 Why do Chinese Americans seem to have the least sense of community compared to other different types of Asians in America? Man, we got to talk about this. Oh my goodness. This was a crazy post, Andrew. It went viral on Reddit. It's called my thoughts on why Chinese Americans have insufficient political power. My impression is that within the Asian American groups, Chinese Americans have the weakest political clout. Given the sheer amount of Chinese Americans, there are too few influential political figures. And those that exist are mostly from Taiwan. Wow. All right. So everybody, if you've ever wondered this question or if you ever had this feeling that maybe, hey, that there's a lot of Chinese people in America, but how come it doesn't seem like we have much of a community or we really support each other in the mass numbers? If you've ever felt this way, this video is for you. We're going to break down. We're going to discuss his points. We're going to talk about what the comment section said to. And hopefully this is just a good conversation to have. Yeah. So make sure you like, subscribe, and turn on your notifications, Andrew. But I'm not saying this is going to unify the Chinese American community, but it could be on a start. I feel like this is one Chinese American product that everybody loves. Check out Smala Sauce shipping out right now. It's a Sichuan chili oil mix with some kind of Italian inspiration. So check it out. What if people say, well, you know, every town I go to, there's a Chinatown. What do you guys mean? You don't have community. You know what I mean? Like I think that you'd have to understand that it's almost like they don't Chinese people. There's a lot of Chinese people in America or really just across the world and they actually have a lot of economic power, but they don't really wield it in any sort of unified manner. Right. You mean you're not using like all the smart and well off people who are business owners are teaming up to go do something. There's no teamwork. Right. It's not that there aren't strong individual players and that they don't share some sort of unified culture. I guess like Chinatowns would be where a lot of Chinese people are eating Chinese food or using Chinese businesses. However, in terms of like the way that they wield it is for sure like way, way, way different than another community. If other communities had that same size and economic punching power. All right. So first we got to go through his main points in this. So he says Chinese communities do not have a common interest and there are very few community leaders. This is due to the mostly ineffective electorate and that is why most politicians ignore the Chinese community. Of course, there are immigrants from the mainland Chinese from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia overseas, Indonesia, Southeast Asia all over. Basically there is a gigantic diaspora and we know Chinese people from Jamaica, South South Africa and he basically said this just leads to completely different interests and views amongst everybody like there's just so much diversity that people can't get on the same page. Right. Yeah, I guess but also Chinese people, you know, maybe they don't come over here. They don't all want to vote. I don't think anything's barring them from voting, but if they don't want to take part into the political system then yeah, politicians are going to ignore us. No, it's true. It's true. Um, Andrew, second, regardless of wealth, the Chinese community puts great emphasis on children's education with a very narrow value orientation and even narrower career choices such as STEM and medicine leading to overcrowding and competition amongst themselves. Very few encourage their kids to do community engagement, activism, law, not corporate law, but actually litigation and anything else that does not produce direct material comforts. Um, agree or disagree? I would say for most Chinese, I think really only like 60 or 70% of Chinese families are very academic focused. I think there's quite a bit that is not right. You're saying maybe more than people think. Yeah, they don't care. Yeah, I think there's a larger number. I think just to sum up all Chinese people to be like, oh, everybody cares about education. Perhaps is that other 30% Andrew more like a clannish business people? Pops possibly. Yeah. Um, third, Chinese people are too smart and cautious like a MOBA game where they think I don't want to be the tank taking all the damage. I'd rather be a mage. This free rider mindset means that Chinese are not good at forming self-governing small groups because no one wants and no one knows how to take the lead. In China's 2000 years of absolutism, citizens forming self-governing communities have always been the number one threat to the state. Just go read books by Shang Yang Han Fei Zi and so on. In China, the society is highly atomized, meaning there is no chance for citizens to form groups that are outside of governmental control. Individuals face the state directly and have no way of organizing themselves to influence the state. I guess he's just kind of saying that the way that China has operated and operates to this day is so different than the way that America operates that it basically means that there's like a weird mismatch that that because you're used to not building certain groups, I'm not really sure what groups he's talking about, but you're not used to building these groups that are not government funded and now you're in a country where you're more free. You still don't do it. Right. It's almost like a dog that's raised in a cage and then you release the dog into the wild and the dog is still behaving like as if he's in