Free Term Paper on Asian American Issue
Asian Americans make up about 4% of the United States population but that
doesn't mean they're statistically insignificant. Not at all! Demographic
studies show that Asian Americans are younger, richer, better educated and more
technology-oriented than most of other ethnic groups in the United States. Of
course, this is really something to be proud of, and most Asian Americans
appreciate their special nature very much. But it also means that Asian
Americans are increasingly becoming the target of specialized marketing
campaigns...now that business owners know how much money Asian Americans have,
everyone wants a piece of the Asian pie.
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Is this marketing to Asian Americans a good thing? Perhaps not, since ultimately
it's more about money than equality in any real sense of the word. However, we
all know that things are more complicated than that...and America being America,
money does count in the race for acceptance into mainstream American life and
culture. In fact, money buys education and access to power in so many ways that
it really is a significant marker of integration into mainstream American life
and culture. So it's not, in the end, insignificant that the Asian American
populace is now a target for marketing. Perhaps the most interesting thing about
it is that Asians themselves, especially the Chinese, are actually doing so much
of this marketing!
In the world of communications in the United States, it's my anecdotal opinion
that Chinese Americans run the show, as far as Asian American ethnic groups go.
The Japanese do well also, but they make up a much smaller segment of the
population. The Indians, so strong in technology and medical professions, have
not traditionally gone into communications-related fields in the same numbers.
One good example of the dominance of Chinese Americans in this field is the
company aMedia, which produces a magazine, "aMagazine", and a website, "aOnline."
All of their media are aimed at Asian Americans in general, but the company is
owned and run by Chinese Americans.
How have the Chinese been so successful? Chinese have been immigrating to the
United States since the mid-1800s, so they are both well assimilated and
powerful in comparison to groups that have started to immigrate only recently.
For example, Koreans have only immigrated to the United States since the 1970s.
And the Chinese do a great job of helping each new generation of immigrants to
America--they take care of their own and trust other Chinese to support their
businesses in a similar way. In researching this column, I read a very
interesting article from the Los Angeles Times about Chinese American versus
Korean American-owned businesses in southern California. The article concluded
"Chinese Americans, far more than Korean Americans, are exporting goods and
services, making use of the Internet and tapping their ethnic connections to
enhance markets and financing."
I would add that, not only are Chinese Americans "enhancing markets and
financing", but they're also excelling in language and humanities-based skills.
It doesn't help an ethnic group as a whole in the United States to prosper only
at technical professions: each group has got to have a good mix of skills...some
linguistic, some visual, some mathematical. With this fully integrated mix, the
ethnic group is then in a great position to move ahead in the society as a
whole. This is where many Chinese are right now in the United States. It's a
great position to be in, because it helps newcomers and those who have lived
here for generations!
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