Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese (華僑 in pinyin: huáqiáo, or 華胞 huábāo, or 僑胞 qiáobāo) are ethnic Chinese who live outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan. There are approximately 60 million overseas Chinese mostly living in southeast Asia where they make up a majority of the population of Singapore and significant minority populations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. The overseas populations in those areas arrived between the 16th and the 19th centuries from mostly the maritime provinces of Guangdong and Fujian (the Hoklo ethnic group), followed by Taiwan and Hainan.

More recent emigration has been directed primarily to western countries such as United States, Canada and Australia being destinations. (see entries on Malaysian Chinese, Indonesian Chinese, Chinese Australians, Burmese Chinese, Chinese Singaporean, Chinese Canadian, Chinese Cuban, Chinese Filipino, Chinese Peruvian, Chinese Puerto Rican,Chinese Cayman Islander Chinese American, American-born Chinese, Taiwanese American and Chinese British).

Overseas Chinese vary widely as to their degree of assimilation, their interactions with the surrounding communities (see Chinatown), and their relationship with China. In Thailand, overseas Chinese have largely intermarried and assimilated with the native community. In Myanmar, the Chinese rarely intermarry, but have adopted the Burmese culture, maintaining both Chinese and Burmese identities. On the other hand, in Malaysia and Singapore, overseas Chinese have maintained a distinct communal identity.

Often there are different waves of immigration leading to subgroups among overseas Chinese such as the new and old immigrants in Cambodia and Indonesia.

The Chinese in southeast Asian countries have often established themselves in commerce and finances. In North America, because of immigration policies, overseas Chinese tend to be found in professional occupations, including significant ranks in medicine and academia.

Both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan maintain highly complex relationships with overseas Chinese populations. Both maintain cabinet level ministries to deal with overseas Chinese affairs, and many local governments within the PRC have overseas Chinese bureaus. Both the PRC and ROC have some legislative representation for overseas Chinese. In the case of the PRC, some seats in the National People's Congress are allocated for returned overseas Chinese. In the Legislative Yuan, there are a small number of seats allocated for overseas Chinese. These seats are apportioned to the political parties based on their vote totals on Taiwan, and then the parties assign the seats to overseas Chinese party loyalists.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the ROC tended to seek the support of overseas Chinese communities through branches of the Kuomintang based on Sun Yat-sen's use of expatriate Chinese communities to raise money for his revolution. During this period, the People's Republic of China tended to view overseas Chinese with suspicion as possible capitalist infiltrators and tended to value relationships with southeast Asian nations as more important than gaining support of overseas Chinese, and in the Bandung declaration explicitly stated that overseas Chinese owed primary loyalty to their home nation.

After the Deng Xiaoping reforms, the attitude of the PRC toward overseas Chinese changed dramatically. Rather than being seen with suspicion, they were seen as people which could aid PRC development via their skills and capital. During the 1980s, the PRC actively attempted to court the support of overseas Chinese by among other things, returning properties that were confiscated after the 1949 revolution. More recently PRC policy has attempted to maintain the support of recently emigrated Chinese, who consist largely of Chinese seeking graduate education in the West.

Overseas Chinese have sometimes played an important role in Chinese politics. Most of the funding for the Chinese revolution of 1911 came from overseas Chinese, and many overseas Chinese are overseas for political reasons. Many overseas Chinese are now investing in mainland China providing financial resources, social and cultural networks, contacts and opportunities.


Population (1998) Area % Number

Asia 17,070,000

Americas 5,020,000

Europe 945,000

Oceania 564,000

Africa 126,000

Total 33,720,000

The Americas have about 5 times more Chinese than Europe. America also has the most overseas Chinese.


A list of famous people with Chinese ancestry living outside of China in countries other than the USA and Canada.

Alan Budikusuma, badminton, Olympic gold medalist, Indonesia

Victor Chang, surgeon, Australia

Chen Kenichi, chef, Japan

Mai Chen, constitutional lawyer, New Zealand

François Cheng, writer, France

John Chong-Nee, music producer, New Zealand

Jimmy Choo, designer, Malaysia, England

Arthur Chung, former president, Guyana

Rudy Hartono, badminton legend, Indonesia

Pi Hongyan, badminton player, France

Ding Junhui, athlete, England

Raybon Kan, comedian, columnist, New Zealand

Takeshi Kaneshiro, actor, Japan

Li Li, badminton player, Singapore

Liem Swie King, badminton legend, Indonesia

Sadaharu Oh, baseball player, Japan

Sudono Salim, enterpreneur, Indonesia

Susi Susanti, badminton, Olympic gold medalist, Indonesia

John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Australia

Zang Toi, fashion designer, Malaysia

Anote Tong, president, Kiribati

Ho-Pin Tung, race driver, Netherlands

Kenneth Wang, politician, New Zealand

Pansy Wong, politician, New Zealand

Huaiwen Xu, athlete, Germany

Gao Xingjian, writer, France

Jack Yan, publisher, author, New Zealand

Jiang Yanmei, badminton player, Singapore

Jie Yao, badminton player, Netherlands

Michelle Yeoh, actor, Malaysia

Alex Yoong, race driver, Malaysia













Chinese American

A Chinese American is an American who is of ethnic Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and are also one group of Asian Americans. Numbering 2.3 million in 2000, Chinese Americans make up 22.4% of Asian Americans (larger than any other Asian American subgroup), and constitute just over 1% of the United States as a whole.



Immigration

Chinese railroad workers in the snowChinese immigration to the United States has come in several waves.

According to records from the United States government, the first Chinese arrived in the United States around 1820. Subsequent immigrants that came from the 1820's up to the late 1840's were mainly men, who came in small numbers. However, due to the lack of Chinese women in the United States at that time, many of them intermarried with Americans of European descent. The best known Chinese immigrants that came during this period are the world-famous Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.

The major initial wave only started around the 1850s. This was when the West Coast of North America was being rapidly colonized during the California Gold Rush, while southern China suffered from severe political and economic instability due to the weakness of the Qing Dynasty government, internal rebellions such as the Taiping Rebellion, and external pressures such as the Opium Wars.

As a result, many Chinese emigrated from the poor Say yup area (四邑 the four-county area including Sun Wui 新會, Toi Shan 台山, Hoi Ping 開平, and Yun Ping 恩平) in Guangdong province to the United States in order to work on the railroads. People in Say yup lived in such poor living conditions that many were willing to sign up for prepaid long term labor contracts to work in the US. Many gave the sum of money to their family and didn't expect to be able to return home alive. They considered this act to be akin to selling themselves as pigs (賣豬仔). These Chinese, who mostly spoke Cantonese and its variant Toisanese (or Taishanese) clustered in Chinatowns, the largest population was in San Francisco. Some estimated over half of these early immigrants were from Taishan. This immigration (encouraged by the Burlingame Treaty of 1868) was stopped by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which made Chinese immigration illegal until 1943. Many Western states also enacted discriminatory laws which made it difficult for Chinese and Japanese immigrants to own land or even find work. These laws were not overturned until the 1950s, at the dawn of the modern civil rights movement.

With the loosening of American immigration laws in 1952 and 1965, a second wave of Chinese immigration began. These Taiwanese Americans consisted of professionals from Taiwan who arrived in the United States on student visas. With the improving economy in Taiwan, immigration from the island began to decrease in the 1970s and was accompanied by an increase in immigration of professionals from Mainland China, which began to allow for emigration in 1977. Both groups of Chinese tended to cluster in suburban areas and tended to avoid urban Chinatowns. These Chinese tended to speak fluent Mandarin often in addition to their native dialect, which in the case of the Taiwanese Americans was often the Taiwanese language (also known as Hokkien, a variant of the chinese Min dialect, but in Taiwan is called 台语 literally: Taiwanese)

A third wave of recent immigrants consisted of undocumented aliens, chiefly from Fujian province who came to the United States in search of lower-status manual jobs. These aliens tend to concentrate in urban areas such as New York City and there is often very little contact between these Chinese and higher-educated professionals. They generally speak some Mandarin but mostly Min dialect, which is close to the Taiwanese language although this fact does not produce much affinity between this group and Taiwanese Americans. The amount of immigration from this group has begun to decrease as the economic situation in Fujian improves. Typically, an immigrant from Fujian will pay a snakehead several tens of thousands of dollars to be transported to the United States, as well as room and board. The funds for the trip are financed by family and village. The immigrant will usually work for three years, the first two to pay off the debt and the third as profit.





Ethnic Chinese immigration to the United States since 1965 has been aided by the fact that the United States maintains separate quotas for Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Absent from the list of Chinese Americans are immigrants from Hong Kong, who because of immigration law, tended to immigrate to Canada.

In the 1980s, there was widespread concern by the PRC over a brain drain as graduate students were not returning to the PRC. This exodus worsened after the Tiananmen protests of 1989.