the cage. Right. This is a classic psychology 101 situation. This is why the stereotypical collectivism of Chinese culture is wrong. Chinese collectives are forcibly established by a strong government. Once there is no external constraint, everyone automatically disintegrates into individual families unable to unite. In reality, countries with weak governments where strong self-governing communities form are like the US. Basically, he's saying self-governing communities only form in places where there's a weak government. And China has always had a really strong government. A lot of people think, Andrew, it just started recently over the past like 50, 60 years, but actually I would say that there is a history of just dynasties in China, right? So it's actually, you could argue it's actually just an unbroken continuation of the old way of some sort of imperial system. Under this context, it is difficult to produce community leaders. How much prestige can you have in your community to make everyone listen to you? Other ethnic groups such as Indians and Jewish people rally around their traditional religions and can produce community leaders. And they are also used to having self-governing society since their respective countries are not as atomized as China and their governments are typically weaker. Basically, they rely on tackling one voting block at a time basically versus just everybody just getting in line. They have to actually convince each other. Yeah, I think that part of it is actually lack of religious leaders because a lot of religious leaders usually are at first a lot of the community leaders or they double as community leaders. And so like amongst Chinese Americans, there are different religions, but I wouldn't say that like the Chinese American like pastor is somebody that like somebody really like the Chinese community as a whole looks up to. Oh, dude, I mean, I think that these issues are true for a lot of Asian communities, but they're probably the most true to the most 10 out of 10 intensity or extent in the Chinese American community, right? So basically says so it seems that Chinese Americans are essentially an ineffective electorate. Basically, this explains why Chinese Americans are so fed up because Asian American politicians are betraying the Chinese community. But then basically he's saying like, you know, like what? What's the plan here? You know what I mean? He's just like, I think that he's kind of defeatist, right? But he is explaining why things are the way they are overall. Andrew, I mean, this was really well written. We can't get to all of it. What do you think about what he said? Oh, yeah. I mean, I agree with some of it. I think that he still he still didn't bring up that many numbers, but I would say just generally being a Chinese person like for example, we were in Boston a couple months ago and I was talking to a student in Boston and she's from San Francisco. She's Cantonese parents are from Hong Kong, right? Grew up in San Francisco, which is the city is very Cantonese. I believe San Francisco proper is 30% like the culture is very Cantonese specifically Cantonese and she was saying how when she got to the Boston area, it was so hard for her to connect with other Chinese students, particularly the international students like she wants to but she's a Cantonese American and she's like finding it hard to connect with the international students because almost their culture and language is like different enough. It's almost like coming from different nationalities, maybe not different ethnic groups, but it's almost as different as like a Cuban and a Puerto Rican or something like you know like you're obviously blood-wise kind of related but like culturally kind of different. Yeah, I mean, I would say that you know this person this poster Andrew was getting a lot into the nuance of like self governance from the dynastic days and how does it carry over to like the CCP and everything like that. But I think you could even just observe this by seeing how many like Chinese nightclubs are like bars exist right like Koreans have like exponentially more night clubs and bars with a much smaller population. I believe like a fourth of the size in America. Yeah, they have like way more community. Yeah, so I guess is it just true Andrew that different Asians are kind of like different breeds of dogs and different breeds of dogs Andrew if you study like different types of dogs Andrew they sort of have like different genetic traits that lead to probable outcomes for dog personalities right. That's why dog breeders are like oh hey what type of dog do you want this type of dog needs to run a lot this type of dog is gets along with kids this type of doesn't obviously it's not a hundred out of a hundred percent true but there are patterns right. So I guess would you say that Chinese have a pattern of like they want to be around each other but they keep each other at arms length to I think they like need to be around each other but they don't need to have fun with each other well first of all I don't even know if Chinese people know how to have fun so maybe that's part of the issue on why there's no bars or clubs but compared to the amount of Chinese people but I would say Chinese people they like want to feel safe around each other but they don't like want to need each other that's that makes any sense. Yeah yeah yeah I feel like they don't necessarily I never see Chinese people show any joy when they meet another Chinese person and that's very different I feel than other Asians. Yeah other Asians I feel like they feel joy when they meet somebody from their same tribe and it's almost like Chinese are almost like looking at that other