Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

misterferguson t1_irijepl wrote

I’ve always wondered about this. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Chinese diaspora has always stuck me as fairly apolitical with regards to China when compared to immigrants from other parts of the world. I wonder if this plays into that.

33

fritosdoritos t1_irj3bro wrote

The political stance differs depends on various factors - age, social status, education, etc.

Someone's grandparents who suffered through Communism in China during the mid 20th century and then moved to America in the 70-80s would be very anti-China. On the other hand, another person's grandparents who are of similar age but moved to America in the last decade would've experienced the explosive economic growth in China that started in the 90s so they would think more fondly of it.

If they know English, they'll naturally gravitate towards American news sources which are obviously pro-America. The ones who aren't fluent will stay in the Chinese social media ecosystem, where they'll interact more with mainland Chinese citizens.

24

VictorTrasvina t1_irke75j wrote

That's not what I've seen, most older Chinese parents tend to go through the "break up" syndrome, where after some time they begin to romanticize the good memories and slowly forget the reasons they had for leaving, the "cultural bubble" doesn't help either, think of it this way: If you moved to China today 10/20 years from now you will remember USA as the one in 2022, and thats gonna be your perception of it, because you are not a participant of the everyday small incremental changes happening every day.

9

MiskatonicDreams t1_irk92ko wrote

“ If they know English, they'll naturally gravitate towards American news sources which are obviously pro-America.”

Not anymore. American news lies too much these days. While China has issues, American news almost never focuses on those. The issues they report are also often blown out of proportion for propaganda needs. Sometimes they translate things incorrectly out of malice too.

−3

Environmental_Toe843 t1_irisp0x wrote

Or could it be that they’re too small in numbers to hold any political sway and don’t want to get on any side’s bad side.

3

BeamStop23 t1_irj7x57 wrote

No there definitely is something to it. A close associate of mine in America with citizenship but is Chinese and in education will talk about anything political but when i talk about the changes in education in China, or anything political in China, he's non-responsive. I'm just now learning that once you leave China you are still never 100% free. And what you do in America can effect those you have living in China, or can restrict you from ever visiting China again.

−5

Ok_Read701 t1_irjrl2m wrote

Lol this is quite a conspiracy. They don't have that much influence here. They don't go after people unless they're starting movements/protests.

Your friend just didn't want to talk about it.

13

WhatAGeee t1_irmnasa wrote

I agree, to /u/beamstop23 he most likely knew you would disagree with what he has to say and so he chose to opt out of talking about it because it wasn't worth offending you or jeopardizing the friendship over political stuff.

3

MiskatonicDreams t1_irk9auh wrote

We don’t want to talk about it with American because Americans don’t know anything about Chinese politics. Most of you have an extremely stereotyped understanding of China and having a conversation with you guys about it is really tiring. Imagine trying to explain Tolkien’s world to someone new in 10 mins. It simply can’t be done.

6

Significant-Pizza249 t1_irkcgyf wrote

This is not true. In my experience, most Chinese Americans who immigrated before the 21st century are very political, you just don’t really hear about it cause we don’t really talk about it outside our community. The Chinese community in America has traditionally always been strongly anti communist and pro ROC. It’s why even today, you’ll still see more ROC flags than communist flags in Chinatown (you’ll probably see extra amounts of them rn since double ten day is coming up). I’ve grown up and lived in different Chinese communities across the country and this has always been the case. You can see this in our media too (created and published by Chinese in America), it’s overwhelmingly anti CCP and pro democracy

Of course, things are kind of shifting now. The CCP is trying to influence the politics in our overseas communities by doing things like setting up organizations like this, funding family/hometown associations, and paying people to set up pro communist rallies (there were lots of these in 2019 during the HK protests). They’re also definitely surveilling us, a friend of my dads got a phone call from the Chinese police asking for tips about a political post he shared online (even though this guy is an American citizen, lives in Brooklyn, and immigrated over 30 years ago). I see more communist flags in the Chinatowns with new immigrants now, but I would say most of the Chinese community in this country are still strongly anti CCP

1

BKTKC t1_irkmz37 wrote

Chinese Americans in NYC Chinatown financed the overthrow of the Qing, the foundation of KMT and the Republic. There's even the KMT office on Mott street. The Chinese Benevolent Society aka Chinese School on Mott by its own rules only supports the Republic of China, the KMT is one of the main member of the benevolent society. The Chinese ideology war has been fought clandestinely in Chinatown since the civil war ended, but it was mainly the KMT doing the work on the republic side, the current DPP admin in the Republic is more insular about the global Chinese community since they're focused on primarily the Taiwanese identity and rarely interact with the Chinese American community. The KMT and CCP both expressed the intent to represent all Chinese from around the world when they were formed.

With more recent immigrants from mainland china arriving and the KMT fall from power in Taiwan, things are slowly shifting towards the CCP side. Wechat and Chinese media supporting the CCP views have become the dominant source of news for many older Chinese in the community.

5

Significant-Pizza249 t1_irkokjb wrote

Yes like I said, things are changing and the CCP is gaining more influence, but in my experience the community here is still overwhelmingly anti communist and pro ROC. Everyone around me holds these views still

Btw ROC does not equal DPP and vice versa, I’m talking about the original ROC/KMT values like 三民主義 and the idea of an eventually Democratic China. DPP really is not that popular here

2

justtotryit4now t1_irzbmt6 wrote

My neighbors always talk how advanced and safe China is compared to the USA. I told him he should go back there if he thinks it’s that great, he was not happy.

0