Organizer and Chair: Xiao-huang Yin, Occidental College
Discussants: Wellington Chan, Occidental College; Franklin C. L. Ng, California State University, Fresno
Recent media coverage of alleged Chinese involvement in illegal fund raising in the United States, especially that of John Huang and Charlie Trie, has thrust Chinese Americans into the spotlight of the on-going Washington-Beijing debate and highlights a neglected issue about the role of this group in U.S.-China relations. Although they have long participated in the development of bilateral relations, only in recent years have Chinese Americans gained visibility in U.S. politics. But what precise factors have raised the concerns of Chinese Americans about U.S.-China relations? How unified is this community on issues relating to China? What is their actual and potential impact on Washington’s policy toward Beijing?
This panel not only intends to provide some answers to these questions from cross-disciplinary social science and humanities perspectives, but will also elucidate the various roles Chinese Americans have played in promoting mutual understanding between the two countries. In addition to examining their role in domestic (U.S.) politics and transnational projects as well as their philanthropic and fundraising activities in the private sector, the panel will discuss the image of Chinese Americans in the mass media from Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang to Connie Chung and Michael Chang.
In short, the impact of Chinese Americans on U.S.-China relations will be examined from several comparative angles in order to help people understand how and why this "super-minority" is involved in China-related affairs. Special attention will be devoted to the role of bicultural competence in facilitating cooperation across U.S.-China borders.
Chinese Americans and U.S.-China Relations: Domestic Politics and Transnational Projects
Peter Koehn, University of Montana
Nonstate actors operating at the grassroots exert increasing influence on relations across what James Rosenau has conceptualized as the "domestic-foreign frontier." This paper will assess the current and likely future impact of Chinese Americans, acting as individuals and in associations, on two critical dimensions of U.S.-China relations: domestic (U.S.) politics and transnational projects. The first emphasis will focus on image-creation and public opinion; the second will concentrate on issues of global concern—including nonrenewable-resource usage, environmental protection, and climate change. Special attention will be devoted to the role of bicultural competence in facilitating cooperation across U.S.-China boundaries.
Chinese Americans in Philanthropy and Foundations: The Image and the Reality
John Deeney, University of Pittsburgh
The general image that most Americans have of this generation of fellow Chinese American citizens seems to be that they are: industrious, quiet, law-abiding, apolitical, highly intelligent, and relatively harmless. Historically speaking, this is worlds apart from the highly discriminatory attitude of Americans toward Chinese coolie labor or laundry shop owners of the first and second generations.
Discrimination still exists, a relatively mild form of which can be usefully examined regarding the contemporary role this "model minority" plays in the world of philanthropy, fundraising, and foundations. They have hardly ever been regarded as outstanding benefactors to the private sector and, recently, their reputation has been marred somewhat by the Huang/Trie political fundraising scandal. The reality is quite another matter and this presentation documents how generously Chinese Americans have contributed to American society and, especially, to mutual understanding between the U.S. and China.
A review of Chinese American charitable work reveals that the distinctive features and motivation behind their giving patterns are characterized as being private and "personalistic." This style is contrasted with the more public and "professionalized" approaches which mark the American foundation world. The paper will conclude with a preview of what can be expected from this important segment of America society in improving relations between the U.S. and China as part of the worldwide network of influential Overseas Chinese.
Chinese Americans in Mass Media
James Lu, California Baptist University
While caricatures of the Chinese continue to be, though in more subtle ways, part of American popular culture, in recent years Chinese Americans have made notable progress in the entertainment and media industry to promote more sensitive and accurate representations of their lives. "Yellow Tale Blues," for example, offers a corrective portrayal of Chinatown family life. The diligence and intelligence of Chinese Americans have found expression not only in the eminence, through mass media, of Connie Chung (TV newscaster) and Yo-Yo Ma (cellist), but also of Amy Tan (writer), David Henry Hwang (playwright), Chang-Lin Tien (former UC Berkeley chancellor), Michael Chang (tennis player), and Steven Chu (1997 Nobel prize winner in physics).
Yet given the nature of American domestic politics and international relations, mass media seems capable of quickly setting the clock back to the disturbing past by deliberately or subconsciously treating Chinese Americans as "foreign" or "alien," as seen in numerous news reports of the on-going campaign finance investigations. Many of such reports imply a conspiracy linking the Chinese government and Chinese Americans to subvert the U.S. political system. The discriminatory impact on Chinese Americans evokes the memory of the anti-Chinese Exclusion Act of 1870—only this time what has been put at risk is Chinese Americans’ right to participate, like any other ethnic Americans, in their own government’s political campaigns.
Indeed, China-U.S. relations in many ways directly affect Chinese Americans. Just as much has to be done to improve the relations between the two countries, there is still a long way for Chinese Americans to go before this country’s mass media and mainstream public genuinely abandon old stereotypes of the Chinese in general as "others."
Chinese/-American? The Misreception of Pearl S. Buck and Lin Yutang
Suoqiao Qian, Columbia University
During the 1930s and 1940s, "China" in America meant Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang. There is no question that the images of Chinese in America at that time were largely shaped by the writings of Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang, and as such, both contributed immensely to Sino-U.S. relations, culturally as well as politically. But during the ensuing Cold War period, both names disappeared in America as well as in China. And in our current post-Cold War era, neither American Studies, nor Asian Studies, nor Asian American Studies, has taken seriously the cross-cultural writings of Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang.
This paper intends not so much to resurrect Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang, which is certainly overdue, but to question certain disciplinary assumptions that impede cross-cultural. and transnational understandings that the writings such as by Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang demand. I will focus on the problematic of representation of "China" that arose in the reception of Pearl Buck’s Good Earth and Lin Yutang’s My Country and My People and The Importance of Living. While they made Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang most popular, they have also been charged with inauthenticity, paternalism or Orientalism. While these charges are legitimate concerns, a close re-reading of both against their socio-historical milieu defies any easy label. I will argue that it is a misreception that ironically contributed to both the rise and fall of Pearl Buck and Lin Yutang in the American scene, a misreception largely based on the seemingly unquestionable role of Pearl Buck as an American "Chinahand" and Lin Yutang as a Chinese "foreign guest philosopher."