Many immigrants from the PRC benefited from the Chinese Student Protection Act of 1992 which granted permanent residency status to immigrants from the PRC. One unintended side effect of the law was that the primary beneficiaries of the law were undocumented Fujianese immigrants, who unlike the Chinese graduate students, would have had no chance to gain permanent residency through normal means.

In the late 1990s, large numbers of professional Chinese Americans began to return to the PRC, creating a brain gain. In a typical career pattern, a Chinese graduate student would emigrate to the United States and enter the job market and return to the PRC after encountering the glass ceiling; Chinese students had once been favored under affirmative action programs, but that was no longer the case after 1990. The number of Chinese graduate students returning to the PRC increased dramatically after 2000 and the dot-com bust resulted in worsening job prospects in the United States.


Citizenship
Legally all ethnic Chinese born in the United States are American citizens as a result of the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision. Upon naturalization, immigrants are required to renounce their former citizenship. The People's Republic of China does not recognize dual citizenship and considers this a renounciation of PRC citizenship. The Republic of China on Taiwan not only recognizes dual citizenship, but also does not recognize the American naturalization oath as renouncing citizenship. In addition, the PRC does not recognize the American citizenship of children born to PRC nationals in the United States.


Demographics
San Francisco Chinatown, one of the largest in North America. This photo shows Washington Street at Grant Avenue looking West.Cities with large Chinese American populations include New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston. In these cities, there are often multiple Chinatowns, an older one and a newer one which is populated by immigrants from the 1960s and 1970s. In some areas, Chinese Americans maintain close relationships with other Asian groups, particularly Vietnamese Americans. These relationships are helped by the fact that many Vietnamese American are ethnic overseas Chinese, although most ethnic Chinese Vietnamese Americans do not classify themselves as Chinese American.

In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university towns, throughout the United States. Chinese Americans formed nearly three percent of California's population in 1990, and over one percent in the Northeast. Hawaii, with its historically heavily-Asian population, was nearly five percent Chinese American.

As a whole, Chinese Americans continue to grow at a rapid rate due to immigration. However, they also on average have birth rates lower than those of American whites, and as such their population is aging relatively quickly. In recent years, adoption of young children, especially girls, from China has also brought a boost to the numbers of Chinese Americans, although most of the adoptions appear to have been done by white parents.

Politics
March Fong Eu, a Chinese American politician from CaliforniaChinese Americans are divided among many subgroups based on factors such as generation, place of origin, socio-economic level, and do not have uniform attitudes about the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China on Taiwan, the United States, or Chinese nationalism, with attitudes varying widely between active support, hostility, or indifference. Different subgroups of Chinese Americans also have radically different and sometimes very conflicting political priorities and goals. It is for this reason that Chinese Americans do not have any unified political groups or any unified political viewpoints, although some subgroups such as independence oriented Taiwanese Americans do have some effective lobbying groups such as the Formosan American Professional Association.

In addition, many see the People's Republic of China as a potentially powerful rival to the United States.

Among Chinese in Mainland China and Taiwan, second-generation Chinese Americans known as American-born Chinese are often perceived as being a bit exotic. Chinese Americans have also strongly influenced politics both in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. A large number of major political figures in Taiwan (including Peng Ming-min, Shih Ming-teh, and Lee Yuan-tze) have had either permanent residency or citizenship in the United States, and many Taiwanese political figures including Lee Teng-hui, Ma Ying-jeou, and James Soong have advanced degrees from the United States. The son of James Soong is an American-born Chinese with United States citizenship.

The large number of Taiwanese with either dual American citizenship or relatives with American citizenship have led to some concerns about political loyalty on Taiwan and has resulted in the requirement started in the 1990s that high government officials (although not ordinary people) must renounce any dual citizenships. However, Taiwanese Americans make up important bases of support for both the pan-Green coalition and pan-Blue coalition and neither party appears interesting in pushing this issue much. During the 2000 Republic of China Presidential election, both pan-Green and pan-Blue ran active campaigns among Taiwanese voters in the United States, and an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese Americans returned to Taiwan to vote in the election.

In Communist China, the top leadership contains few persons educated in the United States: the Cold War period made for tenuous China-America links and the Cultural Revolution disrupted academic exchanges with the rest of the world. However, the middle ranks of the People's Republic of China government contain very large numbers of people who received their education in the United States, and a graduate degree from an American university has become an important benefit to political and economic career advancement. In addition, the sons and daughters of many Chinese political leaders, such as Jiang Zemin, are students in the United States. With the leadership transition to the fourth generation of Chinese leaders under Hu Jintao, American educated Chinese officials are increasingly found in powerful positions.

Racial discrimination, 20th & 21st centuries
Two incidents have energized some Chinese-Americans and other Asian Americans, particularly American-born Chinese in recent years -- the murder of Vincent Chin by white automotive workers in 1982 and the unsubstantiated charges of spying against Chinese American nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1999, whom many believe was a victim of racial stereotyping.

During the Cultural Revolution, Chinese-Americans, like all overseas Chinese, generally speaking, were viewed as capitalist traitors by the People's Republic of China government. Chinese citizens with relatives in the United States faced extra suspicion and scrutiny. This attitude changed completely in the late 1970s with the reforms of Deng Xiaoping. Increasingly, Chinese-Americans were seen as sources of business and technical expertise and capital who could aid in China's development (economic and otherwise).

Love Boat
One institution well known among Chinese Americans is colloquially called the Love Boat, a cultural and educational study tour to Taiwan whose overt purpose is to reacquaint American-born Chinese teens with their cultural roots. However, it also has a side motive for Chinese American parents wanting to stem out-marriage (i.e., miscegenation) by increasing the chances their children meet other Chinese Americans.



List of U.S. cities with large Chinese American populations

Cities with large Chinese American populations with a critical mass of at least 1% of the total urban population and at least 10% of the total suburban population. Information based on 2000 Census.

Urban and suburban cities with a pan-Asian American majority population are denoted in bold lettering.

Multi-generation Chinese Americans include those descended from earlier immigrants - from the 1850s to 1950s -and fully become Americanized and they often have very little social connections and interactions to the new Chinese immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants. In the post-1965 era, first- and second-generation immigrants include those from Mainland China (Mandarin-speaking), Taiwan (Mandarin and Taiwanese-speaking), and Hong Kong (Cantonese-speaking) Also included in the Chinese American population are ethnic Chinese Vietnamese (who speak Cantonese or Chaozhou Chinese) who might consider themselves more Chinese than Vietnamese, thus skewing Census reporting.

Regions with significantly large Chinese American populations include the San Gabriel Valley and Silicon Valley in California and the Tri-State Region (New York and New Jersey) of the East Coast. The San Gabriel Valley region in particularly has the largest collection of U.S. suburbs with foreign-born Chinese-speaking populations. They generally range from working-class Chinese Vietnamese refugees and immigrants residing in gritty Rosemead and El Monte, California, to wealthy Taiwanese immigrants living in the upscale communities of San Marino, California and Diamond Bar, California.

Areas with growing Chinese American populations include southern Orange County, California, Edison, New Jersey, Plano and Richardson, Texas.

Large cities
The following list of cities with a population of more than 250,000 have a Chinese American population in excess of 1 pecent of the total.

San Francisco, California - 19.6% (152,620)
Honolulu, Hawaii - 10.7% (39,600)
Oakland, California - 8.0% (31,834)
San Jose, California - 5.7% (51,109)
Sacramento, California - 4.8% (19,425)
New York City, New York - 4.5% (361,531)
Queens - 6.3% (139,820)
Manhattan - 5.7% (86,974)
Brooklyn - 4.9% (120,662)
Staten Island - 1.7% (7,490)
Seattle, Washington - 3.4% (19,415)
Boston, Massachusetts - 3.3% (19,638)
Los Angeles, California - 1.7% (63,075)
Portland, Oregon - 1.4% (7,181)
Houston, Texas - 1.2% (24,001)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 1.2% (17,783)

Medium-size cities
The following list of cities with a population of between 100,000 and 250,000 have a Chinese American population in excess of 1 pecent of the total.

Fremont, California - 14.4% (29,240)
Daly City, California - 13.6%
Sunnyvale, California - 9.56% (12,597)
Berkeley, California - 7.4% (7,585)

Smaller cities and towns
The following list of municipalities with a population less than 100,000 a Chinese American population in excess of 1 pecent of the total.

Groups listed (e.g., Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese) after these cities form a large proportion of the Chinese-origin population.


