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A Taiwanese American (Chinese traditional: 台裔美人, Wade Giles: tai-yi-mei-ren ) is an American of Taiwanese ancestry. This term also sometimes fluidly applies to those whose parents or relatives are associated with the post-1949 Republic of China. Whether Taiwanese Americans also count as Chinese Americans is a controversial political issue.

Immigration

From the late 1950s until the 1970s, many Taiwanese people came to the United States, forming the first wave of post-war Taiwanese immigration. Their entry into the United States was facilitated by the immigration act of 1965, which removed many of the restrictions against Chinese immigration.

Before the late 1960s, Taiwanese immigrants to the United States tended to be Waisheng Taiwanese, while later immigrants tended to increasingly be Bensheng Taiwanese. With improving economic conditions in Taiwan, Taiwanese immigration to the United States began to subside in the early-1980s. The proportion of "mainlander" Taiwanese among Taiwanese-Americans is significantly higher than the "mainlander" population in Taiwan.

The exact number of Taiwanese-Americans is hard to calculate since most demographic research tends to clump immigrants from Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong into the broadly-defined "Chinese-American" category. However, most statistics, including one by the Formosan Association of Public Affairs (FAPA), puts an estimate at around 500,000.

Occupations and citizenship status

Many Taiwanese in America are very well educated. They often hold such occupations as doctors, engineers, professors and scientists. Taiwanese Americans also took up positions in America in aerospace, defense, research, academics, and healthcare. Among Taiwanese Americans, medicine is regarded as a particularly high status for historical reasons. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan before 1945, native Taiwanese were barred from politics and administration but were encouraged to become doctors and nurses, leading to this profession being regarded as a high status means of social advancement.

In the 1960s, many Taiwanese Americans chose to make America their permanent home and had children in the U.S. By the late 1970s, improving economic conditions in Taiwan slowed the rate of immigration. During the 1990s, political liberalization in Taiwan encouraged many who had left Taiwan for political reasons to return.

Legally, the children of Taiwanese parents in the United States are considered to be both American citizens and citizens of the Republic of China. Although the United States requires immigrants to renounce their original citizenship, the government on Taiwan does not recognize this renunciation (unless a formal renunciation is solemnized and submitted to the ROC government) and considers Taiwanese immigrants with American citizenship to continue to be citizens of the Republic of China.

Taiwanese Immigration to the United States

Prior to the 1950s emigration off of Taiwan was negligible. During Taiwan’s early history, the island was sparsely populated by Austronesian aboriginals and in the 17th and 18th centuries it served as a destination point for migrating Chinese and Hakka, Primarily from Fukien province. In 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan “in perpetuity and full sovereignty,” as agreed upon in the Treaty of Shiminoseki which ended the Sino Japanese war. Japanese colonial control severely curtailed any movement off the island in the interest of containing dissent against the Japanese Empire.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, opportunities for immigration from Taiwan to the United States were virtually nonexistent before the 1950s. Previously, in the 1840s when American companies began recruiting cheap, accessible labor from Asia to develop Hawaii and the frontier West, Taiwan was too small to be a target for recruiters. However over 950,000 workers were brought in from China, Japan, Korea, India and the Philippines. Unfortunately labor unrest, racism and cyclical economic depressions fueled anti-Asian sentiment in the United States, resulting in exclusionary immigration policies. Beginning with the 874 Page Law, legislation continued to expand its basis for exclusion, culmination in the 1924 Bared Zone Act that Banned the entry of all Asians into the United States. This discriminatory immigration policy remained in effect until World War II, during which time Nazi supremacist ideology force the United States to examine its own racist policies.

Politics

Politically, Taiwanese Americans play a fairly active role in the politics and culture of the Republic of China which is aided in large part by recognition of dual citizenship. The identity politics of Taiwan also influences at least first generation Taiwanese Americans. Many future Kuomintang officials including Lee Tenghui, James Soong and Ma Ying-Jeou received their education in the United States. On the other hand, the United States was a major destination where anti-Kuomintang figures such as Peng Ming-min and Shih Ming-teh were effectively exiled. Still others including Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuantze were educated in the United States.