person like well think of how joyful a Chinese person would have to be to feel joy every time they saw another Chinese person they'd feel joy a lot because there's a lot of Chinese people so then you would just be a joyful person but I think being joyful runs opposite to being Chinese to be honest it's not the most feels like that I don't know that's a crazy state am I you tell me am I wrong tell them if he's wrong guys I'm serious leave me in the comments down below you've been around listen if you want to rip me apart for that comment that's fine but you give your reasons alright yeah so basically a lot of people are saying I agree with you but this guy says that second gen Chinese Americans do get involved in politics at a grassroots level however there is a lack of political clout in the upper echelons I will say this I think there's a difference between getting involved but getting involved as a member of the Chinese community right do you know what I'm saying like you can just be involved as an individual but there's no necessarily any community aspect behind it right and I've seen people like I guess like fight for Chinatown but obviously you could argue just is Chinatown that's like third culture is a representative of you know being actually Chinese itself some people were actually saying they believe it's more of a bamboo ceiling rather than saying that it's like the culture so basically everybody was somewhat agreeing with this poster but some people were saying that it's more of a modern day thing due to discrimination in Western society such as bamboo ceiling and other people were like no no no your history of legalism you're right goes back thousands of years I agree with you well I think you would have to look at the other Chinese diasporas and not just compared to the Western world it could be a Western world struggle or you look at the Chinese in Southeast Asia or in other countries Malaysia for example right or even the Chinese and Dominican Republic and Jamaica and the Chinese and Panama do they have a tighter knit community out there they probably do for whatever maybe it's the numbers you know I mean I'm sure Chinese when they first came to America they were somewhat had a community I guess I don't know maybe they were all like trying to dig for gold or something at the same time right somebody says I think you're on point Chinese culture simply does not know how to form communities they tend to you know go more towards big families and blood base clans rather than because of any sort of shared values or ethnicity yeah I could see that somebody said you hit on a good point with the weak government strong communities thing so you know obviously China Andrew is really famous for almost like having one of the first governments in world history like they've had like governance arguably for like as long as anybody else on earth in a way Chinese love governments or they need governments not that they want to be part of the government but they've always had strong authorities right somebody said I agree with your theory and this phenomenon existing in 2023 at present Chinese groups have very vastly different interests and values but historically it was not like this Confucianism had a strong bond until the second half of the last century let me ask you this David if Chinese have always had strong governance and that's what they're used to how come they don't want to be in government which is be a politician in America but they probably do in mainland China right now they probably want to be a part of the dynastic government but yeah you're right you're right in America for sure I think that man it's so complicated and there probably could be like 10 books written on this but I think it's like the people who escaped that system they're like coming to America and then maybe they were like traumatized and they don't understand that being part of government is actually like really useful in America like you could get a lot done right and you actually have the opportunity to like to grab the reins of it but but they've been traumatized to not grab the reins of anything yeah it's true being a politician in America is great man you can get really rich by being corrupt and then still maybe not even go to prison right somebody was just talking about how different it is to be Chinese because there's like you know many many many different dialects and like you said people who are raised deep in the one like singular silo of one of those dialects Andrew they don't relate to the other people who speak other dialects and eat different food so yeah I mean I think that that's a pretty good point somebody said I'm just gonna simplify it even further I just think it's racism Chinese are the most politically oppressed ethnicity within the Asian community because of historical reasons and hatred of the China of China as the communist enemy this breeds a kind of fear whether rational or irrational prevents you from taking certain past if you don't have confidence in yourself in your roots how can you have the confidence to be involved in politics the history of being labeled a spy and traitor in Chinese America is pretty much an integral part of our history we are in a strange place in the USA and has nothing to do with Chinese culture but with Western culture to me to be honest I mean isn't everything just a reasoned pizza with different slices and you can sort of argue on the sequence of those slices or the distribution of how big those pie slices are but everything is a reasoned pizza with many different slices so I agree with this person but only as a slice yeah somebody was just saying Chinese people are literally so self-hating that they refuse