California - Los Angeles - San Gabriel Valley
Monterey Park, California - 41.2% (24,758) - Predominantly Mainland Chinese, generally pan-Chinese
San Marino, California - 40.6% (5,260) - Taiwanese
Arcadia, California - 34.0% (18,041) - Taiwanese
San Gabriel, California - 33.6% (13,376) - Chinese Vietnamese, but generally pan-Chinese
East San Gabriel, California (unincorporated, but also called San Gabriel) - 28.2% (4,096)
Alhambra, California - 33.1% (28,437) - Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese
Rosemead, California - 29.3% (15,678) - Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese
Rowland Heights, California - 29.0% (14,057) - Taiwanese, growing number of Mainland Chinese
Walnut, California - 28.6% (8,590) - Taiwanese
Temple City, California - 27.9% (9,322) - Taiwanese
Hacienda Heights, California - 22.4% (11,921) - Taiwanese
Diamond Bar, California - 17.9% (10,091) - Taiwanese
El Monte, California - 10.3% - Chinese Vietnamese
Source for above information: Wei Li "Building Ethnoburbia: The Emergence and Manifestation of the Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles’ San Gabriel Valley." Journal of Asian American Studies 2(1): 1-28 (1999)


California - Los Angeles - Cerritos Valley
Cerritos, California - 15% - Taiwanese

California - Orange County
Irvine, California - 10.5% - Taiwanese

California - San Jose - Silicon Valley
Cupertino, California - 23.8% (12,031) - Taiwanese
Millbrae, California - 16.5% - Taiwanese
Foster City, California - 16.3% - Taiwanese
Milpitas, California - 12.9% - Taiwanese, Hong Kong Chinese, Mainland Chinese, Chinese Vietnamese, Chinese Filipinos, Chinese Indonesians, Macanese, and Chinese Burmese (Milpitas, California has one of the most regionally diverse Chinese populations in the United States.)




The following is a list of Chinese Americans who are famous, have made significant contributions to the American culture or society politically, artistically or scientifically, or have appeared in the news numerous times:

(Chinese name may be placed, if available, beside those persons who currently do not have articles yet. Otherwise, place them in their articles. People in this least must have at least a permanent resident status or American-born.)

Jin Au-yeung - rapper

Chang and Eng Bunker - Siamese twins pioneer immigrants

Bette Bao Lord (包柏漪) - writer, novelist

Anna Chan Chennault (陳香梅) - wife of Claire Chennault, of the Flying Tigers

Eileen Chang, writer

Iris Chang (張純如) - writer

Lia Chang - actor, photographer, writer

Michael Chang - tennis player

Elaine Chao - Secretary of Labor^

Rosalind Chao - actor

Christine Chen - Executive Director of the Organization of Chinese Americans

Joan Chen

Julie Chen - newsreader on The Early Show and host of Big Brother

Steve Chen - computer scientist, supercomputer designer, Cray

Shiing-shen Chern - mathematician

Katherine Sui Fun Cheung - first female Asian-American pilot

Leroy Chiao - NASA astronaut

Maj. Arthur Chin (陳瑞鈿) - WW II pilot and fighter ace

Frank Chin (趙健秀) - novelist, playwright, and essayist

Ming W. Chin (陳惠明) - Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court

Tiffany Chin (陳婷婷) - figure skater

Vincent Chin - victim of racial crime

Alex Chiu - eccentric

Annabel Chong - adult film actress

Amy Chow (周婉儀) - gymnast and Olympic medal winner

Norm Chow (周友賢) - USC offensive coordinator

Wen Tsing Chow (周文俊) - missile guidance scientist, digital computer pioneer

David Chu (朱欽騏) - fashion designer and founder of Nautica

Paul C.W. Chu (朱經武) - physicist, superconductivity

Steven Chu - 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, first Asian American to run one of the
16 national laboratories operated by the Department of Energy (Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory)

Kam Fong Chun, actor

Connie Chung - TV news anchor

Fan Chung - mathematician

Dong Kingman (曾景文) - watercolor artist and professor

Hiram L. Fong - U.S. Senator

Ben Fong-Torres (方振豪) - journalist, Rolling Stone

David Ho - AIDS researcher

Kelly Hu - actress

Jen-Hsun Huang (黃仁勳) - cofounder, CEO, Nvidia

David Henry Wang (黃哲倫) - playwright

William Hung - of American Idol fame

Maxine Hong Kingston - writer, novelist

James Wong Howe (黃宗霑) - cinematographer

Gish Jen - writer, novelist

Andrea Jung (鍾彬嫻)- CEO, Avon products

Michelle Kwan (關穎珊) - figure skater

Nancy Kwan (關南施) - first Chinese-born star in Western cinema website
(http://www.nancy-kwan.com)

Ang Lee - movie director

Bruce Lee - actor, kung fu

Brandon Lee -actor

Ching Yang Lee (黎錦揚) - novelist, Flower Drum Song

Coco Lee - singer

Corky Lee - photographer

Gus Lee (李健孫) - writer

Henry C. Lee - forensic scientist

Jason Scott Lee (李截), actor

Li-young lee - poet

Susan Lee (李鳳遷) - Maryland State Delegate and first Asian American woman in
the Maryland State Assembly

Tsung-dao Lee - Nobel laureate, Physics

Wen Ho Lee (李文和) - nuclear physicist, accused spy, acquitted

Will Yun Lee (李威勇) - actor

Katrina Leung - businesswoman, Republican activist, and accused spy

Lena Li - Playboy model

Carol Lin - news anchor

Justin Lin (林詣彬) - film director of Better Luck Tomorrow

Maya Lin (林瓔) - architect (Vietnam Veterans Memorial)

T. Y. Lin - civil engineer (bridgebuilder)

Bai Ling - actress

Lisa Ling (凌志慧) - TV show host

Eric Liu - writer, a speechwriter of Bill Clinton

Lucy Liu - actress

Gary Locke - Democratic Governor of Washington

Edward Lu - NASA astronaut

Victor R. Lu - Lance Corporal of the United States Marine Corps

Keye Luke - actor

Lue Gim Gong - In 1888, he invented an orange, which is still grown in Florida,
that survives cold weather

Adeline Yen Mah (馬嚴君玲) - author and physician

Yoyo Ma - cellist

Teresa Meng (孟懷縈) - founder, Atheros Communications

Jenny Ming (明珍尼) - president of Old Navy, a unit of Gap, Inc.

Kim Ng - baseball executive

I. M. Pei (貝聿銘) - architect

Gordan Quan (關振鵬) - Houston City Councilman and Asian American advocate

Soong Mei-Ling a.k.a. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

Robin Shou (仇雲波) - martial artist

Anna Sui - fashion designer

Vivienne Tam (譚燕玉) - fashion designer

Amy Tan - writer

Thomas Tang - judge

Chang-lin Tien - professor, former chancellor UC Berkeley

Samuel C. C. Ting - 1976 Nobel laureate, Physics

Ming Tsai (蔡明)- chef and restauranteur, writer

Daniel Chee Tsui - 1998 Nobel prize, Physics

An Wang - computer engineer

Charles Wang (王嘉廉)- founder, CEO, chairman, Computer Associates

Lili Wang - murdered at her university

Garret Wang - actor in Star Trek: Voyager

Taylor Wang - first ethnic Chinese scientist to go into space, 1985 on space shuttle
Challenger

Vera Wang - fashion designer

Wayne Wang - Hollywood director

Pei-Yuan Wei - creator of ViolaWWW

Ming-Na Wen - Macanese-born actress

Anna May Wong - first female Asian-American star of the screen

B.D. Wong (黃榮亮) - actor in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Wong Ching Foo (黃清福) - civil rights activist against Chinese Exclusion Act

David Wong Louie - writer

Jade Snow Wong - writer

Russell Wong (王盛德) - actor

Victor Wong (黃自強) - Hollywood actor

S.B. Woo (吳仙標) - former attorney general and lieutenant governor of Delaware,
current president of the 80-20 Initiative

David Wu - first and only Chinese American U.S. Representative, Democrat from
Oregon

Frank H. Wu (吳華揚) - a professor of law at Howard University, writer of Yellow:
Race in America beyond Black and White, soon to be Dean of Law at Wayne State
University in Michigan

Harry Wu - human rights activist

Kiko Wu - adult model and actress

Chien-Shiung Wu - female scientist

Martin Yan - host of Yan Can Cook

Chen Ning Yang - Nobel laureate, Physics

Henry Yang (楊祖佑) - chancellor, UC Santa Barbara

Jeff Yang - founder of A Magazine

Jerry Yang (楊致遠) - founder of Yahoo!

Welly Yang - actor and artist

James Yee - Army Captain formerly charged with sedition

Shing-Tung Yau - mathematician

Laurence Yep - author of children's books

Katherine Young - world's oldest user of the Internet

Kaila Yu - model and singer

Judy Yung - writer

Helen Zia (謝漢蘭) - community activists and writer

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_Americans"



Chinese Canadians
A Chinese Canadian is a person of Chinese descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. Considered from the perspective of China, they are a group of overseas Chinese. In 2001 there were 1,094,700 Canadians of Chinese descent, making them Canada's seventh largest ethnic group.

History
The first record of Chinese in what is known as Canada today can be dated back to 1788. British Captain James Meares hired a group of Chinese carpenters from Macau and settled them on Nootka Sound part of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. However, there is surviving information related to the whereabouts of these early immigrants to Canada or their possible survivors.

