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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Seattle a Haven for Asian Americans?
he Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area is only 11th largest in the size of its Asian American population (285,000, or about 11.4% of the area's 2.5 million), but it claims one of the oldest and richest slices of Asian American history. Its Chinatown was home to America's first Asian-owned manufacturing business, the Wa Chong Co. The company produced, among other things, a very fine grade of opium, some of which was probably exported to China with the U.S. government's blessings.
Best city for AA?
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Since its birth in 1910 Seattle's atmospheric International District was settled by generations of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Vietnamese immigrants. In the late 70s the aging District began enjoying a rebirth into its modern incarnation thanks to Asian American activism in seeking to preserve it as a historical and cultural site. More recently an influx of trendy young AA professionals, entrepreneurs and artists has helped transform it into a vibrant part of downtown Seattle's cultural and night life. The District hosts the Northwest Asian American Theater Company and the Wing Luke Asian American Museum, named after a Chinese American elected to the Seattle City Council in 1965.
On the far end of the Seattle area's cultural spectrum is lush, ultra-modern Bellevue, one of the nation's most affluent communities. Asians make up 20.3% of the students of the Bellevue School District, thrice the 7.3% concentration in the general population of Washington state. This points up the fact that Seattle hosts one of the nation's best established Asian populations. Unlike some urban areas dominated by one or two Asian nationalities, Seattle's AA population is highly diversified, comprising the nations 7th largest Japanese (31,000), the 8th largest Vietnamese (44,000), 9th largest Corean (38,000), and the 11th largest Chinese (58,000) and Filipino (53,000) communities.
The area's Asian Americans take pride in their high degree of acceptance and integration. The fact that the state's governor is a Chinese American named Gary Locke doesn't hurt, of course. Or that the city's major league baseball team is owned by Nintendo chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi and sparked by Ichiro. Even on the grassroots level, one sees signs of acceptance. The ratio of AM/WF couples is noticeably higher than in most other metro areas. A cop who was rude in issuing a jaywalking ticket to a group of Asian Americans last year was reprimanded by the police department. And the ticket was dismissed by the judge.
Is the Seattle area really a haven for Asian Americans? What are the best and worst aspects of AA life there?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:41 PM)
TSJ:
Look, it is not just the governor issue. I have been to SF many times. There is a substantially higher number AM/WF couples in Seattle especially in Bellevue area than San Francisco. Where else in America (even in Vancouver for that matter) do you see equal number of AM/WF and AF/WM couples? In Seattle a high proportion of the WFs in the AM/WF couples are very attractive. Asians are simply well respected and a lot of them well educated in the Seattle area. This is an undeniable fact!
Asian Seattlite
Friday, April 05, 2002 at 21:24:41 (PST)
Where are the decent Chinese restaurants in Seattle? I used to visit every summer--and even our family friends that lived there acknowledged the difficulty of finding good (not just acceptable) Asian restaurants.
penelope
Thursday, April 04, 2002 at 15:13:10 (PST)
"If Asians in SF had any clout, they would be influencing everything in the Bay Area! But they don't!"
Take away the Chinese from the Bay, and it would be a completely different place. Take them away from Seattle, and it wouldn't change things much. The bottom line is, politics aside, Chinese have influenced the Bay culturally more than they have Seattle.
"Who cares if SF has amusement parks"
This site is about LIFESTYLE, NOT POLITICS. Amusement parks are a part of the lifestyle. So, you guys brag about your Chinese governor. What is he anyways? 4th gen? When you go that far down the genealogy, he might as well be white anyways.
"What is it with us Asian-Americans and our need to be in close proximity to Chinatown?"
Well, it's just the place where everyone congregates. Everything you need is there - restaurants, CD shops, karaoke bars, etc. It's a lot better than different kinds of stores scattered about because you can spend more time all in the same area. Nobody kicks it in SF Chinatown anymore. Oakland Chinatown is cool though. The thing is "Chinatown" doesn't necessarily mean the ones built back in the 1800's. It could also be referring to those "Ranch 99" strip malls all over LA and the Bay, Aberdeen Center in Richmond, BC, etc. As far as I know. There is only one Ranch 99 in Seattle.
"That's why the black mayor of SF allows all the poor blacks to beat up the poor Asians! And the poor Asians of SF don't fight back! At least in Seattle, the poor blacks aren't going to "cross" the poor Asians unless they're expecting a beating in return (some poor Asian males in Seattle end up in gangs and could care less about the boyz from the hood!)."
I have never heard of poor blacks beating up poor Asians. Besides, if it does happen, it has nothing to do with race. People just beat up the vulnerable. So, you are saying blacks and Asians don't kick it together in Seattle? Down here, all races intermingle. In Oakland, Chinese and blacks live side by side. Most of the racer and biker crews are mixed race.
Also, this stat is quite odd: "Seattle's AA population is highly diversified, comprising the nations 7th largest Japanese (31,000), the 8th largest Vietnamese (44,000), 9th largest Corean (38,000), and the 11th largest Chinese (58,000) and Filipino (53,000) communities."
So that means Asians are more likely to be conceived of as one whole group, instead of each being a distinct ethnicity. In other places, people know the difference between Chinese, Pinoy and Viet. I may be guessing, but with such small numbers of Chinese, it doesn't look like too many HK or Taiwanese immigrate there. With such low numbers of Filipinos, it doesn't look like too many of them immigrate there either. So, in other words, it appears as if most of the Asians in Seattle were born there. Anyhow, don't flame me on this. That's just what I got based on looking at the stats.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Thursday, April 04, 2002 at 12:12:46 (PST)
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