From 'yellow peril' to 'model minority': The educational history of Chinese Americans, 1850--1990

When Chinese came to America in the 1850s, Americans tried to keep public schools “free from the intrusion of the inferior race” of “Chinamen.” A “separate-but-equal” school was set up for them during the 1880s. Exclusion and segregation continued fill the late 1940s. Prior to 1940, the average years of schooling for Chinese in America was less than five years. From the 1950s through the 1980s, the press frequently portrayed Chinese-Americans as an educational “model minority.” In 1990, as high as 40% of them were college graduates.; What transformed these people from despised “aliens” to a “model minority”? What educational opportunities were available to them over the years? Was their educational achievement real in a historical perspective? Was the “model minority” a proper term for them? Relying on Chinese newspapers, records and bulletins of community institutions, field studies by sociologists, surveys and investigations by governmental agencies, and documents and reports by national education and research organizations, this dissertation chronicles the history of education for Chinese Americans from 1850 to 1990. It suggests that the transformation from the “yellow peril” to a “model minority” was not simply a result of cultural preferences. The liberalized U.S. immigration policies after World War II and especially after the mid-1960s resulted in an abrupt influx of well-educated Chinese immigrants to America. The increase of school-age children contributed to the unprecedented number and proportion of Chinese in all levels of educational institutions. Post-1960 American society became more tolerant of the civil rights requests by minorities. And most importantly, the changing force came from within the Chinese-American community, who fought long and hard for equal educational rights throughout their history in America.; The dissertation helps dispel the presumptions of the “model minority” story portrayed by the press. Some of the presumptions were: (1) Chinese made it in America and they made it all by themselves. (2) Somehow they were immune to the effects of discrimination, and their culture that valued education provided them with supporting systems for success. (3) They were a silent successful minority, who never complained nor asked for help, and they were a model for other minorities.