The next wave of Chinese immigrants into British North America began in 1858. Most of these Chinese were "sojourners" in a sense, in that most of them planned on returning to their homeland after working in British North America for a period of time. They were mostly rural Cantonese who were at the lower end of the social ladder. Most of them came to British Columbia as "coolies" (苦力 in Chinese) and most were paid in vouchers. Gold rushes at the BC interior also attracted a significant number of Chinese to BC.

Many workers from Fujian and Guangdong Province arrived to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 19th century. Many of these workers accepted the discriminatory disadvantages of working long hours, lower wages than non-Chinese workers and dangerous working conditions such as explosions for the mountain passes, in order to support their families that stayed in China. Their willingness to endure hardship for low wages enraged fellow non-Chinese workers who thought they were unnecessarily complicating the labour market situations. From 1885, the Canadian government began to charge a substantial head tax for each Chinese person trying to immigrate to Canada. In 1923 the Canadian government banned Chinese immigration completely.

Some of those Chinese Canadian workers settled in Canada after the railway was constructed. But most could not bring the rest of their family, not even their immediate family, to Canada because of government restrictions and enormous processing fees. Their contacts with non-Chinese were restricted as well, officially and unofficially. They established Chinatowns and societies in undesirable sections of the cities.

Some educated Chinese arrived in Canada during the war as refugees. Since the mid-20th century, most new Chinese Canadians come from university-educated families, one of whose most essential values is still quality education. These newcomers are a major part of the "Brain gain" the inverse of the infamous "Brain drain", i.e., Canadians leaving to the United States of America.

Chinese Indonesians first arrived in Canada in 1960s during anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia. From 1970s – 1999, many more Chinese Indonesians settled Canada.

Many Chinese from Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea came to Canada as refugees in the aftermath of Vietnam War. Early Chinese Canadians have close relationships with them as a result of their Chinese heritage. They lived mostly in Quebec province.

Many Chinese from Latin America also came in large numbers. Most important are Nicaraguans who fled from the dictatorial Somoza rule and dangerous earthquake in 1980’s, Peruvians who also escaped from earthquake and cruel Velasco regime, and Brazilians. These Chinese are concentrated in Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

There was a significant influx of wealthy Chinese from Hong Kong in the early and mid-1990s. These Chinese immigrants were worried about the pending handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and Canada was a preferred location, in part because investment visas were significantly easier to obtain than visas to the United States. Vancouver, Richmond, and Toronto were the major destinations of these Chinese.

Few Chinese came from Pacific Islands, mostly Fiji, French Polynesia, and New Zealand. Chinese Australians also stayed in Canada.

Prominent Chinese Canadians

Within Canada

Raymond Chan, former Secretary of State for the Pacific Rim and currently the

Minister of State for Multiculturalism

Wei Chen, newscaster

Denise Chong, writer

Michael Chong, Member of Parliament

Tommy Chong, comic and actor (born in Canada, though famous mainly for work
in the U.S.)

Olivia Chow, Toronto politician and wife of Jack Layton

Raymond Chow, painter

Wayson Choy, writer

Adrienne Clarkson, journalist, novelist, publisher, current Governor General of
Canada

Won Alexander Cumyow, first Chinese baby to be born in Canada, 1861 in Port
Douglas, BC.

Chan Hon Goh, first Chinese-Canadian princial dancer with the National Ballet of
Canada

Sandrine Holt, actress of Chinese and French ancestry

Douglas Jung, first Canadian of Chinese origin elected to Parliament

Kristin Laura Kreuk, actress and model (mix of Dutch and Chinese ancestry)

Norman Kwong, aka "The China Clipper", fullback, won four Grey Cups and 30
individual CFL records; later became Lieutenant Governor of Alberta

Jenny Kwan, British Columbia MLA

David Lam, philanthropist and former British Columbia Lieutenant Governor (1988-
1995)

Evelyn Lau, writer

Sophia Leung, former Member of Parliament

Victor Li, businessman

Inky Mark, Member of Parliament

Vivienne Poy, first senator of Chinese ancestry

Mina Shum, filmmaker

Alfred Sung, fashion designer

Bob Wong, first Chinese elected to a cabinet post

Joseph Wong, medical doctor, founder of The Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care

William Kwong Yu Yeung, astronomer

Wing Yee, Singer-Songwriter and Musician.

Ying Chen, writer

Zhai Zhenhua, writer and ex-Red Guard



Education
Some second-generation Chinese Canadians are sent to after-school Mandarin and/or Cantonese Chinese schools to maintain or improve their Chinese language
ability. Many, but not all, first-generation parents encourage or persuade their children to attend the life science, engineering, or commerce faculties of universities, since they believe that only those studies will lead to a stable career and prominence in society.

Given names
Most Chinese Canadians have the Romanization of their Chinese given names as their middle name, or the other way around, but generally prefer to be called in their English name. Some have French names, those from Macao and Brazil generally already have Portuguese names, and Chinese Hispanics and some Chinese Filipinos have Spanish names. However, some consider their names easily pronounced by non-Chinese, so their only given name is in Chinese. However, there are those whose first and middle names are entirely Western.

Chinese-born
Many first-generation children who spend their entire childhood and adolescence in Chinese regions may find, without proper guidance, that it is extremely difficult to fit into the mainstream Canadian culture, and have thus isolated themselves individually or in a small group of Chinese-speaking Canadians. Among themselves they discuss Chinese popular music, news, and books, in Chinese. This trend may continue into university and after that into work, where they get employed in a Chinese Canadian-owned company. A small number of isolated Chinese Canadians immediately return to their birth countries or the USA after they receive their education in Canada. On the other hand, there are also those newcomers who try hard to participate in various aspects of Canadian society and strive to speak native-level English or French. But such embraces of Canadian culture do not necessarily guarantee a successful fit into Canadian society. They still find it difficult to get into any of the careers of their choice. As a result, some such people also have to return to China. But due to their high degree of acculturation into Canadian culture and the growing distance from Chinese culture, they sometimes have a difficult adjustment back into their Chinese society, most noticeably linguistically.

The most recent Canadian census showed that 29% of immigrants from China couldn’t speak either official language; the highest level among all measured countries of origin. Taiwan came in third at 13% (behind India at 15%). This likely reflects the relative ease with which Chinese persons, as the third-largest ethnic group in Canada (behind old-stock English and French Canadians), can conduct themselves exclusively within the Chinese community. It may also reflect the recent nature of Chinese immigration to Canada.

Canadian-born
Some refer to those Chinese Canadians of later generations as "CBC" (Canadian-born Chinese), a parallel to ABC (American-born Chinese). While the name emphasizes their Chinese-ness, some "CBCs" themselves use it as well, usually simply out of convenience and may not fully agree with it. These people also sometimes refer to themselves as "Bananas" since they may look Asian, yet they do not speak Chinese and/or share little with Chinese culture.

Some of the labeled "Jook-sing" reject the possibility that China has anything to do with themselves as individuals.

Chinese illegal aliens in Canada
Groups of Fujianese refugees illegally arrived on Canada by boat in poor conditions in the late 20th century, but virtually none of them became Canadian citizens or residents and were mostly sent back to the People's Republic of China in a few months after time in isolated detention camps.




























Further reading

Chinese Americans and Their Immigrant Parents: Conflict, Identity, and Values, May Pao-May Tung, Haworth Press, 2000, paperback, 112 pages, ISBN 0789010569

Chinese Americans: The Immigrant Experience, Dusanka Miscevic and Peter Kwong, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 2000, hardcover, 240 pages, ISBN 0-88363-128-8

Compelled To Excel: Immigration, Education, And Opportunity Among Chinese Americans, Vivian S. Louie, Stanford University Press, 2004, paperback, 272 pages, ISBN 080474985x

The Chinese in America: A Narrative History, Iris Chang, Viking, 2003, hardcover, 496 pages, ISBN 0-670-03123-2

Being Chinese, Becoming Chinese American, Shehong Chen, University of Illinois Press, 2002 ISBN 0252027361 electronic book (http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/chen/toc.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American"

Great article! I'm posting it in my DSL for the members to read.

I used various articles from WIKIPEDIA and organised it to one post so you can just flip right through it.

Well, great job then!

Too bad there are many books regarding the Chinese in Nanyang(南洋), which is South East Asia (SEA) by now. There are a lot Chinese in SEA, like ~3 million in Singapore, 6 million in Malaysia, ~8 million in Indonesia. Those who are in Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Philipines are uncertain, but there are a few millions of them.

More famous Chinese American

Mike Woo, Los Angeles Councilman, was the 1st Chinese elected official for a major U.S. city.

Wilbur Woo, father of Mike, founded Cathay Bank, the largest Chinese-owned Bank in the US

Gerald Tsai; in the 1960s he was one of the best-known money managers in America---the first prominent Asian-American on Wall Street, first as an executive at Fidelity and later as president of his own firm.

