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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
San Diego: Asian American Boomtown?
an Diego doesn't have much of an Asian American history. That could be one reason it may have the brightest future of any Asian American city.
Between 1992 and 2002 the area's Asian American population jumped a spectacular 44%. Its current AA population of 360,000 -- the nation's 10th largest -- is only 12% of the 3,000,000 in the San Diego metro area, but the growth trajectory remains strong due to a steady influx of Asians drawn to the area's paradisial climate and growth potential.
AA Boomtown?
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The area's emerging prominence as the nation's biotech capitol promises to be an growth engine and a powerful magnet for ambitious young Asian Americans. La Jolla, the city's ritziest neighborhood, is home to talent incubators like the Scripps Research Institute, the nation's biggest private research organization. La Jolla is also home to UC San Diego, a top bio engineering power. It doubled its Asian enrollment from 22% of undergraduates in 1991 to 43% in 2002, nearly equal to Whites (44%). The balance is tilting toward Asians. The 2001 freshmen class is 46.5% Asian and 42% White.
The area is also attracting a disproportionate share of other growth industries like software, communications, defense and entertainment, accelerating the escalation of housing prices, not to mention its traffic congestion.
Perhaps because of its blue-sky economic climate and white-collar demographics, San Diego seems to have been hospitable to Asian success. A Corean American architect named C. W. Kim designed several prominent features of its sparkling seaside skyline, including the Emerald Plaza, the Marriott and the First National Bank building.
The city's first Asian success story was Ah Quin, a Chinese immigrant who made a name as a merchant and labor broker during the 1880s when only a few hundred mostly male Chinese made up the city's entire Asian population. Many of those early settlers came to dominate a thriving fishing industry that supplied not only San Diego but Chinese communities on both sides of the Pacific. Today all that remains to commemorate that first small wave of Asian immigrants is the Chinese Museum near Marina Park in the Gaslamp District.
The majority of Asian San Diegans arrived with the wave that began in the late 1960s. Today the city's Asian presence is most visible in the Convoy area located in a triangle formed by the I-805 to the west and Highways 52 and 163 respectively to the north and east. Convoy, Clairemont Mesa Blvd and other streets are lined with Vietnamese, Chinese, Corean, Japanese and Thai eateries, markets, pearl tea shops and business offices. Making up nearly a third of the area's Asians, and its fastest-growing Asian population, Vietnamese have established visible commercial stretches as well in the El Cajon and Mira Mesa districts.
Is San Diego an Asian American boomtown in the making? Or is it destined to become just another L.A. South?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:55 PM)
"Hey, so do pure Hawaiians really hate haoles?"
This question is unfair. I am not the spokesperson for each and every pure-blooded Hawaiian.
San Diegan
Saturday, July 13, 2002 at 19:51:27 (PDT)
Hey, I totally agree with anyone who is saying that SD is totally segregated. I can't believe just how snobby white people there are. They totally don't accept most other people who are not like them at all. There is a large number of latinos and southeast asains out there, but it doesn't seem as though they have much influence on the city. I mean, white people there could care less about other ethnic groups other than their own. Its amazing that whites in SD tend to not accept other minorities as much as the ones in LA or the Bay.
Like I said before, SD is no asain boom town!
A Cute Filipino Guy Who Knows
Saturday, July 13, 2002 at 00:05:26 (PDT)
San Diegan, you have a point about people not knowing your culture until you actually say or do something. I guess my idea is too generalized. I think that is what they refer to as "subcultures." Just like how the same race has many different tribes or villages, each with it's own traditions, the same can be said for each American state.
Where you grow up sculpts the way you look. I am 100% Chinese, born and raised in America, ate American bread and potatoes, drank milk, etc. I look totally different than my counterparts in HK or mainland China. I would even venture to say that if I grew up in Texas or Hawaii, I would look different too (maybe not as noticeable). Take a look at Asians in South America. Even though they are still 100% Chinese, Japanese, etc., they appear to have Latin features.
I take it you were born in Hawaii. A pure blood Hawaiian born on the island looks totally different than one born on the mainland. A haole of say, Danish decent born in Hawaii would undoubtedly look totally different from a Danish boy born and raised in Minnesota.
Hey, so do pure Hawaiians really hate haoles? I mean, if they were raised there, surf, eat Spam (hehe), and basically do all the things natives do, are they still considered outsiders? This is what I mean when I say I look at culture instead of race. Despite his skin color, he obviously grew up Hawaiian. You can't just say, "Oh, he's just a white boy," and expect him to be a blonde haired, blue eyed jock football player. Is he considered to be on a lower level than a pure bred Hawaiian who has completely abandoned his culture?
From my perspective, I think a white girl who can actually speak Chinese, and knows Chinese culture is more Chinese than a pure bred Chinese girl who doesn't know squat. To use actresses as an example, Mira Sorvino is ten times more Chinese than Lucy Liu.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Wednesday, July 10, 2002 at 21:38:16 (PDT)
After almost 4 years as a SF transplant, I'm still adjusting to San Diego in some ways. Can't help it, we're so spoiled in the Bay Area. Perhaps it's because here in San Diego, we're all so spread out. Plus the long-standing military presence, which took a turn after the Navy "left".
Also, many of the cultural community organizations are very insular, they stick to their own. A bunch of them formed a coalition, which is promising.
The population is rising, yes. But in what way? But the majority of Asians here are either Asian (more commonly referred to as FOBs down here, which I can't stand) immigrants, and American Asians. The American Asians are ones who think the food their parents cook belongs on Fear Factor, and applaud the increasing number of identity crisis films hitting the indie circuit. Believe it or not, I've seen many people flat out lie, repeatedly, about their ethnic background for the sake of image. Full Filipinos claiming to be part Hawaiian or Spanish or Chinese. Laotians claiming Filipino. Chinese to be part Hawaiian. My friends whose families are Hawaiian just say "whatevers" to the whole thing.
I hope for an increase in a happy medium of Asian Americans, those that learn to associate themselves with their ethnicity and their American homes, but most of them just come to San Diego for a short time and return to their hometowns of San Francisco, New York and the like. We're all fundamentally the same, I just wish that we could...at the very least respect one another.
I get a kick out of ppl assuming I can sing like Lea Salonga. Or the line "I always loved Hawaii" before I start to answer questions about where I'm from (which is actually the Philippines). Or the surprised "but I thought you were Spanish or something. You speak FOB?" when they hear me speak Tagalog. It just shows we've got a long way to go.
SAF
Wednesday, July 10, 2002 at 12:29:35 (PDT)
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