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The Chicago metropolitan area has an ethnic Chinese population. As of 2010, there are 43,228 Chinese Americans who live in Chicago, 1.6% of the city's population. This population includes native-born Chinese as well as immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and also racially mixed Chinese.
In 1869 the first transcontinental railway was completed. By that time the first Chinese arrived in Chicago. [1] Early immigrants from China to Chicago came from the lower classes and lower middle classes. [2] The earliest immigrants were Cantonese. [3] In 1874 the Chinese managed one tea shop and 18 laundry businesses in central Chicago. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the U.S. Congress restricted Chinese immigration and restricted freedom of travel for existing Chinese, forcing those in Chicago to stay put. At that time some Chinese in Chicago were illegal immigrants. The Chinese Inspector of the Department of Labor deported illegal immigrants who were discovered. According to the 1900 U.S. Census, there were 1,462 Chinese in the city. Chuimei Ho and Soo Lon Moy of the Chinatown Museum Foundation wrote that "there must have been others who avoided government notice." [1]
Some Chinese immigration began after the Chinese exclusion laws were repealed in 1943. During the 1950s the Chinese population grew from 3,000 to 6,000. Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrants settled in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, a new wave of immigrants from the mainland came in the 1950s. The Mandarin-speaking people settled throughout Chicago and the suburbs instead of clustering in the Chinatown area. The 1965 Immigration Act further increased Chinese settlement, with a new wave coming from Mainland China. [3]
By 1970 there were 12,000 Chinese in Chicago. After the Fall of Saigon in the 1970s, a wave of ethnic Chinese came from southeast Asia. A new Chinatown opened in Uptown during that decade, and many Southeast Asian refugees were attracted to this new Chinatown. According to the 1990 U.S. Census there were over 23,000 Chinese in the city of Chicago. In the 2000 U.S. Census there were almost 74,000 Chinese in the Chicago metropolitan area, with 34,000 of them in the City of Chicago. [3]
As of 1990 there were about 60,000 ethnic Chinese in the Chicago metropolitan area; of them, about 10,000 Chinese lived in Chinatown's business district and the area south of 26th Street. [4]
As of 1995 almost 35,000 Chinese lived in Chicago, and 10,000 Chinese Americans lived in the area holding the Chinatown. The origins of ethnic Chinese Chicagoans include native-born Chinese as well as immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and also racially mixed Chinese. Around 1995 many new immigrants were from agricultural and blue collar working classes and from better educated professional classes. [2]
As of 2013 [update] 90% of the residents of Chinatown were ethnic Chinese. [5]
The Chinese American Museum of Chicago is in Chinatown. Chinese American Service League is in Chinatown, Chicago.
As of 1995 Chicago had four daily Chinese newspapers. Chinese-Americans who were bilingual in Chinese and English or who knew English but did not know Chinese had a tendency to read English-language American newspapers. In 1995 there were no English-language Chinese-American newspapers that focus on Chinese-American issues in the Chicago area. [6]
In 1983 a Mandarin-language television program opened on Channel 26. In 1989 a Chinese radio station named Global Communication was established. [6]
In 2003 there were 20 Chinese schools in the Chicago area. Around 2003 an increase in immigration and non-Chinese American parents sending adopted Chinese children to Chinese schools caused enrollment figures of Chinese schools in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago to increase. [7]
Compared to Chinese in China, there is a higher proportion of Christians among the Chinese in Chicago. Chinese Christians operate their own missions. The Chinese Christian Union Church, an interdenominational church, has its main facility on Wentworth Avenue in Chicago and satellite facilities in the suburbs and in Bridgeport. Chinese Catholics, many of whom originate from Hong Kong and had converted to Christianity, attend the St. Marie Incoronata, an Italian Catholic church on Alexander Street. The St. Therese School, founded by the Maryknoll Sisters, was established for the Chinese community. [6]
Christians in the United States attempted to convert Chinese from their native religions after the Chinese began arriving. The earliest recorded Chinese Baptist mission was one that opened on Clark Street, in the Chinese area, in 1878. In the early 20th century, of all cities, Chicago had the largest number of Chinese Sunday schools. In the South Side and West Side of Chicago, these smaller Chinese Sunday schools opened near laundry businesses operated by Chinese. By 1995 these Sunday schools ceased to exist. Franciscan priests and nuns established the first Catholic missions for Chinese people. [6]
Overseas Chinese people are those of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Greater China. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Overall, China has a low percent of population living overseas.
The Chinese people, or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation.
Chinatown is a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, along S. Wentworth Avenue between Cermak Road and W. 26th St. Over a third of Chicago's Chinese population resides in this ethnic enclave, making it one of the largest concentrations of Chinese-Americans in the United States. It formed around 1912, after settlers moved south from near the Loop, where the first enclaves were established in the 19th century.
This article discusses Chinatowns in Oceania.
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou and its surrounding Pearl River Delta, with over 82.4 million native speakers.