Chris Woo, 1976 U.S. Olympics swimming team

Mario Marchado - TV anchor

Sam Chu Lin - TV reporter

David Hwang - Playwrite who wrote "M Butterfly"

Maxine Kingston - novelist who wrote "China Man"

Mike Lum, graduated from the same high school as Dr. Sun Yet-sen, was the first Chinese to Play Major League Baseball, for Atlanta

Eugene Chung, 300+ lb OL for NE Patriots, was the first Chinese to Play American football

CK Yung - Decathlete for UCLA; won silver medal for Taiwan-1960 Olympics

Chi Cheng - Female Track Star at CalPoly Pomona; won bronze medal for Taiwan-1968 Olympics

Chinese Americans of infamy

Norman Bay, US Atttorney who prosecuted WenHo Lee for espionage with NO evidence

Bill Lann Lee, Norman Bay's boss & the highest ranking law-enforcement under Clinton, leveraged his ethnicity to dissuade the notion of racial-profiling in the selective prosecution against WenHo Lee

谁是华人？华人是谁？【1】

张从兴





［摘要 ］本文将从社会语言学的角度，试图说明“华人”这个词在中国大陆和台湾的几部权威辞书中的释义，其实并不符合它在新马华语中语用的实际情况。接着将从语义的演变过程来考察这个词的古代义、近代义和现代义，并论证在现代汉语中，不能把“华人”解释为“中国人的简称”。最后，笔者将利用词汇计量研究的成果，来证明这个观察。



［关键词 ］：华人、中国人、海外华人





（一）华人是谁？

　　新加坡华裔馆花了三年多的时间策划筹备、撰写编纂的《海外华人百科全书》，终于在 1998年底杀青，由香港三联书店出版了。

　　《海外华人百科全书》是一本有关世界各地华裔情况的“百科全书”。全书共分五章，前面四章从追溯移民的历史开始，宏观地叙述了中国移民的不同层面与形态，第五章则微观地检视不同地区的华人从叶落归根到落地生根，也就是从中国移民逐渐演变成为侨居国公民的情况。它虽然是一部学术力作，但并不枯燥，是一本通俗易懂，令人爱不释手的好书。然而，就像白璧也有微瑕一样，这部好书也有疏漏之处。那就是没有给其文本的叙述主体“海外华人”的母体——“华人”，下一个精确的定义，以致书中在使用“华人移民”、“海外华人”等概念时，频频出现逻辑上的矛盾，造成概念上的混淆。

　　《海外华人百科全书》主编、华裔馆首任馆长潘翎虽然在这本书的释义部分，不吝笔墨，分Ａ、Ｂ、Ｃ、Ｄ四个同心圆（Ａ同心圆是中国大陆的中国人；Ｂ同心圆包括香港、台湾的中国人、中国留学生及有抱负的中国商人；Ｃ同心圆是海外华人；Ｄ同心圆是已被同化的华人）来为“所有自称为华人的人作出概念式的说明”，并把Ｃ同心圆圈内的海外华人作为这本书的主体，然而这个区分法却是建立在一个极具争议性的观点上的——中港台的中国人＝（海内）华人。

　　潘翎在释义部分写道：“最里面的Ａ圈，代表了永久住在中华人民共和国内地的中国人”。既然中国人也是“所有自称为华人的人”的一分子，中国人显然就是指“（海内）华人”。事实上，也只有在把中国人定义为“（海内）华人”的前提下，“海外华人”这个词才能在逻辑上成立。

　　根据政治学上的定义，中国人是中国公民，也就是指那些在中国境内出世，或者是在外国出生但自愿加入中国国籍并为中国政府所接纳的人，如大名鼎鼎的马海德医生。

　　在此前提下，中国人就不仅仅是指汉族，也应该包括满蒙回藏壮苗等55个少数民族在内，就像我们说新加坡人，就包括了华族、马来族、印度族、欧亚裔及其他拥有新加坡公民权的各色人种在内。

　　问题是，“海外华人”这个概念有没有把海外的中国少数民族包括在内？举个例子说，流亡海外或在外国定居的藏族人、维吾尔族人及其他中国少数民族人士，算不算是“海外华人”？我想，凡是治海外华人课题的学者都会毫不犹豫地说：“不是！他们不算海外华人。”

　　既然海外的中国少数民族不被视为“海外华人”的一分子，那么中国大陆上的少数民族当然也不应是“（海内）华人”的一员。这是不是说只有汉族中国人才能被称为“（海内）华人”呢？又是不是意味着“海外华人”的真正定义应该是指那些在中港台地区以外，而且尚未被同化的汉族中国移民及其后裔呢？也不完全如此。因为在“海外华人”当中，确实包括了一些长相和汉族无甚差别，生活习俗和汉族大同小异，起汉名用汉姓的中国少数民族后裔，例如新马前辈教育工作者马摩西（又名马俊武，1918－1971），他虽然是回族，但新加坡和马来西亚两地的华人社群不仅没有把他当成“非华人”看待，还把他列入《新华历史人物列传》（柯木林主编，新加坡宗乡会馆联合总会 1995年出版）里头。

　　行文至此，笔者不禁为“华人”这个我们几乎天天都挂在嘴边的汉语名词的内涵感到万分困扰。换句话说，华人是谁？

　　中国禅门宗匠有句话说，不疑则不悟，小疑则小悟，大疑则大悟。华人是谁？这是我心中的一大疑团。下面，笔者将把它当成一个“话头”，尝试从社会语言学、词义的演变及词汇计量研究等几个角度去“参”它，希望能够有所“证悟”。



（二）谁是华人？

　　要确定“华人是谁？”，首先得问“谁是华人？”。为了回答这个问题，笔者翻查了《现代汉语词典》（修订本）、《汉语大词典》、《辞海》、《中文大词典》、《国语活用辞典》等五部中国大陆和台湾出版的权威辞书。这四部辞书对“华人”的释义如下：



《现代汉语词典》（修订本）

　　【华人】①中国人。②指取得所在国国籍的中国血统的外国公民。（页541，中国社会科学院语言研究所词典编辑室编著，商务印书馆，1996年7月修订第三版）

　　——根据这个释义，“华人”既指中国人，也指那些原为华侨但取得侨居国国籍的人。



《辞海》

　　【华人】中国人的简称。亦指已加入或取得了所在国国籍的中国血统的外国公民。（页123，夏征农主编，上海辞书出版社，1979年版）

　　——根据这个释义，“华人”是指中国人以及原为华侨但取得侨居国国籍者。



《汉语大词典》

　　【华人】汉族古称为华。现亦为中国人的简称。南朝宋谢灵运《辨宗论·问答附》：“良由华人悟理无渐而诬道无学，夷人悟理有学而诬道有渐，是故权实虽同，其用各异。”唐许浑《破北虏太和公主归宫阙》诗：“恩沾残类从归去，莫使华人杂犬戎。”明沈德符《野获编·佞幸·滇南异产》：“夷人珍之，不令华人得售。”《恨海》第七回：“定睛看时，五个是洋人，两个是华人。”（卷九页398，汉语大词典编辑委员会编纂，三联书店／汉语大词典出版社联合出版，1993年 4月第一版）

　　——根据这个释义，“华人”有古今两义，古义是指汉族，今义是指中国人。



《中文大辞典》

　　【华人】外国人称我国人为华人。〔《周礼政要·矿政》〕西人之论，咸谓华人采法不精。（卷 28页 251，中国文化研究所，1968年版）

　　——根据这个释义，“华人”是外国人对中国人的称法，中国人自己并不自称华人。



《国语活用辞典》

　　【华人】“中国人”的简称。在华侨习惯中称取得了侨居国国籍或公民权的人。（页1526，周何主编，五南图书出版公司，1987年版）

　　——根据这个释义，“华人”是“中国人”的简称（注意，这里用的是加了引号的中国人。按我的理解，这应该是指广义的中国人。形象地说，就是指所有的“黑眼睛黑头发黄皮肤”的龙的传人），同时也指原为华侨但取得侨居国国籍者。



　　其中，除了《中文大辞典》以外，其他四部都有华人是中国人或“中国人”的简称的说法；除了《汉语大词典》和《中文大词典》以外，其余三部都有华人也指原为华侨但取得侨居国国籍者的释义。

　　对新马华人，尤其是新加坡华人而言，《现代汉语词典》（修订本）、《辞海》和《国语活用词典》“华人”词条下的第二项释义，是比较符合我们的语用情况的，争议不大。说比较符合，是因为它只说对了一半——在新马华语的语用实际中，华人不仅是指那些原为华侨但取得侨居国国籍者，也包括他们的后裔。

　　令人困惑的是第一项释义，就是“华人”能不能被诠释为中国人的简称。

　　在中国大陆、台湾、香港和澳门，以“华人”作为中国人的简称，也许问题不大。可是，在此以外的地区，特别是东南亚，尤其是新加坡和马来西亚这两个华人较多的国家，以“华人”作为中国人的简称，就大有问题，而且是高度敏感的政治问题。道理很简单，如果新马华人接受这样的定义，那么新加坡华人、马来西亚华人、菲律宾华人、印尼华人等短语，都可以还原为新加坡中国人、马来西亚中国人、菲律宾中国人和印尼中国人。