to help other Chinese people it's unbelievable even other East Asians are willing to help their own more than Chinese Americans are the level to which Chinese people are cucked is unreal agree disagree I mean obviously this person's like probably of the Asians Chinese people are the least likely to help another Chinese person right like of the same group possibly it's possible it's possible I'm of course and or people were all pointing out there's other people such as Gary Locke Judy Chu Grace Meng Michelle Wu but then this guy was the original poster was like basically saying oh yeah but that person's clearly got a parent from America this person's like from Taiwan so they have like I guess he was more pointing out people that are directly Chinese Chinese right like he was saying that all the other Chinese politicians they had outside influences yeah so I guess you know long story short Andrew you know this is like really going on for a long time there was like a ton of like hypereducated comments in here agree disagree what can people do about it or is it just like just what it is I think it's a generational thing I think maybe more Chinese Americans like in their 20s and 30s growing up they're going to feel a little bit more community even though they're becoming more Americanized like it is true that the most community you feel is probably amongst immigrants because they literally by language and culture need each other because they don't they're not assimilated they almost just that's the only other person that can realistically have a in-depth ping yeah so I think it's it's true that if we don't even need each other at the immigrant level what makes you think that at the Americanized level will lead each other but I think Chinese Americans who are Americanized are going to be nicer possibly and still like feel some type of camaraderie although it's not it's not like I need you as bad because I can operate in America you know what I mean right so I think that it I guess what I'll say is that what's going to be interesting is seeing how like Chinese Americans if they're able to blend or incorporate and team up with Chinese immigrants and come back to working with Chinese immigrants or international students or whatever that may be right right so I think that's gonna be interesting but I don't know I would say this you know being Chinese is really interesting because if you're looking for some sort of like possibly ethno religious sort of camaraderie Andrew like for example this poster Andrew he references Jewish Americans and Indian Americans you know they have to have like crazy dance parties together like that and they're doing like traditional dances together like you know touching each other just being very lively being Chinese is the opposite of that yeah there is no celebration when you're with each other it is the opposite of what you're thinking of if you're thinking of whatever like a certain maybe and maybe even in Indians it's still very like sect based right like a cast based like literally I don't know you are I have no idea what a Chinese dance circle looks like like I've seen old people dance but in formation and then I've seen couples dance like do the Waltz but I've never seen like a Chinese joyful dance circle that does not exist right right I mean I guess one thing I realized in this life man is like you can't really control the breed of dog that you're born as and that you're immediately like you know how like a breed of dog is like probably like put into that community originally you cannot control it right and I think that being Chinese is something that's like particularly difficult to understand it's hyper complicated it's layered it's actually like very hard to define because it's had a really crazy history built up wiped built up wiped built up wiped it's not like another country that actually has it's like China's got the longest history but it's a very convoluted history and I think that that leads to what this guy is saying you know I mean I think it was interesting what this guy talked about like absolutism and legalism throughout the dynasties and stuff like that but you know I just say this it's just something that's difficult to do but it just is what it is right I mean I don't know how can people change it yeah I don't know I just finds a common ground man that's it that's all I can say is not I don't I don't know if it's going to unite under hating on China so I don't know if that's going to be the answer but because even that even people within the Chinese community are are divided on food man food I guess eat all the different regions of Chinese food and appreciate it but you know the funny thing is I was talking to this Japanese girl the other day who was raised in Japan and she was saying that she finds Chinese people to be really open minded to new cultures but it's possibly driven by the fact they don't really like their own culture that much yes where she was like Japanese people and she whereas my Korean friend was also there too they were like Japanese and Korean people they don't really like or they're not as curious or interested in other people's culture because they like their own culture so much yes so I guess it's just like the grass is always greener and it just like depends on your situation I always say you know you got to use aikido jiu jitsu judo because you can't really control your cards in life but you can control how you play him so anyway guys let us know what you think in the comments section below you know we know I don't really have like an answer to this but it was just a very interesting discussion tell me if you agree disagree until next time with the hop-hop boys be out peace