worked in Japan from 1989 as an undocumented immigrant. In 2004, his daughter was admitted to medical school and applied for a government loan. “She said I didn’t want your money and you could go back to China. “
But Ding was no longer used to life at home. “In the news at night, the most important news is always central leaders’ activities. It is not the same case in Japan — — — -If there’s typhoon, that typhoon is the headline.”
In addition to China’s news programs, the ubiquitous red banners on the streets of China also made Ding feel sick. “The main thing I don’t want to see is the political banners.” Ding’s daughter became a U.S. citizen in 2009; he also couldn’t wait to come to New York. He has nothing but praise for the United States. “The United States is the best, even better than Japan. Because the United States does not discriminate. “Ding said.
In order to not be discriminated against, Ding refused to work in Chinese restaurants in the United States. Ding works in an American restaurant, where he says there was discrimination, but every time the head chef defended him. Ding says: “there I could get a kind of protection of justice.”
When it comes to whether he would return to China for an occasional visit, Ding sounded adamant: “I don’t want to go back at all. I love America.”
Mark Gao
Mark Gao was born in 1971. He is now an Uber driver. Driving people of all ethnicities, he is often asked one question — “Why did you come to America?” He laughs bitterly, “I don’t know.”
Before coming to the U.S., Gao worked and studied in Japan and Malaysia. In 2012, Gao came to New York. “At that time, when I came to New York, I thought New York was really broken,” Gao said. He found the city seedy and shabby.
Gao’s initial impression of the United States came from a TV series called “BeiJingers in New York” that was a big hit in China in the 1990s. In the series, New York seemed a wealthy cosmopolitan city. However, almost 20 years later, when he came to New York, he was a little disappointed: “I don’t think this is the America I imagined. “
In the years since then, he worked as a decorator, a handyman, and in a warehouse before he decided to become an Uber driver.
He often picks up customers of different ethnicities, many of whom ask Gao why he came to the United States. An Indian customer once made him uncomfortable. “He asked me why I came to America, and he sounded a little bit discriminatory. So I immediately asked back ‘so why did you come to America?’ He said his family was here, and I said my family was here too. He said did you come here for the money?” Gao’s displeasure was overwhelming. “I just don’t want to answer that question,” Gao said. “I don’t even know myself, actually.”
But in Gao’s opinion, it’s easier to make money here than in China anyway. “If you’re willing to contribute, you’ll definitely have an income, an income that you don’t have to worry about eating or drinking,” Gao said.
Still, he wants to go back to China. “Because I have my family in China, and my classmates, my close friends. And a lot…a lot of memories, I guess. So I feel like China is my home.”
“So do you regret coming to America?” He pondered for a while and then replied： “I don’t regret it. The most important thing for people is to travel more and see more.”
There was a popular saying in China about New York in the 1990s: If you love someone, send them to New York because it is heaven; if you hate someone, send them to New York too because it is hell. For the Chinese, New York was once a symbol of the good life.
Most of these immigrants came to New York in the 1980s and 1990s, and for them material conditions were one of the reasons that could not be ignored. With a desire for affluence and a vision of the American dream, they set foot in what was then the most prosperous city in the world. To some extent, New York did not fail them, and most of them got what they wanted — an affluent life.
But some problems remained unresolved. For example, the inability to integrate into the mainstream circle of friends leads to the feeling of being a foreigner. Meanwhile, they did not expect that so much has changed — — — China has become rich, and the friendly atmosphere that existed in American society has almost disappeared. Some want to choose to return home for they can live the same life in the United States as in China,
In fact, according to Charlotte Brooks, a historian of the twentieth-century United States and of the Chinese diaspora, “the idea of returning to China to retire is in fact an old one”. Brooks said: “To do that was certainly the goal of most Chinese workers who came to the US before the 1950s, even though the majority were not able to earn enough to return in glory.”
Also, Brooks acknowledged that the social climate in the United States has really changed. “Over the past few years, the Trump administration’s open racism and xenophobia has probably pushed a number of people to question whether life is really better or easier in the US,” Brooks said.
But she suspected that Chinese immigrants who came to the United States for political reasons would not consider returning, especially “if they came in 1989 or around then.” Brooks said: “There really hasn’t been any reconsideration of the “verdict” on the protests that year — I’d say that the current leadership has no intention of shifting on that. “
She may be right, given the case of a few immigrants who came to America for political reasons. For them, in addition to an affluent life, what they care more about is freedom, a freedom that they wish they could obtain in mainland China.