　　这个课题对东南亚国家的政治领导人而言，尤其敏感。 1967年 11月15日，当时担任新加坡总理的内阁资政李光耀在新加坡美国人协会的宴会上发表演说时指出：

　　“我是新加坡华人，但不是中国人，正如爱尔兰后裔的肯尼迪总统不是爱尔兰人、艾森豪威尔总统不是日耳曼人或罗斯福总统不是爱尔兰人一样。假以时日，世人将知道，新加坡姓李、姓杜、姓吴、姓王、姓杨、姓林的华人虽然外貌像中国人，并且说华族语言，但是他们都不同于中国人。他们是华族，并且不会因此而感到不好意思。最重要的是：他们心里想的是新加坡和新加坡人的利益，并非中国和中国人的利益。”[1]

　　当邓小平在 1978年访问新加坡时，李光耀在致欢迎词中说过一句很明确的话，“告诉我们的贵宾，新加坡没有华侨。”[2]　李光耀在祝酒之前的发言中，还措词小心地提醒他的贵宾：

　　“华裔星加坡（新加坡）人有着他们自己的不同的经验和历史。不管这种历史是多么短，与大陆的中国人比较起来，仍然是不相同的。更重要的是，他们正在为自己的东南亚创造一种独立的和持久的未来。他们必须与马来裔和印度裔新加坡人平等地分享这种未来。”[3]

　　李光耀讲这句话是有深刻的政治含义的。他的意思很明确，就是要说明新加坡华人是新加坡华人，中国人是中国人，新加坡华人不是中国人。当然，他讲这句话并不只是说给邓小平听的，其潜台词是要向印尼和马来西亚这两个以马来人为主的邻国传递这样的信息：新加坡是新加坡，中国是中国，邓小平访问新加坡和其他外国领袖来访没什么两样，你们别担心。

　　综上所述，从社会语言学的角度看，中国大陆和台湾的权威辞书虽然把“华人”定义为“中国人的简称”，但是在新加坡华语中，这个定义并不适用。说得夸张一点，这简直就是一个语言禁忌（linguistic taboo）。

　　下面，笔者将从词义的演变过程来探讨“华人”能不能在现代汉语中，被诠释为“中国人的简称”。

　　“华人”是由“华”和“人”这两个语素构成的名词，在构词法上属于偏正结构。由于“人”语素受到“华”语素的制约，要分析“华人”的词义，首先得弄清楚“华”语素在“华人”这个词中的含义究竟是什么。

　　根据《汉语大词典》的解释，“华”字有四个读音，共有 22条释义。在这22条释义中，只有“我国古称华夏，今称中华。省称‘华’”这一条释义，符合“华”语素在“华人”中的含义。根据这项释义，把“华人”训为“中国人的简称”显然是合情合理的，相信这也就是为什么中国大陆和台湾的权威辞书都把“华人”的第一个义项定为“中国人的简称”的原因了。

　　问题是，词义是会演变的。无论是“华”还是“中国”，它在现代汉语中的词义，已经和它们在古汉语中的词义大不相同了。

　　“华”原本是指华夏族，也指华夏族所居住的中原地区。《左传·定公十年》中的“裔不谋夏，夷不乱华”，指的就是这个意思。后来，汉高祖斩白蛇起义，为四百余年之汉家天下奠定基础，建立了中国历史上第一个繁荣昌盛的中央集权大帝国。自汉朝以后，以华夏族为主的中原部族集团皆自称汉人，久而久之就演变成为今日的汉族。由于汉族的主要组成部族是古代之华夏族，因此汉族也叫华人。我相信，《汉语大词典》的编纂者就是有见于此，而在“华人”词目下列出“汉族古称为华”此一解释的。

　　“华人”作为汉族别称的古义，自有文献可考的南朝谢灵运首先使用以来，沿用了一千多年，直到满清入关后不久，才开始有了变化。雍正朝期间，中国历史上发生了一起由“曾静案”引发的华夷之辨大辩论，主辩者就是雍正皇帝本人。针对“华夷之辨”这个大是大非的问题，雍正帝在其《大义觉迷录》中，不止一次提到汉人和夷人都是人，没有必要泾渭分明般地划清界限，例如“不知本朝之为满洲，犹中国之有籍贯。舜为东夷之人，文王为西夷之人，曾何损于圣德乎！”[4]，“九州四海之广，中华处百分之一，其外东西南朔，同在天覆地载之中，即是一理一气，岂中华与夷狄有两个天地乎！”[5]

　　由于清初诸帝的励精图治，再加上他们十分重视汉文化，在统治术上又采取一方面开科取士，一方面大兴文字狱的恩威并施手段，到了清中叶以后，汉族以满族为针对目标的“华夷之辨”和“夷夏之防”观念，基本上已经是很淡薄了。鸦片战争之后，不仅是西方帝国主义者给中国人带来了鸦片，西方传教士也给中国人带来了“精神鸦片”——基督教。作为一种异质文化，基督教在清末大举传入中国时，是很不受欢迎的，特别是对深受儒家文化熏陶的汉族士大夫而言。这也就是为什么曾国藩在其《讨粤匪檄》中，高呼“士不能诵孔子之经，而别有所谓耶苏之说、《新约》之书，举中国数千年礼义人伦、诗书典则，一旦扫地荡尽。此岂独我大清之变，乃开辟以来名教之奇变，我孔子孟子之所痛哭九泉，凡读书识字者，又乌可袖手安坐，不思一为也”[6]之后，汉族士大夫立刻群起响应，在清廷和太平天国的战争中，选择站在满族政权的一边，而不站在汉族政权的一边。

　　在当时的汉族知识分子看来，“华夷之辨”的主要内容已经不是汉族和满族之间的民族矛盾，而是满汉共同维护的汉文化和西方文化之间的“文明冲突”。反映在语言上面，“华人”作为“洋人”的反义词，其内涵也就不仅仅是指汉族，而是指以维护汉文化为己任的满汉民族共同体，亦可引申为由满汉民族（也许还可以加上和满族关系密切的蒙古族）组成的中国人。笔者认为，这就是“华人”这个词的近代义，而《汉语大词典》“华人”词目下的引例“《恨海》第七回：“定睛看时，五个是洋人，两个是华人”和《中文大词典》的引例“〔《周礼政要·矿政》〕西人之论，咸谓华人采法不精”中的“华人”，所指的就是这个意思。

　　在清末使用“华人”这个词的人，当然不止《恨海》的作者吴研人和《周礼政要》的作者孙诒让。当时，拓殖东马砂劳越诗巫（Sibu, Sarawak, East Malaysia）的先驱人物黄乃裳（1849－1924），在新加坡《日新报》担任主笔期间（1899年9月-1900年8月），曾经写过不少评论文章，其中有好几篇都用到“华人”这个名词，例如：


“昨报论开商会以联南洋华人为首务，诚以我华人于近百年来之新学，未能考究，识见浅陋，无论出外之不能联络一气，互为关顾，相与有成，即在本国，省与省有畛域之见存，府与府有畛域之见存，甚至邑与邑、乡与乡、族与族，匪不各有其畛域之见存。”[7]

　　“威海卫英水陆师中所言，其大旨谓：华兵易教，由于华人喜于为兵。华人喜于为兵，由于衣食粮饷之可靠。夫华人为华兵则不易教，及为英兵则易教。华人不喜为中国之兵，而反喜为英国之兵，此情理以外之事，必非无故而然也。”[8]

　　“显儒不以商为贵，商亦不敢自以为贵。……此等商学，当海禁未开之前，在中国与国之人，以土货相交易，未尝不可，及出外洋，观其所图商务，均若有搜罗六合、囊括宇宙之思，退而求其所以然之故，岂真吾华人之智力不如欧人、美人耶？亦曰：不学无术，不足以开拓其所经营而已矣。”[9]





　　海峡华人作家陈省堂 1888年至 1911年在《叻报》和《星报》上发表的多篇作品中，也广泛使用了“华人”这个词：



　　“盖法人之治越也，其政令则愈久愈严，其税饷则越久越重。如设公所、举帮长，量身材、点指痕等事，其存心用意，虽谓欲杜渐防微，实是重征厚敛，剥蚀子民脂膏，刻薄善良为务。……又有不能已于言者，旅越华人之势位素豪者，究亦难辞其咎。”[10]（〈重游越南记〉）

　　“夫华人之儿孙，何其不幸，一变而为交趾，再变而为法兰西。大抵近朱者赤，近墨者黑。从兹习俗相沿，恐已无法可治。当局者以为极妙之新法，由余观之，徒令祖宗绝嗣，同类贻羞已耳。是虽家训之不严，亦由政教之不正也。”[11]（〈越南风俗论〉）

