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Rhode Island news
8.1.2001 00:09
Claiming their place
• Now the state's largest Asian group, Chinese-Americans seek greater cultural recognition, political power, and social programs.
BY ARIEL SABAR
Journal Staff Writer
For the last two decades, Rhode Island's small Asian population has been dominated by Southeast Asians -- immigrants mostly from Cambodia and Laos, whose culture flavors everything from restaurants and Buddhist temples to small businesses and the public schools.
But Rhode Island's mix of Asians, unique among the states, appears to be changing.
Figures released today from the 2000 Census show that over the 1990s, another group of Asians -- people from China -- quietly surpassed the Cambodians as Rhode Island's largest Asian group. And Laotians, who were the third-largest Asian group in 1990, have fallen to fourth, behind Asian Indians.
Experts say that the return of some stability to Southeast Asian nations has slowed immigration to a trickle. The Chinese, meanwhile, have steadily moved into Rhode Island from their home country -- the world's most populous -- and from such big Northeastern cities as New York.
Prominent Chinese Rhode Islanders say that the newcomers have generally fit into two categories: young professionals taking jobs in science, technology, and academia and working-class immigrants who labor in the state's increasing number of Chinese restaurants.
The result has been striking. From 1990 to 2000, Rhode Island's Chinese population climbed 55 percent -- from 3,081 to 4,775. One in five Asian Rhode Islanders now is Chinese.
The Cambodian population grew at a much slower 24 percent -- from 3,655 to 4,522.
The new figures startled prominent Southeast Asians and Chinese alike, many of whom regarded the dominance of Cambodians as a near article of faith.
"I am really surprised," says Joseph R. Le, director of the Socioeconomic Development Center for Southeast Asians, in Providence. He contends that the Census must have missed several thousand Cambodians.
But Chinese Rhode Islanders say the figures signal their emergence as a significant minority group. And they hope the numbers lead to greater cultural recognition, political power, and government-financed social-service programs for the poor and elderly.
A group of Chinese Rhode Islanders is already trying to secure exhibit space at the Heritage Harbor Museum, hoping that the history of the Chinese doesn't get lost amid the chronicles of the larger groups of immigrants.
"When people say diversity, they usually think blacks or Hispanics, and when they say Asian, it means the Southeast Asian community," says Hon Fong L. Mark, of Barrington, a medical geneticist who is a board member of the Rhode Island Association of Chinese Americans. "Definitely, those groups need help. But what we're saying is that the Chinese community needs help, too."
"It's a matter of equity and recognition," says Mark, who spent her childhood in Hong Kong and moved to Rhode Island as a teenager, in 1962. She went to Brown University, married a fellow chemistry student, and has never left.
For the second year, the Association of Chinese Americans is sponsoring a day of activities at Pawtucket's Convergence 2001 International Arts Festival -- from a dulcimer concert to elaborate dragon-boat races. Local Chinese businesses are also paying for a 20-person dance troupe from Taiwan, at a cost of $10,000.
The planners say the effort is meant as more than entertainment.
"Most of the people -- they're not aware that there are so many Chinese in Rhode Island," says Sunny Ng, of East Greenwich, a developer who helped organize the Convergence events and who publishes the Rhode Island Chinese-American News, a monthly newsletter. "We're trying to get involved with the mainstream, so people understand us a bit more.
"Otherwise, we isolate ourselves. It's not the way to go."
THE CHINESE have been the largest Asian group nationwide since the 1970s. But they fell to second place among Asian Rhode Islanders in the 1980s, when Providence became a resettlement hub for Cambodian refugees fleeing the communist Khmer Rouge and the invading Vietnamese.
The history of the Chinese in the United States stretches back further, to 1849, when the first Chinese landed in California in hopes of mining gold. Others found work building railroads -- work that carried them across the country.
By about 1900, downtown Providence had its own Chinatown: a few hundred Chinese people living along Empire and Aborn Streets, many of them working in laundries, says John Eng-Wong, a Brown University administrator who chairs the Chinese subcommittee of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
But a street-widening project in the 1910s dispersed them, says Eng-Wong. And a small settlement on Summer Street, near the Providence YMCA, lasted only a few more years.
Chinese population growth in the United States stagnated until the mid-1960s, when the country lifted the last of several anti-Chinese immigration policies. No Chinatown, however, has emerged in Rhode Island since then.
Unlike the Cambodian Rhode Islanders, who are heavily concentrated in Providence, the Chinese Rhode Islanders are more evenly dispersed across the state, in part because of their generally higher incomes.
