American-born Chinese

Not to be confused with Chinese Americans, U.S. citizens of Chinese descent.
This article is about persons of Chinese descent born in the United States of America. For other uses, see American-born Chinese (disambiguation).
American-born Chinese
Total population
1,830,760[1]
0.55% of the U.S. population (2015)
Regions with significant populations
New York City Area, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles Area
Languages
Predominantly English, varieties of Chinese
Religion
Unaffiliated, Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism,[2] and Taoism
Related ethnic groups
Asian Americans,
Overseas Chinese, Chinese Canadians

American-born Chinese (simplified Chinese: 美国出生华裔; traditional Chinese: 美國出生華裔; pinyin: Měiguó chūshēng Huáyì) (sometimes abbreviated as ABC) is a term widely used to refer to Chinese people who were born in the United States and received U.S. citizenship due to birthright citizenship in the United States.

Contested usage

In comparison to the term Chinese American, American-born Chinese may not always denote U.S. citizenship, (mainland) Chinese nationals that were born in the United States often renounce their U.S. citizenship due to China prohibiting its citizens from holding multiple citizenships. According to some, the term has perpetual foreigner connotations. It has been noted that the term differs from existing patterns of immigrant designation in American English. For example, Peter Thiel is considered a "German-born American," and Elon Musk is considered a "South African-born Canadian-American." In both of these cases, the first demographic word refers to the person's citizenship at birth, and the second refers to his citizenship at present. However, in the case of "American-born Chinese," the first demographic word refers to the subject's citizenship at birth (or at present) and the second word to ethnicity.[3]

It has also been observed that, in practice, the term American-born Chinese includes hundreds of thousands of Americans of Chinese descent who were, technically speaking, not born in America, but rather, were brought over by their parents at a young age. This indicates that the term may be a misnomer.

Demographics

In differing degrees, many ABCs draw together Chinese family culture with American societal culture, developing a transnational life and identity.[4] However, this begins to shift in subsequent generations as families structures change through interracial marriage. In 2000, approximately 45% of American-born Chinese marry non-Chinese Americans; this is contrasted with Chinese Americans more generally, whereby 81.5% of men and 77.9% of women married other Chinese Americans.[5]

The term was used in the 2006 graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, entitled American Born Chinese.[6][7] The book was adapted into the series of the same name for Disney+.[8]

The term was used in the book Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan, which has been adapted into a movie of the same name.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Chinese in the U.S. Fact Sheet". Pew Research Centre. Retrieved 5 October 2018.
  2. ^ "Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths". The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Research Center. 19 July 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2013. Unaffiliated 52%, Protestant 22%, Buddhist 15%, Catholic 8%
  3. ^ "ABC: Another Derogatory Term". sar.network.
  4. ^ Liu, Haiming (2005). The Transnational History of a Chinese Family: Immigrant Letters, Family Business, and Reverse Migration. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. pp. 163–209. ISBN 9780813535975.
  5. ^ Zinzius, Birgit (2005). Chinese America: Stereotype and Reality: History, Present, and Future of the Chinese Americans. New York: Peter Lang. pp. 217–218. ISBN 9780820467443.
  6. ^ Yang, Gene Luen (2006). American Born Chinese. New York: First Second. ISBN 9781429969369.
  7. ^ Beebe, Nathaniel (May 9, 2015). "American Born Chinese". AAA 201: Introduction to Asian/Asian American Studies, Miami University. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  8. ^ Otterson, Joe (2023-01-13). "'American Born Chinese,' 'Proud Family: Louder and Prouder' Season 2 Among First-Looks Revealed by Disney+, Disney Channel, Nat Geo". Variety. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  9. ^ ( Crazy Rich Asians 1) Kevin Kwan Crazy Rich Asians Doubleday ( 2013).