　　“槟产华人一举一动，往往同心协力，联为一气，余如商务，如庆吊，以及宾朋酬酢，诸凡事宜，更为认真。……身居外洋，尚遵汉仪，华人男妇老幼，皆通华语，其中虽略悉巫来由番语者，除非与叻甲华商，或与番人言，鲜有讲及。则其吉宁、巫来由诸番，亦多有熟谙华言，其习俗然也。”[12]（〈重游槟城记〉）

　　“试观本坡华人，家道少有者，往往沾染奇症。据西医诊视，则谓腹中生毒，百药罔效，遂致富厚绅商，中年殂谢；膏梁子弟，早岁云亡。屡有见闻，良堪慨叹。”[13]（〈本坡华人饮食失宜失所亟宜整顿说〉）



　　由此可见，早在上世纪末和本世纪初交替之际，新加坡的华文报章已经采用了“华人”这个词，而其词义显然是符合“华人是中国人的简称”这个释义的。

　　还有一点是值得注意的。那就是清末人士在使用“华人”这个词时，都是和“洋人”、“夷人”、“西人”等词对举的。这也许是汉语修辞中的独特现象，就是讲究词与词之间的对偶关系。

　　进入民国以后，“华人”在中国本土和南洋的语用情况发生了微妙的变化。

　　由于中华民国是中国人建立的第一个具有西方政治学上的民族国家（Nation）意义的民族国家，国号简称中国，因此中华民国的国民就开始自觉地把自己称为中国人，而不说自己是“华人”了。与此同时，民国以后的文献在称呼外国人时，也极少使用“西人”、“欧人”、“美人”、“日人”、“洋人”、“夷人”等字眼，而改称“西方人”、“欧洲人”、“美国人”、“日本人”，“洋人”偶尔还用之，“夷人”则几乎完全不用了。

　　民初之人较少采用或几乎不用“华人”这个词，在梁启超的著作中，可以找到例证。民国八年（1919年），梁启超到欧洲走了一趟，回国不久就出版了轰动一时的《欧游心影录》。书中有一章是专门叙述他在途经南洋时的感想的。他写道：

　　“新加坡槟榔屿一带，除了一面英国国旗外，简直和广东福建的热闹城镇，毫无差别。开大矿的么，中国人。种大橡皮园的么，中国人。大行号么，中国人。杂货小贩么，中国人。乞丐么，中国人。计英属海峡殖民地三州，中国人约二十六七万，欧洲各国白人合计，不过六千八百。再就南洋华侨全体约计，英属（殖民地三州，保护地四州合计）二百万，荷属三百万，暹罗安南等处三百五十万。总数八百五十万。”[14] 从这段文字看，在民初流行使用的国语词汇中，或至少是在梁启超的词汇中，“华人”已经不是“中国人的简称”了。否则，他怎会不采用呢？另一方面，梁任公的新闻体语言对民国初年国语的发展产生过极大的影响，因此从任公著作的遣词用字中，也可见民初国语词汇使用情况之一斑。

　　此外，从民国年间编纂的几部辞书，如中华书局香港分局 1947年出版的旧版《辞海》、上海商务印书馆1939年出版的《辞源正续编合订本》、香港华通公司1948年出版的《辞渊》及中华民国教育部从1931年开始编纂的《国语辞典》，都没有收录“华人”，也可看出民国人士是不使用或较少使用这个词的。

　　与此同时，作为“中国人的简称”的“华人”这个词，也几乎从南洋华人社会的语言中消失掉。从民国肇建到抗战期间，甚至50年代初期，南洋华人几乎都自称华侨，或干脆说自己是中国人。因为他们的效忠对象不是当地的殖民地政府，英国、法国、荷兰等殖民地宗主国也不承认他们是英法荷的公民。因此，他们只能选择效忠南京国民政府及后来的北京人民政府，只能以中华民国及后来的中华人民共和国作为自己的祖国，尽管这些所谓的“华侨”当中，有许多许多都不是在中国出生的。不过，这并不妨碍他们的爱国壮举。譬如说，在抗战期间远赴滇缅公路支援物资运输工作的华侨机工，在50年代初期毅然回国参与建设祖国大业的南洋热血青年，很多都不是从中国南来的“华侨”，而是他们的后代。

　　就在大多数华侨青年不惜为心目中的“祖国”抛头颅、洒热血的同时，一些头脑比较冷静的年轻知识分子则开始思考本族群的属性问题。

　　1941年，黄望青用李秋这个笔名，在新加坡《南洋商报》发表了《论马华民族属性问题》一文。作者在文中指出：“马来亚华人在此地定居已有长久的历史，他们应被称为‘马华’（即马来亚华人），马华在马来亚人口中占了巨大的比例；马华在政治觉悟与文化水平较当地各民族为进步；马华在政治经济方面，其接近于马来亚其他民族的程度，较之接近于中国更直接与密切。……这完全是个现实的问题，客观地存在我们意识之外，而不是我们大家喜欢不喜欢的问题。”[15]

　　但是在另一方面，他也强调马来亚华人无论是在经济与政治生活上，还是在语言文化传统上，还不能完全脱离中国而独立存在，因此马华：“已形成一支特殊的派生队伍……，它一方面是中华民族一个特殊的支脉，同时又是当地一个重要的基干民族。”[16]

　　从这两段文字的行文逻辑中，我们可以看出黄望青在使用“华人”这个词时，并不是把它当成“中国人的简称”来用的。按照他自己所下的定义，“华人”是“中华民族一个特殊的支脉，同时又是当地一个重要的基干民族”。笔者认为，黄望青的这个定义，应可算是“华人”的现代义的滥觞。

　　50年代后，东南亚发生了翻天覆地的变化，缅甸、越南、印尼、新加坡、马来西亚等殖民地纷纷摆脱宗主国的殖民统治，成为独立自主的民族国家。这时，当地的华侨社会就面对了要以谁作为效忠对象的问题——他们必须在侨居国和中国之间进行抉择，不能鱼与熊掌兼得。中国政府也意识到了这个发展趋势，因此周恩来总理便趁着1955年赴印尼出席万隆会议之便，正式宣布中国放弃双重国籍的决定，不再把东南亚的华人视为中国的海外公民。

　　自此之后，东南亚的华人也不再自称华侨，当然更不会说自己是中国人了。他们在放弃了华侨和中国人的身份后，总得给自己的族群找个名称，结果便开始自称“华人”了。于是乎，原先的新马华侨、越南华侨、印尼华侨、菲律宾华侨等词语，就摇身一变，成为新马华人、越南华人、印尼华人、菲律宾华人了。

当时新加坡华文报章的遣词用字，忠实地反映了华侨转变成华人的历史过程。新加坡国立大学学者王慷鼎在其著作《新加坡华文日报社论研究：1945-1959》中指出：

　　“所谓华文报章社论常用而具有强烈的中国意识或侨民意识的辞汇，是指战前和战后多年，华文报章在谈论中国或与中国有关的问题或事物时，所习惯使用的‘祖国’、‘我国’、‘国庆’、‘国父’、‘国人’、‘国府’、‘国事’、‘国运’、‘国脉’、‘国货’、‘国币’、‘国军’等字眼（以下统称‘国字头辞汇’）；在提到自身或新马与自身有关的事物时，所常用的‘华侨’、‘我侨’、‘同侨’、‘侨胞’、‘侨领’、‘侨务’、‘侨社’、‘侨团’、‘侨教’、‘侨校’、‘侨汇’等字眼（以下统称‘侨字头辞汇’）。这两组辞汇，也像《国庆献辞》、《国父诞辰纪念》这类社论一样，是华文报固有的特产，也含蕴了强烈的侨民意识。相反的，‘华人’、‘华教’、‘华校’等字眼”（以下统称‘华字头辞汇’），则是比较中性的，没有那股浓郁的侨民意识气味，摆脱了‘侨’或‘华侨’的包袱和心理。而且这些辞汇的广泛使用，也是在侨字头辞汇之后。因此，了解国字头辞汇、侨字头辞汇及华字头辞汇使用的消长情况，也有助于了解华文报章侨民意识与当地国民意识此落彼长，交相嬗变的轨迹。”[17]

　　王慷鼎比较了“国字头辞汇”、“侨字头辞汇”及“华字头辞汇”在 1945至 1959年的《南洋商报》、《星洲日报》、《南侨日报》和《中兴日报》的1万 2094篇社论标题中的分布情况后，得出了以下结论：

　　“战后不久，新马出现了独立自主运动；1949年中国大陆又出现了共产党领导的新政权。这两项政治发展，直接影响华侨的切身利益和政治态度，迫使华侨必须在中国人与新加坡人或马来亚人之间，作一个取舍选择。四大日报支持当地公民资格的争取，是这种取舍选择的一个例证。《南洋商报》、《星洲日报》和《中兴日报》社论内容，在1949年及1950年之交，出现重大转变，有关中国问题的社论数量，急遽减少；相反地，有关当地问题的社论数量，大量增加，也是反映这种取舍转变的另一个例证。此外，这三家日报具有强烈中国意识或侨民心态的社论（国庆社论、国父诞辰社论及国父忌辰社论）和辞汇（‘祖国’、‘我国’、‘华侨’、‘侨校’等）在1949年及1950年之交，开始消失，也一再显示：华文报章的政治意识，有了转变。当然，这种转变速度的快慢，程度的深浅，各报之间或许有些差别，但是转变的迹象与事实是确定的。”[18]

