Many Asians in the US

Lixian Huang

Sep. 30^th 2015

Week 1 Blog

ASA 2, A03

In the “Profile America Fact for Features Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Census 2010”, a list of data points implies that Asians are now making a large contribution to the US, not only on the population, but also on the cultural and economic aspects. Even though the article just presents the data collected five years ago, what I experienced also proves that Asians gradually play an important role in the US society. I am an international student from China, and I have been in the US for almost four years for my undergraduate study. What I observe is that so many of my classmates have the Asian face. Large parts of them are from the same country as I am. When I was traveled to San Francisco during my first Winter break, I was really surprised that I can speak Cantonese almost everywhere in San Francisco, not merely in the Chinatown. Some numbers in the API Census 2010 raise my attention. For example, under the “Counties” part, two cities in California are mentioned, and as I am told, California is the State that most of the Asians choose to settle down. I have read some articles mention that during the gold rush time, many Asians moved to California to seek their American Dream. But why did they choose to stay? I do not know how other Asian communities live in San Francisco, but I know that the Chinatown in San Francisco is considered to be a cheap-and-unsafe place, where most of my friends’ money was found to be stolen. Such phenomenon can reveal that not all the Asians are living a happy life, but they still decide to continue their life style. What are in this place fascinating them? Why California seems to have more Asians than other states in the US, given that the tax is pretty high?