Foreign and Military Affairs

Overseas Chinese's bumpy road toward integration

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-07-02 16:11

Better New Era

Today, with the growing political and economic influence of China, economic and cultural ties between China and the outside world have been remarkably strengthened, providing an ever improving background for the overseas Chinese's integration into their new societies.

Just being Chinese in origin now has become advantageous in job applications in some cases. With an influx of Chinese tourists, renowned French department store Galeries Lafayette has employed Chinese speakers as shop assistants.

Chinese Canadian Yun Ning, 41, works as a policeman in the York district of Toronto, Canada. Thanks to his Chinese origin, Yun got the post to serve the local Chinese community.

Artists migrating from the Chinese mainland to the West also benefit from China's growing global influence. Chinese French artist Li Fangfang has expertise in painting lotus. Her talents have won her the title of "Princess of Lotus." At the opening of the Chinese Cultural Year in Paris in October 2003, her work "Shadow of the Lotus" was chosen by then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin as the decoration painting of the state banquet hall.

Guan Yadong, who plays the pipa, a traditional Chinese string instrument, nearly stopped her musical career when she first came to Canada in 1997. Later she successfully introduced the instrument to Canadian audiences.

"Only when your native country becomes powerful, will others' interest in Chinese music flourish," she told Xinhua.

In the meantime, more and more overseas Chinese have learned to make full use of their traditional cultural background.

In Guan's case, she invited famous musicians to rewrite Western music classics for the pipa. Moreover, in line with Canadian music market rules, she employs three agents to promote her pipa music for different audiences.

Unlike their ancestors who usually made a living by craftsmanship, and helped each other in their hard struggle for a living, the new generation of overseas Chinese have been flexible in adapting to the new society and made achievements in diversified fields. Some have been successful in public life.

Gary Locke's grandfather could never have dreamed that around 100 years later, his grandson would be the first American governor of Chinese origin and the state secretary of commerce.

Even the whole world has changed, in some way, for the better for overseas Chinese.

The notorious anti-Chinese acts in North America were abolished. In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered in parliament a formal apology to the Chinese community in June 2006 for the racist head tax act, describing it as a historical wrong and one of "the racist actions of our past."

Several generations after Mao Fen's arrival in Vancouver, the Chinese language has been more often heard in the streets in Vancouver or other cities in Canada.

In the 1980s and 1990s, many people from Hong Kong and Taiwan migrated to Canada. But in the past 10 years, people from the Chinese mainland have constituted the bulk of Chinese immigrants.

More Chinese are accepted in Canada as the country badly needs manpower for its economy, said Jason Kenney, minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism of Canada.

"As we recover from the recession, increasing economic immigration will help ensure employers have the workers they need to supplement our domestic labor supply," Kenney said.

In the United States, Chinese Americans have become the third largest minority group with 4 million people. An apology for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act is being demanded.

Just recently, the first congresswoman of Chinese origin in the United States, Judy May Chu, submitted a motion to both houses of the Congress, asking them to address the act and express formal regret.