Both readings by U.S. News and World Report and Peter Kwong talk about how Chinese Americans have become the model minority. However, both readings could not be any more different. Kwong illustrates in his chapter that Chinese American are model immigrant is a myth. Many look at the Uptown Chinese representing all Chinese and that is where this idea of model minority comes from. Uptown Chinese come from the elite, scholarly class who fled to the United States due to the socialist revolution. Many are highly educated and are able to learn English quickly, allowing them to enter the professional field. In addition, people from Taiwan and Hong Kong are also well educated and children are taught to study hard due to the strict education system. This helped the immigrant children to catch up and learn English due to the easier learning in the United States. However, this can not be said for the same for Downtown Chinese.
Downtown Chinese located in Chinatown is a hard place to live as an immigrant. While it might be easy to find work in Chinatown, it is not a stable job at all. Wages are low due to employers cutting cost to make profits and so, many Chinese children work to contribute to the family income. They work long hours which makes it hard to find time to study for school. In addition, those that settle in Chinatown are from the rural areas, in which education standards are not quite as good as it is in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Therefore, it was hard for these children to grasp the difficult language, English. Also, the lack of funding for the schools of Chinatown did not help either. This lead to many Chinese students drooping out and joining gangs. According to Kwong, if one ignores the problems of Downtown Chinese because of the view that Chinese Americans are a model minority; many problems will arise for these Downtown Chinese.
The U.S. News and World Report contradict the “A Model Minority Community?” chapter by Kwong. This report illustrates that all Chinese immigrants are a model minority in that they all work hard to make it in the world rather than relying on welfare like other minorities would. It also talks about how Chinese would do extremely well in school and lower crime rates are associated with the Chinese. On person went to say that he would rather have his daughter live in Chinatown than anywhere else in New York City. I found this report as a stereotype rather than reflecting the truth, while Peter Kwong’s article is more believable.
