Culturalpartnerships.org - Community Based Programs

How long have individuals with Chinese ancestry lived in the USA/Pennsylvania?
There have been Chinese people living in the USA for a very long time. It is certain that there were Chinese people in North America since soon after European settlement in the New World. (Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, p. 218)

Many people are not aware that there were Chinese men who served both the Union and the Confederacy in the Civil War. At least one man, Woo Hong Neok, who had settled in Lancaster Pennsylvania, joined the Union army and fought in the Civil War. (http://hometown.aol.com/gordonkwok/cacwpart6.html)

What are the residence patterns of the Chinese community in the eight county area?

Chinese Population 1980 1990 2000

Adams County 25 14 64

Cumberland County 147 293 513

Dauphin County 158 207 815

Franklin County 22 63 119

Lancaster County 249 740 1132

Lebanon County 42 38 118

Perry County 2 2 14

York County 148 235 547

There is a large, and still growing Chinese population in Central Pennsylvania. In 1990, the total number of individuals with Chinese ancestry living in the nine county area was 1,591. By the year 2000, the Chinese community in the nine county area increased by 110% and 1,760 people making the total number of Chinese Americans in Central Pennsylvania 3,351 people. Chinese students make up the largest number of international students at Penn State University with 687 students making up 18% of the international students at the university (www.international.psu.edu/).

There are many individuals with Chinese ancestry, over 100 at least, that are involved in the Hershey Medical Center.

How are Chinese cultural traditions practiced in America?
The Chinese community has tried hard to both maintain its cultural traditions and heritage from China, and also to adapt to the U.S. One woman from China said that she feels like she's "50% Chinese and 50% American." She also added that most Chinese people are "conservative, peaceful and hardworking, and are trying to find a place to settle down. They would like to learn the culture and way of life here and to blend in."

Food
Food is central to Chinese culture both in China and America. At festivals and after worship services or Bible study at the Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church, there is always traditional food shared by the community. It is sometimes difficult, though, to cook traditional Chinese dishes in homes since there is no Chinese grocery store in the area for cooking needs. The food of other cultures has been picked up as well by Chinese people living in America.

Buddhist members of the community maintain vegetarian households.

Language
Language is one of the easiest things to lose in the move from one country to another. Even if the language is spoken in the home, the children of Chinese immigrants hear English spoken everywhere else, and speak it at school, at work, with their friends, etc. With each generation, the Chinese languages get spoken less and less. The community in this area is trying to keep the languages alive through two weekend Chinese schools in the area. One of the Chinese languages schools teaches Beijing hui dialect, also known as Mandarin. This is only one of many languages and dialects that are spoken in China. The Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church holds Bible Study in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. Sermons are also given in one of those three languages with a translator for the other two.

Family life
Chinese families are traditionally very close knit and in China many generations of one family often live together. In the US, though, children go off to college and in the Central Pennsylvania area there is about a 90% relocation rate among young people after college, according to one community member.

Even though the extended family residence pattern of Chinese families has not carried over to the U.S., many other cultural aspects have remained. Members of the community say that Chinese families maintain values that were important to them in China. Respect for a person's elders is an important aspect of Chinese culture. Younger members of the Chinese community often call their elders "auntie" and "uncle" to show respect. They typically do not refer to their parents by their first names or talk back to parents. Another value that the parents put a strong emphasis on is education and consequently the children are encouraged to do well in school.

A group called Friends of Adopting Asian Children represents a different type of family. American families adopt Asian children through this organization, and 90% of those children are Chinese. Though these children now have non-Chinese parents, their parents often want them to retain their Chinese heritage and therefore send them to the Chinese language class and have them participate in the children's dance in the New Year's celebration.

Celebrations
The Chinese Association gathers the community together several times a year so that Chinese Americans can celebrate their shared culture together. The community celebrates a Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. It usually occurs in mid-September, on the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. A Dragon Festival, Duan Wu Jie, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, usually sometime in May. The festival includes traditions such as the dragon boat races and eating zong zi, a glutinous rice ball with a filling that is wrapped in corn leaves. The New Year's Celebration is the largest of them all. It includes a banquet and staged shows that both adults and children participate in. The Chinese Association puts out a quarterly newsletter so that the members can keep up with these festivals and activities going on as well as share personal experiences.