Westerly, with 357 Chinese-Americans, is home to the state's third-largest Chinese population, after Providence and Cranston. The nucleus of the town's Chinese population was formed with the opening of a Chinese restaurant there in the 1950s. Over the years, the owners of that restaurant, now called China Village, and of others were joined by dozens of members of their extended families.
The 1990s saw a different kind of migration, as Chinese people moved to Westerly from New York City for jobs as card dealers and cooks at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, in nearby Connecticut.
About six months ago, the Chinese Grocery opened in Westerly. It has done a brisk trade in bok choy and dim sum dumplings.
"I know more than 360 Chinese," says a cashier, Grace Hu, who moved from New York last year and believes the Census numbers are too low. "I'd say 80 percent come from New York, and it's majorly because of Foxwoods."
MANY CHINESE in Rhode Island trace their roots to the province of Kwongtung, but at least four major Chinese languages are spoken here.
The Rhode Island Association of Chinese Americans, which offers interpreters, language classes, and a library, has grown large enough now that it is seeking its first executive director.
The Chinese Christian Church of Rhode Island, the only one in the state, started with 30 worshipers in 1977, in the basement of the Providence YMCA. The church moved twice to accommodate its growing congregation. Now headquartered in Pawtucket, it fills with 350 people on Sundays and conducts prayers in Cantonese, Mandarin and, for those wearing headsets wired to real-time interpreters, English.
Allan W. Fung, 31, is part of the state's second generation of Chinese immigrants. His parents moved from Hong Kong in 1969. They spoke no English when they opened Kong Wen Restaurant, in Cranston. At age 9, Fung translated for his Cantonese-speaking parents during the purchase of their house in Providence's Washington Park.
After graduating law school, in 1995, says Fung, he turned down a prestigious job offer in San Francisco to help bolster the fledgling Chinese population here.
He worked as a state prosecutor for a couple of years before taking his current job, at MetLife Auto & Home, a Warwick insurance company where he tracks legislation affecting the company.
Several Western states have Asian-Americans in political positions, but Rhode Island has yet to elect one to public office. Fung, however, is viewed by many in the local community as a political up-and-comer.
"When I started," he says of his career, "I could count the number of Chinese-American lawyers on one hand. I wanted to be one to make an impact and difference in the state."
-- With reports from staff writer David Herzog
Claiming their place
• Now the state's largest Asian group, Chinese-Americans seek greater cultural recognition, political power, and social programs.
BY ARIEL SABAR
Journal Staff Writer
For the last two decades, Rhode Island's small Asian population has been dominated by Southeast Asians -- immigrants mostly from Cambodia and Laos, whose culture flavors everything from restaurants and Buddhist temples to small businesses and the public schools.
But Rhode Island's mix of Asians, unique among the states, appears to be changing.
Figures released today from the 2000 Census show that over the 1990s, another group of Asians -- people from China -- quietly surpassed the Cambodians as Rhode Island's largest Asian group. And Laotians, who were the third-largest Asian group in 1990, have fallen to fourth, behind Asian Indians.
Experts say that the return of some stability to Southeast Asian nations has slowed immigration to a trickle. The Chinese, meanwhile, have steadily moved into Rhode Island from their home country -- the world's most populous -- and from such big Northeastern cities as New York.
Prominent Chinese Rhode Islanders say that the newcomers have generally fit into two categories: young professionals taking jobs in science, technology, and academia and working-class immigrants who labor in the state's increasing number of Chinese restaurants.
The result has been striking. From 1990 to 2000, Rhode Island's Chinese population climbed 55 percent -- from 3,081 to 4,775. One in five Asian Rhode Islanders now is Chinese.
The Cambodian population grew at a much slower 24 percent -- from 3,655 to 4,522.
The new figures startled prominent Southeast Asians and Chinese alike, many of whom regarded the dominance of Cambodians as a near article of faith.
"I am really surprised," says Joseph R. Le, director of the Socioeconomic Development Center for Southeast Asians, in Providence. He contends that the Census must have missed several thousand Cambodians.
But Chinese Rhode Islanders say the figures signal their emergence as a significant minority group. And they hope the numbers lead to greater cultural recognition, political power, and government-financed social-service programs for the poor and elderly.
A group of Chinese Rhode Islanders is already trying to secure exhibit space at the Heritage Harbor Museum, hoping that the history of the Chinese doesn't get lost amid the chronicles of the larger groups of immigrants.
