With the major sponsorship of the Committee of 100 (an elite organization of prominent CAs) and the Social Science Department of Columbia University also with helps from the US Census Bureau, the Pew Research Organization, and the office of the White House Initiative of Asian  and Pacific Islanders (WIAPI), the first report of the 2022 historical survey of Chinese Americans was aired last night (4/27/2023). The survey covers detail interviews of some 6500 Chinese Americans (from Mainland China, Native born, Taiwan, HongKong and immigrations from all over the world) about their social, economic, physical and mental health, and insecurities – an unprecedented collection of real data with important conclusions and recommendations.

Before writing about my impression and takeaway of this report, let me reassure readers that this video report will be released in the future for re-watching by the Social Science channel of the Committee of 100. Thus, do not worry that you may miss something important. Just check the C100 website.

OK. Now to my own report of watching this 90 minute video (which because of real time pressure of taking notes and making sense of the presentation) will be incomplete and spotty.

1.   There are now 5 million plus CAs in the US. Before 1950, the total number of CAs are minimal due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which was only repealed in 1943. The Kennedy Immigration Act of 1965 greatly increase the Chinese immigration number.  There was almost an exponential increase of the CA population since that time.

2.   Surprise findings of the survey:

a.   Diversity – The CA population is more diverse than other minority groups.

b.   The CA population has the highest income inequalities compared to other minorities from 14K annual income to multi-million salaries.

c.    Almost 70% of the highly educated and high income groups of CAs feel insecurity from other hate groups and concerns about US-China relationship tensions.

d.   Political participation of CAs are high in terms of % voter registration

3.                        Conclusion – we need now to let these data to drive better policies for Chinese Americans

As an example where in New York city there is a large CA population of 15% many of them do not speak or read English, the website for social benefits such as information on supplement income, health benefit, and other government help are stated in English only with no translation. When asked why not, the reply was “they can use Google Translate” – a totally inadequate and unreasonable response.

Another sentiment expressed by the panelists in the same vein is “to play a better ground game of political actions”.

All in all, this is a worthwhile report for all Chinese Americans to watch. It will help all of us to break out the bubble/cocoon we live in and broaden our viewpoints.