Transnationalism Of Contemporary Chinese Americans

Since 1990s, transnationalism has become a new dimension in immigrant studies. Like other ethnic immigrant groups in America, Chinese Americans have also kept various transnational ties with their motherland.Chinese came to America in large scale starting from the abolishment of Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943. Nowadays, Asian immigrants including Chinese have become the fastest growing ethnic group in America, with 70% of them foreign-born. The social, economic and political status of Chinese Americans has been improved significantly. More and more Chinese Americans have entered the mainstream America. They have more resources to keep transnational ties. Besides, the transnationalism of Chinese Americans are strengthened by other reasons: the emergence of racial tolerance and multiculturalism in American society after the civil rights movement; the world technology revolution especially the development of modern transportation and communication; the rapid development of China's economy and further integration of China into world political and economic system as well as the increasingly globalized world economy. Nowadays, more and more Chinese Americans are engaged with China-related economic activities: bilateral trade, opening factories in Chinese Mainland and serving as chief representative in China for American companies. Except for economic activities, many Chinese Americans are devoted to the development of science and technology in China, to the modernization of economy and politics, to the improvement China's status in the World and to the promotion of U.S.-China relations. Some Chinese Americans also help to improve the social development of China by other channels, like charitable donations and so on.The positive effects towards both American and Chinese societies as well as the role of bridge in mutual relations by Chinese Americans' transnational ties have been recognized. But due to the unstable U.S.-China relations as well as America's distrust in the PRC government, the development of Chinese Americans' transnationalism still has to face many difficulties and challenges. This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction of the transnationalism in immigrant studies. Chapter 2 concerns the transnational ties kept by Chinese Americans before 1943. Chapter 3 explores the social environment for transnationalism kept by contemporary Chinese Americans. It mainly discusses the changed American immigrant policy after 1943, the racial tolerance and multiculturalism in America after the civil rights movement, the rapid development of China's economy and society as well as the technology revolution in the world. Chapter 4 explains all types of transnational ties and their effects. These ties are mainly in the form of political, economic, cultural and other ties. Chapter 5 deals with the difficulties faced by Chinese Americans to keep transnational ties. It also predicts the positive future of these ties. Chapter 6 is the concluding part.Under the contemporary globalization, transnationalism of Chinese Americans has significantly complemented the official diplomatic efforts to enhance mutual relations by serving as a civil bridge. Moreover, the social development in both countries has given the transnationalism of contemporary Chinese Americans a different meaning from that before 1943. The author of this paper hopes that readers can gain a comprehensive understanding of transnationalism kept by Chinese Americans, including the social environment of it, its forms and effects and its perspective, thus have a better understanding about Chinese immigrants to America.