The Pui Tak Center, formerly known as the On Leong Merchants Association Building, is a building located in Chicago's Chinatown. Designed by architects Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad, the building was built for the On Leong Merchants Association and opened in 1928. The Association used it as an immigrant assistance center, and the building was informally referred to as Chinatown's "city hall". In 1988, the FBI and Chicago Police raided the building as part of a racketeering investigation. The US federal government seized the building that same year.
An ethnoburb is a suburban residential and business area with a notable cluster of a particular ethnic minority population, which may or may not be a local majority. That can greatly influence the social geography within the area because of distinct cultural and religious values. Ethnoburbs allow for ethnic minority groups to maintain their traditional identity, forestalling cultural assimilation.
Ethnic Chinese in Panama, also variously referred to as Chinese Panamanians, Panamanian Chinese and Panama Chinese or in Spanish as chino-panameños, are Panamanian citizens and residents of Chinese origin or descent.
Chinatowns in Australia is a term used to describe major Chinese ethnic enclaves in Australia, especially those that claim to retain a strong Chinese cultural identity and a strong relationship with China. Chinatowns exist in most Australian states and territories, especially in the highly-populous and cosmopolitan capital cities but also in rural areas. Many large present-day Chinatowns in Australia have developed out of smaller historical Chinese settlements in Australia dating back to the 19th century. Chinese people first immigrated to Australia in large waves in the midst of the Australian gold rushes. Many of these people subsequently chose to return to China or were forcefully deported from Australia. The first known Chinese Australian was John Shying, who immigrated to Australia in 1818.
Ethnic Chinese and Chinese American people comprise one of the major Asian-origin ethnic groups in the Wayne–Macomb–Oakland tri-county area in Metro Detroit. Troy, Rochester Hills, Madison Heights and Canton Township are hubs of Chinese residents in the metropolitan area.
The Houston area population includes a large number of people with Chinese ancestral backgrounds. According to the American Community Survey, as of 2013, Greater Houston has 72,320 residents of Chinese origin.
As of 2012, 21.4% of the population in San Francisco was of Chinese descent, and there were at least 150,000 Chinese American residents. The Chinese are the largest Asian American subgroup in San Francisco. San Francisco has the highest percentage of residents of Chinese descent of any major U.S. city, and the second largest Chinese American population, after New York City. The San Francisco Area is 7.9% Chinese American, with many residents in Oakland and Santa Clara County. San Francisco's Chinese community has ancestry mainly from Guangdong province, China and Hong Kong, although there is a sizable population of ethnic Chinese with ancestry from other parts of mainland China and Taiwan as well.
There are 120,250 Chinese people in London, comprising 1.5% of the city's population. 33% of ethnic Chinese people in the United Kingdom reside in London.
Greater St. Louis has a Chinese community.
The Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area has a population of Chinese Americans. In the second half of the 19th century, the area became permanently settled by non-Native Americans, and citizens of Chinese descent began to make the area their home as well. In modern times, the main population of Chinese Americans is scattered around the northern suburbs of the City of Dallas.
There are multiple Chinatowns in the borough of Queens in New York City. The original Queens Chinatown emerged in Flushing, initially as a satellite of the original Manhattan Chinatown, before evolving its own identity, surpassing in scale the original Manhattan Chinatown, and subsequently, in turn, spawning its own satellite Chinatowns in Elmhurst, Corona, and eastern Queens. As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to New York has accelerated, and its Flushing neighborhood has become the present-day global epicenter receiving Chinese immigration as well as the international control center directing such migration. As of 2024, a significant new wave of Chinese Uyghur Muslims is fleeing religious persecution in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Province and seeking religious freedom in New York, and concentrating in Queens.
The Chinese Canadian community in the Greater Toronto Area was first established around 1877, with an initial population of two laundry owners. While the Chinese Canadian population was initially small in size, it dramatically grew beginning in the late 1960s due to changes in immigration law and political issues in Hong Kong. Additional immigration from Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and related conflicts and a late 20th century wave of Hong Kong immigration led to the further development of Chinese ethnic enclaves in the Greater Toronto Area. The Chinese established many large shopping centres in suburban areas catering to their ethnic group. There are 679,725 Chinese in the Greater Toronto Area as of the 2021 census, second only to New York City for largest Chinese community in North America.
Chinese Canadians are a sizable part of the population in Greater Vancouver, especially in the Chinese communities in the city of Vancouver and the adjoining suburban city of Richmond. The legacy of Chinese immigration is prevalent throughout the Vancouver area.
The Boston metropolitan area has an active Chinese American community. As of 2013, the Boston Chinatown was the third largest Chinatown in the United States, and there are also Chinese populations in the suburbs of Greater Boston, including Quincy, Malden, Acton, Newton, and Lexington. As of 2006, Boston, Quincy, Malden, Newton, Brookline, and Cambridge house about half of all of the ethnic Chinese in Massachusetts, and as a whole, Chinese constituted the largest Asian ethnic group in the state.
Chinese people in Sweden include people born in the People's Republic of China, or have ancestry from there. It may also include people originating from Taiwan and Hong Kong. They form a sizable community and are one of the biggest Asian groups. As of 2021, there are 37,172 mainland Chinese immigrants in Sweden.
