Chinese Americans' Participation In The U.S. Politics: 1990-2000

This thesis is a preliminary study of Chinese Americans' participation in the U.S.politics from 1990 to 2000. With the data and material available, it examines threeaspects of Chinese Americans' political participation, namely, Chinese Americans'political participation through voting, Chinese Americans' political representation,and efforts and endeavors of Chinese American political organizations in promotingthe participation of the Chinese community in the U.S. politics in the period between1990 and 2000. It then makes a balanced assessment of both the strength andweakness of Chinese Americans' political participation with exploration and analysisof the causal factors of the achievements and deficiencies.The study finds that there were both achievements and deficiencies in ChineseAmericans' participation in the U.S. politics in this period. On the one hand,remarkable achievements were made in the period from 1990 to 2000 as demonstratedby the growing awareness of political participation, increasing number of publicofficeholders and breakthroughs in top posts, strengthened roles of Chinese Americanpolitical organizations and Chinese American elites, and increasing Chinese Americanwomen political representation, etc. On the other hand, there were deficiencies inChinese Americans' political involvement, including inadequate overall votingparticipation, diluted overall political strength and influence, and limited power ofChinese American public officeholders in the U.S. Politics. These achievements anddeficiencies were attributable to a combination of factors, such as demographic,socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional ones, the assimilation levels of ChineseAmericans, and factors on the part of China, the ancestral country of ChineseAmericans.