　　王慷鼎还以四个列表来说明这个转变过程。从他的列表中，可以看出《星洲日报》、《南洋商报》和《中兴日报》在50年代的前半期，曾经大量使用“华字头辞汇”（包括“华人”），到了1955年后却大量减少。笔者相信，这和周恩来总理 1955年出席万隆会议期间，正式宣布中国政府不再把东南亚华人视为中国的海外公民有关。

　　综上所述，可以看出中国自从进入民国以后，基本上已不用“华人”这个词，而东南亚的华人社会，特别是在新加坡和马来西亚的华人当中，却仍然在使用它，并在50年代赋予它新的涵义，给予这个古老的词新的生命，并且至今还在广泛地使用着。

　　且以词汇计量研究的统计数字为证：

　　在北京语言学院出版社 1986年 6月出版的《现代汉语频率词典》中，“华人”在 180万字语料中出现的词次是 9次，频率是 0.00068。在外语教学与研究出版社 1985年 4月出版的《汉语词汇的统计与分析》中，“华人”在 19万 4209字小学教科书语料中出现的词次是 0，频率是0；在 32万 6725字中学教科书语料中出现的词次是 0，频率是 0。

　　在新加坡联合早报 1989年 5月出版的《联合早报·中小学华文课本用词调查报告》中，“华人”在 28万 3090字早报语料中出现的词次是19次，频率是 0.00973；在 6万 5503字小学华文课本语料中出现的词次是 16次，频率是 0.03370；在 11万3684字中学华文课本语料中出现的词次是 20次，频率是 0.02628。

　　这三部汉语频率工具书都是在80年代问世的，应可反映“华人”这个词在中国大陆和新加坡的使用频率。做个简单的计算，可以得出以下的数据：“华人”在新加坡中、小学华文课本中的频率和中国中、小学教科书中的频率之比都是无限大，在新加坡联合早报中的频率和中国各类文献中的频率之比是14.31。

　　这个巨大的差距说明，“华人”这个词在中国大陆的现代汉语中的使用频率，相对于新马华语（新加坡华语和马来西亚华语大同小异）而言，是非常低的。

　　值得注意的是，“华人”在《现代汉语频率词典》中的词次虽然有9次之多，但是分布不广，只是出现在第Ⅳ类（即各种体裁的文学作品。选用长篇、中篇、短篇小说、散文、童话、传记等，共 88万零399字，占全部语料总量的 48.71%。选材以“五四”以来，从40至 70年代的中国现代优秀文学作品为主）语料中，而且是在一篇作品中出现了9次。换句话说，这是一个特殊现象，而不是一般现象，如果挑选者不是恰巧选中这篇作品，“华人”这个词恐怕不会在《现代汉语频率词典》中占有一席之地。



结　论
　　任何过程，不论是属于自然界的和属于社会的，由于内部的矛盾和斗争，都是向前推移向前发展的，人们的认识运动也应跟着推移和发展。[19]

　　语言，作为瞬息万变的信息的载体，当然是处在不断发展的过程中的。因此，人们应该从发展的、辩证的角度来认识语言及解释语言现象，包括作为语言建筑材料的词汇。

　　笔者就是在这个大原则的指导下，考察了“华人”这个词的词义演变过程，并得出“华人”在三个不同历史阶段有着不同的含义，即有古代义、近代义和现代义之分的结论。

　　为了论证“华人”在现代汉语中，不能诠释为“中国人的简称”——这是“华人”的近代义，而不是现代义，本文以词汇计量研究的成果，比较了“华人”这个词在80年代中以后出版的三部较权威的现代汉语频率工具书中的出现频率，结果证实从 40年代至 80年代的40年间，中国大陆的现代汉语中是没有“华人”这个词的。这足以反证在现代汉语中，不能把“华人”理解为“中国人的简称”。

　　本文的结论是，“华人”在现代汉语中的词义，是东南亚华人尤其是新马华人在20世纪中叶后，顺应本区域风起云涌的反殖反帝独立运动，以“旧瓶装新酒”的方式，在“华人是中国人的简称”这个近代义的基础上改造而成的。

　　换言之，在现代汉语中，“华人”绝对不能定义为“中国人的简称”。既然如此，“海外华人”当然也就是名实不副的提法了，不宜采用。


补　遗

　　当笔者在1999年10月准备动身出发到中国参加这次会议时，突然在书店里发现了一本上海社科院出版社去年出版的新书《美国华侨华人文化变迁论》。作者吴前进（女）在绪论中阐明了有关华侨、华人、华裔和华族的概念指称。

　　她认为，“华人”或“华裔”（Overseas Chinese Descendants），则主要指出生于居住国，拥有当地国籍的第二、第三……代移民。此中，亦包括一些拥有中国和居住国双重国籍或无国籍者，他们以讲当地语言为主，其心理特征出于“中国取向”和“当地取向”的过渡之中或兼具“双重取向”，若因了母国突发事件的冲击，则其所能动员的社会力量亦相当广泛与强大，从1919－1949年中国与海外华人的关系中可以见到海外华人民族特性在特点背景下的高扬。[20]

　　这是我看到的各种有关“华人”的定义中，最符合实际面貌的一种，因此便列在文末，作为补充。





注　释



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1]　吴元华：《务实的决策——人民行动党与政府的华文政策研究 1954·1965》（新加坡：联邦出版社，1999年），页 141-142。

[2]　陈烈甫：《华侨学与华人学总论》（台北：台湾商务印书馆，1987年），页8。

[3]　香港《星岛日报》，1978年 11月14日。

[4] 雍正皇帝：《大义觉迷录》（中国社会科学院历史研究所清史研究室编：《清史资料》第四辑；北京：中华书局，1983年）卷 1，页 4。

[5] 雍正皇帝:《大义觉迷录》卷 1，页 55。

[6] 邓立勋：《曾国藩自述》（中国：海南出版社，1998年），页 350。

[7] 黄乃裳：〈广南洋华人宜大私以自保说〉（新加坡：《日新报》，1899年 11月9日），见叶钟铃《黄乃裳与南洋华人》（新加坡：亚洲研究学会，1995年）附录一：〈黄乃裳南游佚文〉，页 54。



[8] 黄乃裳：〈论本报所载华人善兵事〉（新加坡：《日新报》，1899年 11月 10日），见叶钟铃《黄乃裳与南洋华人》附录一：〈黄乃裳南游佚文〉，页67-68。

[9] 黄乃裳：〈商学〉（新加坡：《日新报》，1899年 12月 1日），见叶钟铃《黄乃裳与南洋华人》附录一：〈黄乃裳南游佚文〉，页 69。

[10] 叶钟玲《陈省堂文集》（新加坡：亚洲研究学会，1994年），页 36。

[11] 同上，页 61。

[12] 同上，页 76。

[13] 同上，页 97。

[14] 梁启超：《欧游心影录》（香港：三达出版公司），页 76-77。

[15] 崔贵强：《新马华人国家认同的转向，1945 - 1959》（新加坡：南洋学会，1990年）引述李秋 1941年4月在《南洋商报》发表的议论文《论马华民族属性问题》，页 166-167。

[16] 同上，页 167。

[17] 王慷鼎：《新加坡华文日报社论?芯浚?945-1959》（新加坡：新加坡国立大学中文系汉学研究中心，1995年），页 262。

[18] 同上，页 281-282。

[19] 毛泽东：《毛泽东选集·实践论》（中国：人民出版社，1991年），卷一页294。

[20] 吴前进：《美国华侨华人文化变迁论》（中国：上海社会科学院出版社，1998年），页 1。

Nice article from 塞北雄鷹. From my personal experience, Chinese from Mainland China don't call themselves 华人, but 中国人. Nonetheless, they all know that 华人 often relates to overseas Chinese (not within Mainland, Taiwan, HK & Macau).

Also, the term 华人 has different explanations at different places. But it seems to me that 华人 relates more to 汉族/唐人 while 中国人 sides with towards citizenship. Like 美国人 = American (US), 英国人 = British.

But there's a confusion when explaining in English, as Chinese = 中国人、华人.

Eugene Chung was not the first person of Chinese ancestry to play in the NFL. Walt Achiu was Chinese and one of the first minorities of any kind in an American major sports league. Also, Logan Tom's father Melvyn certainly pre-dated Eugene Chung as well.

Yeah,
Wikipedia is not the best. I usually regard it as not academic at all and get's a lot of info wrong, because they actually do, as I've explained in other posts already. The truth in Wikipedia articles are usually found in the 'Talk pages' of the articles themselves, and not the actual main article page.

Sometimes 中国人 is used informally to mean a person of chinese ethnicity.