Chinatown
...t through training here in order to get her cosmetology license. Her husband did not come with her at first, because he was afraid that he would not fin into the community in the United States. He did join her a couple of years later. Things worked out better for him than he expected, and he is now a successful building contractor. After Rowena completed her beauty school training, she opened a salon in here home. After a couple of years, Rowena and her husband were able to buy a house on Chicago’s south side, several block from the center of Chicago’s Chinatown. She continues to operate a successful beauty salon from here home. Both of her children were born here. One is currently in the sixth grade and one is a sophomore in high school. Both attend Chicago public schools. She feels that her children have experienced less discrimination because they were born and raised in Chicago. Chinatown has changed a lot since Rowena first came to Chicago in 1982. At that time, Chinatown was heavily under the influence of the local trade associations. It was a very closed community, with a great deal of fear among the residents that they would lose their culture if they were open to outsiders. Over the years, there has been a gradual transition within the community, with the trade associations having less and less influence. This has meant that the face of Chinatown has changed, and the community is less insular than it was twenty years ago. Most noticeable to the outsider is that many of the restaurants that were mainstays in the community twenty, or fifteen, or even ten years ago are gone. They have been replaced by newer, somewhat Americanized eateries that still retain the cooking styles of China, but with other influences as well. One clear advantage of coming to Chicago for Rowena has been her ability to be a successful businesswoman. She would never have been able to open her own business in China. He she was not only able to open a business, she was encouraged and supported by members of the local Chinese community. Many of her customers to this day come from the local Chinese community. The thing I found most interesting was what Rowena told me about her husband being afraid to come with her to the United States. As we talked about this further, it became apparent that his fear was a combination of several issues. First, he was just plain afraid to leave the comforts of his own society and culture. Perhaps many of the behaviors that he learned as a child and young adult were based on an insular style of community that was not open to outside influence. Another part of his fear was that he thought that people might discriminate against him because his language, his attitudes, his likes and dislikes, would be so far different from those of Americans. Rowena’s husband finally got up the courage to immigrate to the United States in 1984. He found the Chicago Chinese community to be receptive to him. He could speak his language and be surrounded by familiar faces. He found too that he could use the carpentry skills he acquired in China to get a foothold in the American work force. Gradually, he began to blend in, and began to assimilate into the American culture. However, he has never been completely able to let go of his roots. The biggest sign of this is the fact that he has never learned English really well. He speaks Chinese at every opportunity, even though English is his children’s’ first language, and Rowena is equally comfortable speaking either English or her native Chinese. There comparison between Rowena’s experiences in coming to America and Dalton Conley’s experiences as related in Honky are more indirect than direct. Rowena immigrated to America as an adult, whereas Conley was born in New York. Rowena had to make it on her own, and her situation is primarily the result of her own direct efforts. Conley’s situation was directly and significantly influenced by choices that were made by his parents as they sought to make their own statements on American society and American culture. With that said, there are certainly similar underlying themes that emerge from the two situations. In any cultural situation, assimilation is unavoidable. Social fabric is a living thing. Assimilation is the cultural process that allows outside influences, or “outside people” to be absorbed into an existing social fabric. There must be acceptance by the culture, and acceptance by the outside influence or person. Conley tried to assimilate himself into Black, Puerto Rican, and even White cultural situations. In many cases he was unsuccessful because the local “culture” would not accept him no matter what he did. Rowena was abl...