What are health care issues that affect the Chinese community?
Particularly among older Chinese immigrants, there are behaviors and expectations that impart their health care experience here in the U.S. In China, patients are often not given very much information on their illness and also do not express their concerns about interventions or treatments that are prescribed by doctors. Instead, patients express their thoughts through indirect and restrained language and the doctor or nurse is expected to understand. This method of communication could be problematic in the U.S., where patients are told explicitly about their illnesses and are expected to be vocal about their concerns. Also, since in China it is considered impolite to accept anything at the first offer, pain relief interventions must be offered more than once.

The past is highly valued by Chinese people and traditional methods of healing are often favored over new procedures and medications. This can also be an area of tension in the U.S., where new advancements in medicine are constantly made and used. Some Chinese people do not want to undergo surgery because they believe that during the procedure the soul could escape and never return (Mosby, Pocket Guide to Cultural Assessment, pp. 52-56).

What are the languages spoken by Chinese people in America?
Due to the fact that the Chinese community in the area is from all over the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand, there are many Chinese languages and dialects spoken in this area. The Bible Study of the Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church is held in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. The sermons for worship are preached in either Chinese with a translator for English or English with a translator for Chinese, and then also translated into Cantonese.

English is spoken among the Chinese community, especially by the younger generation, but some of the older members of the community have trouble learning the language. This is problematic when dealing with health care providers and employers, especially since the Chinese community in the area is not that large and so there aren't always the resources that one might find in larger communities. One local senior woman would like to move into a nursing home, but cannot because of the language barrier.

There are seven major Chinese language groups, these are:
Mandarin, the largest
Cantonese
Hakka (Kejia)
Xiang (Hunanese)
Min
Gan
Wu - shares intelligibility with Mandarin and Gan dialects
http://www.chinalanguage.com/Language/chinese.html

Because of the many language groups and dialects, the Chinese government decided to develop an official standard language. In 1913 the Ministry of Education assembled a Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, which created Guoyu (national speech) as the official language of mainland China, Taiwan, and also an official language of Singapore. This language embodies the pronunciation of Beijing, the grammar of the Mandarin dialects, the vocabulary of modern vernacular Chinese literature, and features of various local dialects. Guoyu or Putonghua (common language), as it was renamed after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, is the mostly widely spoken form of Chinese and has been used in all schools since 1956. In Western countries this language is generally referred to as Mandarin.

What about Chinese Martial Arts?
One of the most famous aspects of Chinese culture in America is Chinese martial arts. Many movies have been made that feature Chinese martial arts, and many children and adults take classes in Kung Fu and Tai Chi. There are many places in the area where people can take classes in Chinese martial arts.
Harrisburg -
Jose Johnson's Chinese Martial Arts Center
Harrisburg Kung Fu Center.
Kevin Preston's Siu Lum Pai Chinese Boxing Academy
Bow Sim Mark Tai Chi Arts Association, Nathan Spivey
Lancaster -
Chinese Kung Fu Academy
Lancaster Tang Soo Do School of Karate
Lebanon -
Warfield's Kung Fu.

Training includes Ti (kicking), Da (punching), Shuai (throwing), Na (controlling), Gi (hitting), Ci (thrusting)

There are 3 methods of classification -
internal or external styles
southern or northern styles
"Shoalin," "Wudang," or "Ermei" http://www.nardis.com/~twchan/liang.html

What are the religions followed by members of the Chinese community in America?
Some members of the local Chinese community are Buddhist. Most of the Chinese-American Buddhists worship and celebrate festivals at temples in the Maryland/DC area. There is also temple in the Philadelphia area. Important features of this religion are meditation in order to reach nirvana, or inner-peace; the concept of fate, yuan; and equality for all human beings. A major focus of the religion is compassion. Traditional Buddhists are vegetarian, in order to show compassion for all creatures.

Christianity is followed by many of the Chinese in the area. The Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church, which is the only Chinese Church in the area, reports about 100 regular worshippers and 200-250 people at big events. View the profile of the Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church at the website of the Harvard University Pluralism Project.

