Chinese American Political Participation In U.S.Election

Chinese Americans are a marginalized ethnic minority group that has experienced long and extensive racial discrimination in U.S. history. But since the third wave of immigration beginning in1965, Chinese Americans have been the fastest growing ethnic population and have been increasingly active in pursuing their citizen rights through mainstream participatory politics. Contrary to the stereotype that Chinese immigrants are generally insensitive to American politics, a valuable number of Chinese Americans have been winning offices and positions in U.S. elections. The existing literature by Chinese scholars on the Chinese American participation in U.S. electoral process is still very limited. The only few works are mainly devoted to the politicians’achievements and the political behavior such as voter registration, turnout, campaign contribution and strategies. American scholars, from a different way to perceive the ethnic political participation, mainly focus on issues of pan-ethnicity and cross-racial alliance that incorporate Chinese Americans as part of the larger Asian American group. Among the literature home and abroad that is available for reviewing, there is a general lack of attention to how Chinese Americans organized themselves to successfully elect their political representatives, especially a lack of attention to the dynamic interaction between the elected Chinese American officials and the politically organized groups. This thesis tries to fill the gap by exploring how various kinds of Chinese American organizations act and form alliances to help Chinese American candidates to win elections.The thesis adopts a method of case study. It selects California as a place of focus, the state that has the most Chinese residents and the longest history of Chinese immigration in the U.S. Two cases that are selected and examined in the thesis are a second-generation Chinese American woman Judy Chu in her2009initial bid for the seat of House of Representative of the U.S. Congress as well as a second-generation Chinese American man Edwin Lee in his2011election for the mayor of San Francisco, California. The two are both history-making elections because no Chinese Americans in California had succeeded either on a national Congressional level or on a major-city level election, where Chinese do not have a majority or plurality population for winning ethnicity-based electoral votes.The thesis also utilizes a theoretical framework proposed by James Lai in his2011 finding of the two major types of current Asian American politics that are based on two residential patterns, the new immigrants’ethnoburbs and the traditional gateway metropolis of immigration. In these two types of geopolitics represented by the case of Judy Chu and Edwin Lee, I attempt to explore the role of the Chinese American (or Chinese-dominated Asian American) party organizations, social service agencies, traditional Chinatown associations, labor organizations political action committees, etc. For first-hand sources, I drew from news reports in both Chinese and English language media in relation to the elections and the organizations, as well as the campaign websites and publications of related organizations.By analyzing and comparing elections in the two residential patterns, some major similarities and differences of the relationships between the organized Chinese and their elected leaders are found. Similarities include that both Chu and Lee have a deep-rooted experience in local community service, both with more than twenty years of community experience. They both constantly interact with their ethnic communities through their connection to Chinese American organizations. So when a position is open for grab, they can appear promptly as the popular, for-the-people type that appeals to the public opinion of both the mainstream and the Chinese American community. But among their supporters, there exist different voices that represent divisional interests within community in terms of generation, class, cross-ethnic/racial coalition or gender. But these interests have been negotiated and compromised for the greater agenda of increasing Chinese American political representation.Analysis and comparison of the two cases also show major differences due to residential patterns and constituency’s political contexts. The first difference is that in Chu’s constituency, working-class Latinos make up the majority population and so she relies heavily on labor organizations to forge cross-racial coalition. In comparison, Lee relies more on the traditional Chinatown organizations to his1/4Chinese in his constituency. Another major difference is that Chu’s new immigrants suburban constituency is quite distinctive in socio-political perspective from the San Francisco downtown traditional Chinese community. The more progressive social agencies in ethnoburbs play a more important role in Chu’s election. In contrast, Lee’s base is in the San Francisco Chinatown and is more dependent upon the traditional Chinatown associations to rally the community. In San Francisco’s traditional immigrant gateway metropolis where other races have already established strong political power. Lee relies heavily on the senior "political power brokers" to negotiate among the city’s top leaders. This may explain why Chinese Americans are less likely to succeed an election in metropolis like San Francisco, Los Angeles City, and New York City. The two cases represent the current trend of the Chinese American electoral participation in two major types of residential patterns. The suburban politicians are facing more opportunities and those in the traditional gateway metropolis are having more hurdles to overcome in order to succeedAfter comparison and analysis, the thesis reaches to the final conclusion Due to the minority population and some inner conflicts in either residential pattern, there are two main factors for Chinese Americans to win elections:a pan-ethnic and cross-racial coalition and a mainstream political platform. It seems that Chinese Americans are not important in both of these factors. On the contrary, it is the Chinese American organizations that form as the home base for the candidate to connect, network and utilize the most resources in the above factors. The role of Chinese American organizations is delicate but a decisive.