The close connections between Taiwan and the United States has led to some interesting political dynamics. From time to time, the issue of loyalty to Taiwan is raised. For example, James Soong has been criticized for having extensive property holdings in the United States and for the fact that his children are American citizens. Similarly, this has been raised as an issue in the feud between Li Ao and Lee Yuantze, whose children are also American citizens. This issue is partly one of socio-economic status as people with extensive connections with the United States are considered richer and more privileged than the average Taiwanese.

However, this issue has not become a large part of Taiwanese political discourse largely because links with the United States are so extensive on both sides of the political spectrum, that no one can use this issue to their political advantage. Both the pan-Blue coalition and pan-Green coalition rely on Taiwanese Americans for votes. In the 2004 ROC Presidential Election an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese Americans traveled to Taiwan to vote in an election in which the margin of victory was 30,000, and both groups campaigned extensively in the United States and held campaign rallies on Taiwan to welcome their voters.

While dual citizens in Taiwan are banned from high political office, there has not been a significant movement within Taiwan to ban dual citizenship in general. The Supreme Court has ruled that all citizens, dual or singular, are entitled to the same right. US natural born citizens were emphasized in the decision.

Immigrants vs. native-born

First generation immigrants from Taiwan usually share a common language, Mandarin, although many also speak Taiwanese and to a lesser extent, the Hakka language. As with most immigrants to the United States, linguistic fluency in the heritage language quickly disappears in the second generation. Many second Taiwanese Americans are exposed to Taiwanese, but their level of proficiency varies. Many second generation immigrants speak Taiwanese as their heritage language and may not know any Mandarin. This is typical for many overseas Taiwanese. There are also Second Generation Taiwanese, especially whose families are from the Taipei Metropolitan Area, who speak Mandarin as their heritage language and know little Taiwanese. Mandarin or Taiwanese as the heritage language, however, depends on parents, and whether are individuals are exposed to Mandarin through Mandarin "Chinese" schools. Second Generation Taiwanese with Hakka heritage tend to speak better Mandarin as their heritage language. There are many First Generation Taiwanese of full Hakka heritage who may speak all three languages. Taiwanese Americans of mixed Hoklo and Hakka Heritage may speak only Mandarin as their heritage language. Second Generation Taiwanese who are of mixed Hoklo Taiwanese and Waisheng Taiwanese (or other Chinese) heritage may only know Mandarin and not a word of Taiwanese. Many people in this category also tend to identify more as Chinese or Waisheng Taiwanese and fail to understand the significance of the Taiwanese identity.

Settlement

Owing to their relative wealth and education attainment, many Taiwanese immigrants have not settled in the old Cantonese-speaking Chinatowns. Instead, they have generally immigrated directly to American suburbia and in effect, they started new Taiwanese communities. For example, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of Taiwanese immigration, the Taiwanese emigrants were instrumental in the development of Monterey Park, California - thus causing it to earn the moniker of "Little Taipei" and derisivery as "Mandarin Park" - and vicinity and in Flushing, New York, which generally reflected new investments and capital flowing from Taiwan into newer Taiwanese enclaves instead of the well-established and mostly dilapidated Chinatowns. While Monterey Park is no longer the major Taiwanese community in Los Angeles today, Flushing remains the main vibrant Taiwanese cultural, commercial, and political center in New York City. The communities of Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, and Arcadia seem to give the ambiance of "Little Taipei" in the San Gabriel Valley. However, many annual Taiwanese cultural events (especially during Taiwanese Heritage Week) are still held in Monterey Park. As an attempt to duplicate the Taiwanese success of Monterey Park in Houston, Texas, Taiwanese immigrant entrepreneurs pioneered in the mid 1980s what is now widely considered as Houston’s new Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard (although many Vietnamese-born Chinese immigrants have increasingly settled and set up shop in the area as well). A number of Taiwanese American businesses and organizations still operate and flourish in this part of Houston.