How are the younger generations of Chinese educated about their heritage in Central Pennsylvania?
Two area Chinese schools, taught by members of the community, allow children to attend weekend classes and learn about their cultural heritage. The classes are one day a week for about two hours, and cost a minimal fee. The teachers volunteer their time. Children with Chinese parents, as well as children from China who were adopted by American families, attend the classes. The Chinese Association in the area and the Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church both provide cultural and educational programs as well as festivals and celebrations. As a part of the Chinese New Year celebration, children put on a show of traditional Chinese dancing. A teacher in the community who is a professional dancer helps the children with various dancing techniques and teaches them traditional Chinese dances.

What impact has the Chinese community had on US/Pennsylvania culture?
Just like the culture among Chinese immigrants has changed since moving from China to America, American culture has changed because of the Chinese immigrants who have brought their rich cultural heritage to the United States. According to Penn State University's (State College) East Asian Studies Department, which focuses on the study of Japan, China, and Korea, the trend of world events indicates that demand for people with specialization in East Asian studies will continue to increase in the foreseeable future.

Chinese food is very popular, and most cities have a large number of Chinese restaurants. Many Americans are eager to learn how to eat with chopsticks when in Chinese restaurants, even if they have a tough time. Americans of many ethnic and racial backgrounds have learned the Chinese art of origami and Chinese martial arts, like Tai Chi and Kung Fu.

Many notable Chinese Americans have contributed to the U.S. in the areas of the arts, journalism, science, and more. Amy Tan is a very popular novelist in the United States with her books The Kitchen God's Wife and The Joy Luck Club, which was made into a movie. Connie Chung has been a very successful TV journalist for many years. Dr. David Ho is a prize winning AIDS researcher and was named 1996's TIME Man of the Year. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has won fourteen Grammy Awards. There are many Chinese-Americans who are working to benefit their own communities, even without gaining national recognition. One member of the Chinese American community in Pennsylvania has said that the Chinese Association wants to be a part of mainstream society. Rather than be cut off from the community at large, the members of the association would like to offer their help to the community in any way possible. One way that the association does this is by holding special sessions once every two months where members of the community who are knowledgeable in a certain area share their expertise with the rest of the community. As one man put it, "There are many Chinese people here and each has something to offer the community." Lawyers will give basic knowledge about the law and doctors will teach about medicine. There have also been sessions on car repair and Zen Buddhism.

What elements of diversity are there within the Chinese community in the area?
There are Chinese people with many different backgrounds in the area. Most are from mainland China, but there are also many from Taiwan and Hong Kong and from other parts of Asia. This means that within the Chinese community people speak many different languages and dialects. There are also different religious traditions, such as Buddhism and Christianity, as well as atheism. Even though there are Chinese Americans who are not Christian and who are not members of the Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church, the members of the Church and of the Chinese Association join each other's activities. The Church holds a Father's Day celebration each year and invites all of the Chinese-Americans in the area.

People have come to America from China for different reasons. Some are college graduates who wish to pursue advanced degrees from American universities. Others have come for jobs and work hard in businesses such as restaurants and stores.

What Chinese American programs and organizations are open to the public for people to learn about Chinese culture?
The Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church's main goal is to reach out to everyone to feel God's love. People of any background are welcome and the Church hopes in the future to hold services in more languages to involve more members of the international community. The Church has a Vacation Bible School, which is held in English. There are programs at festivals in order to teach about the culture. There is also a push for people to adopt Chinese babies.

There is also a Chinese Association in the area that has programs for festivals like the Chinese New Year and other events. Members of the Chinese Association say that the Association would like to serve the community at large and have programs and activities that are open to the general public.

Contact Information
Harrisburg Chinese Alliance Church
Pastor Calvin Tan

6950 Allentown Boulevard
Harrisburg, Pa 17112
(717) 541-1141

http://www.geocities.com/HarrisburgCAC/

harrisburgcac@yahoo.com

Central Pennsylvania Chinese Association
Mr. Rei-Huang Hu
(717) 533-6446
rxh41@psu.edu

3211 North Front Street
Harrisburg, PA 17110-1342
phone: 717.238.1770
fax: 717.238.3336