"When people say diversity, they usually think blacks or Hispanics, and when they say Asian, it means the Southeast Asian community," says Hon Fong L. Mark, of Barrington, a medical geneticist who is a board member of the Rhode Island Association of Chinese Americans. "Definitely, those groups need help. But what we're saying is that the Chinese community needs help, too."
"It's a matter of equity and recognition," says Mark, who spent her childhood in Hong Kong and moved to Rhode Island as a teenager, in 1962. She went to Brown University, married a fellow chemistry student, and has never left.
For the second year, the Association of Chinese Americans is sponsoring a day of activities at Pawtucket's Convergence 2001 International Arts Festival -- from a dulcimer concert to elaborate dragon-boat races. Local Chinese businesses are also paying for a 20-person dance troupe from Taiwan, at a cost of $10,000.
The planners say the effort is meant as more than entertainment.
"Most of the people -- they're not aware that there are so many Chinese in Rhode Island," says Sunny Ng, of East Greenwich, a developer who helped organize the Convergence events and who publishes the Rhode Island Chinese-American News, a monthly newsletter. "We're trying to get involved with the mainstream, so people understand us a bit more.
"Otherwise, we isolate ourselves. It's not the way to go."
THE CHINESE have been the largest Asian group nationwide since the 1970s. But they fell to second place among Asian Rhode Islanders in the 1980s, when Providence became a resettlement hub for Cambodian refugees fleeing the communist Khmer Rouge and the invading Vietnamese.
The history of the Chinese in the United States stretches back further, to 1849, when the first Chinese landed in California in hopes of mining gold. Others found work building railroads -- work that carried them across the country.
By about 1900, downtown Providence had its own Chinatown: a few hundred Chinese people living along Empire and Aborn Streets, many of them working in laundries, says John Eng-Wong, a Brown University administrator who chairs the Chinese subcommittee of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
But a street-widening project in the 1910s dispersed them, says Eng-Wong. And a small settlement on Summer Street, near the Providence YMCA, lasted only a few more years.
Chinese population growth in the United States stagnated until the mid-1960s, when the country lifted the last of several anti-Chinese immigration policies. No Chinatown, however, has emerged in Rhode Island since then.
Unlike the Cambodian Rhode Islanders, who are heavily concentrated in Providence, the Chinese Rhode Islanders are more evenly dispersed across the state, in part because of their generally higher incomes.
Westerly, with 357 Chinese-Americans, is home to the state's third-largest Chinese population, after Providence and Cranston. The nucleus of the town's Chinese population was formed with the opening of a Chinese restaurant there in the 1950s. Over the years, the owners of that restaurant, now called China Village, and of others were joined by dozens of members of their extended families.
The 1990s saw a different kind of migration, as Chinese people moved to Westerly from New York City for jobs as card dealers and cooks at the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, in nearby Connecticut.
About six months ago, the Chinese Grocery opened in Westerly. It has done a brisk trade in bok choy and dim sum dumplings.
"I know more than 360 Chinese," says a cashier, Grace Hu, who moved from New York last year and believes the Census numbers are too low. "I'd say 80 percent come from New York, and it's majorly because of Foxwoods."
MANY CHINESE in Rhode Island trace their roots to the province of Kwongtung, but at least four major Chinese languages are spoken here.
The Rhode Island Association of Chinese Americans, which offers interpreters, language classes, and a library, has grown large enough now that it is seeking its first executive director.
The Chinese Christian Church of Rhode Island, the only one in the state, started with 30 worshipers in 1977, in the basement of the Providence YMCA. The church moved twice to accommodate its growing congregation. Now headquartered in Pawtucket, it fills with 350 people on Sundays and conducts prayers in Cantonese, Mandarin and, for those wearing headsets wired to real-time interpreters, English.
Allan W. Fung, 31, is part of the state's second generation of Chinese immigrants. His parents moved from Hong Kong in 1969. They spoke no English when they opened Kong Wen Restaurant, in Cranston. At age 9, Fung translated for his Cantonese-speaking parents during the purchase of their house in Providence's Washington Park.
After graduating law school, in 1995, says Fung, he turned down a prestigious job offer in San Francisco to help bolster the fledgling Chinese population here.
He worked as a state prosecutor for a couple of years before taking his current job, at MetLife Auto & Home, a Warwick insurance company where he tracks legislation affecting the company.
Several Western states have Asian-Americans in political positions, but Rhode Island has yet to elect one to public office. Fung, however, is viewed by many in the local community as a political up-and-comer.
"When I started," he says of his career, "I could count the number of Chinese-American lawyers on one hand. I wanted to be one to make an impact and difference in the state."
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