The prestige and performance of particular school districts, as well as access to careers in high-tech firms, have in general played significant parts in influencing the settlement patterns of Taiwanese Americans.

Areas with high concentrations of Taiwanese immigrants include the San Gabriel Valley (Greater Los Angeles), Santa Clara Valley (San Jose), El Cerrito, California (Oakland) and southern Orange County in California. Outside of California, there are also major Taiwanese concentrations in Flushing, New York, Rockville, Maryland (northwest of Washington, D.C.), Sugar Land, Texas (near Houston), Richardson, Texas (near Dallas), Bellevue, Washington and Redmond, Washington (both part of the Greater Seattle Area's "Eastside" communities). Additionally, the northeastern suburbs of the Atlanta, Georgia area has also received a significant influx of Taiwanese immigrant residents. The Taiwanese population was formerly dominant in Monterey Park, California. The San Gabriel Valley has a larger population of "49er" Taiwanese (also known as mainlander Taiwanese), essentially outnumbering native Taiwanese. Since the middle 1980s through the 1990s, however, large numbers of mostly 49er Taiwanese Americans seeking greener pastures began moving out to more upscale neighborhoods like San Marino, Arcadia, and Temple City in Western San Gabriel Valley; Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut, and Diamond Bar in Eastern San Gabriel Valley; with poorer immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Cantonese (mostly from Vietnam) taking their place in Monterey Park.

Similarly, for the past 10 years, native Taiwanese have been immigrating to upscale neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange County such as Cerritos and Irvine respectively. The city of Cerritos is located in Los Angeles County but borders Orange County and has a large diversity of Asian immigrants. The city of Irvine has a very large native Taiwanese population, though now more and more Mainlander Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese immigrants have flocked to the city. The Irvine Chinese School, which serves mostly the American-born children of Taiwanese immigrants, is one of the largest Chinese Schools in the Orange County area.

Taiwanese culture is well-preserved in these communities. Convenient Taiwanese-oriented strip malls and shopping complexes are typically complete with supermarkets and restaurants, thus Taiwanese American suburbanites have very little need to visit the older Chinatowns. In addition, shops offering imported Taiwanese goods allow for young Taiwanese expatriates in the United States to keep up with the current trends and popular culture of Taiwan. Taiwanese Americans have also brought with them Taiwanese cuisine to the communities they have settled, which, possibly excluding bubble tea, is not generally well-known or served outside these aforementioned Taiwanese immigrant enclaves.

Organizations

Organizations geared towards Taiwanese Americans include the Formosan Association for Public Affairs and the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association. In addition, most cities with concentrations of Taiwanese Americans have a Taiwan association or Taiwan Center.

Taiwanese American media

The Taiwanese also run several of North America's major Chinese-language newspapers, such as the World Journal, which is a conservative paper, and the International Daily News, a liberal paper. However, these influential and highly-circulated newspapers are not geared solely to the Taiwanese, but rather serve the Chinese-speaking immigrant readership.

Due to the significant Taiwanese American community, Taiwan media dominates the Chinese-language airwaves in the United States. Cable and satellite television of Taiwan-based media keeps Taiwanese Americans abreast of news developments and programming in Taiwan. For example, satellite stations ETTV America and CTI (Zhong Tian) cater to Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants.

Businesses

There are several businesses targeted towards the Taiwanese American immigrant population, such as the 99 Ranch Market chain. Other well-known Taiwanese American businesses include Lollicup (serving boba tea).

Other businesses run or co-founded by Taiwanese Americans include Yahoo!, Viewsonic, Nautica, Nvidia, Garmin, Newegg.com, and YouTube.

Prominent Taiwanese Americans

See also

• Demographics of the United States
• Taiwanese Canadian

External links

• Taiwanese American Foundation
• TaiwaneseAmerican.org
• Taiwan Center of America
• Taiwanese American Citizens League
• Formosan Association for Public Affairs
• ITASA - Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
• U.S. Census 2000 - People Born in Taiwan

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