Interpretation Of The Transforming Stereotypes Against The Chinese In America

United States has traditionally been a multicultural society with diverse ethnic and racial minorities ever since its foundation. This complex population composition shapes the United States as a dynamic arena where diverse cultures interact with each other, assimilating and conflicting. Among all the ethnic groups in the United States, the Chinese are among the first travelers. Influxes of Chinese in America have formed an important sector that cannot be ignored by the mainstream society. Historically, the number of Chinese in America has fluctuated due to the loose or restrictive immigration policies in the United States and other complex driving forces behind immigration.Ever since the first arrival, the Chinese in America have contributed tremendously to the nation-building, development and prosperity of the United States. However, the increasing presence and eye-catching achievements of the Chinese community have aroused suspicion and rage among the mainstream society in the United States. Fueled by the ingrained racist mentality, the mainstream society has systematically exploited, discriminated, excluded, bullied, and even killed the Chinese in America. Claiming itself as a "melting pot", "mosaic", and a pluralist society, the mainstream society still label Chinese in America as "perpetual foreigners" until now.Excluded by the American mainstream, the Chinese in America have never acquired the same cultural recognition as "real" Americans even though they might have acquired the legal citizenship. In no other country like in the United States have the Chinese suffered so long, so severe and so wide-spread discrimination. Chinese in America have been stereotyped as "Chinaman", pollutant, the inassimilable, yellow peril, red scare, model minority, and so forth. The stereotypes against the Chinese in America are neither monolithic nor stable. They are subject to constant change, and should be contextualized and historicized. The historical transformation of these stereotypes has been a result of the constant interaction between American domestic and foreign politics and related issues of race, class, gender, and nation are the key to transformation of these stereotypes. Nevertheless, forms of stereotypes might alter with changing times, but the racist Eurocentric ideology embraced by the American mainstream society and embodied in these stereotypes prevails. Efforts of the Chinese in America to win the recognition as the "real" Americans will not rid them of the curse of being labeled as "perpetual foreigners".This paper approaches the experiences of the Chinese in the United States from a historical perspective and presents and analyzes four typical stereotypes which have been falsely imposed on the Chinese in America and which are constructed based on the misconceptions of the mainstream society in correspondence to social reality in four historical periods of Chinese immigration history. This paper carefully presents how the Chinese mystique stereotype, the yellow peril stereotype, the red scare stereotype, and the model minority stereotype have been constructed, and builds up the causation between formation and transformation of stereotypes and the choices of domestic and foreign policies made by the United States in the corresponding period. Then, this paper analyzes the reasons for the transformation of these four stereotypes from the perspective of ideology, economy, immigration laws, and foreign policies in the United States. The analysis shows the stereotypes against the Chinese in America are oriented around domestic ideological, legal, economic, and political discourse and the interaction between the United States and China. Through analysis this paper finally reaffirms the "perpetual foreigner" myth of the Chinese in America, and uncovers the racist nature of the American mainstream society.