Mexicans in China - The New 'Model Minority'?
New America Media, Commentary, Miguel A. Diaz, Posted: Oct 18, 2007
Editor’s Note: A Mexican American goes to China and finds himself free from stereotypes of poor illegal immigrants who cannot speak English. Coming back to the United States is a rude awakening. Miguel A. Diaz is a graduate of the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. He is living in China and working on a book titled “Unbecoming American.” He can be reached at dmigueld@gmail.com.
I’ll be honest with you: it’s going to take something exceptional to keep me in the United States. No, I’m not talking about a general amnesty. I’m not an illegal immigrant. Never was.
Allow me to explain. I lived and worked in Shanghai, China for several years. No, I’m not a Communist either. In fact, I cherish democracy, freedom and equality as much as any other patriotic U.S. citizen. And I would never give up my U.S. passport.
The funny thing is, I didn’t feel truly free until I lived in China, a closed authoritarian country. Oh how sweet freedom is!
I worked as a teacher in China, where I was seen with different eyes than in the United States. Everywhere I went, I received kind treatment, from shops to jobs to restaurants to bars. I was rich; I was educated; I was handsome. Women loved my eyelashes and my nose. Often I was confused for Italian or French. I’d smile and correct them: I’m Mexican American, while going on to explain that the United States is a land of immigrants – a fact the Chinese are very aware of.
In China I felt especially safe because someone else did all the dirty work. All the Mexicans and Mexican Americans I met were educated and bilingual. Could we be the new “model minority” – in China of all places?
It’s not that the Chinese are more “enlightened” than Americans concerning race and culture—they have plenty of issues with other Asian cultures. What made my life in China so enjoyable was their mistaken belief that all Westerners were wealthy. I suppose that, to them, I was just another exotic big-nose with lots of money. I was reminded of this when I recounted to Hispanics in Los Angeles that Mexicans don’t do the dirty work in China.
I lived another life in China. One night, for example, a small group of sailors were sitting at a coffee bar in Shanghai. I overheard them speaking Spanish so I started talking to them. They said they were the commanding officers of the Mexican navy’s tall ship the Cuauhtemoc, which had docked in Shanghai on a worldwide friendship tour. They gave me a poster of the ship.
Another night, near a street lined with seedy bars, I met a group of musicians. They belonged to a visiting orchestra from Vienna, Austria. One man, a violinist, and a soloist at that, was from Mexico. He talked about his hometown and asked a lot of questions about China.
And on a plane flight, a young Mexican man told me about his family’s shoe factory in Mexico. He was on his way home after meeting his Hong Kong broker and visiting a shoe factory in Guangdong, China. He proudly showed me his college class ring.
Other Mexicans and Mexican Americans I met who lived in China (and were not just visiting) were also educated: business people, artists and teachers. They carried passports and designer suitcases. They were well spoken and confident.
I have returned to the United States since. And quite frankly, I don’t want to be here anymore. For one, it’s turning increasingly undemocratic: “You’re either with us or you’re against us.”
Mainly, though, I have come to loathe how this country looks at me and makes me feel –feelings I thought I had permanently laid to rest returned from the grave as soon as I got off the plane at LAX.
I am no longer confused for Italian or French. No, here I am just Mexican. And to be Mexican in the United States comes with serious consequences. I am poor. I don’t speak English. I’m ugly. I’m illegal!
I have tried everything to gain acceptance. I learned English, wore surfer t-shirts, graduated from college, became a U.S. citizen and voted. But nothing I do is ever good enough.
In China, whenever I said to a Chinese woman in Spanish, “Your hair is beautiful. I love your soft skin,” my Spanish was met with a lovely smile and a compliment. In the United States I am harshly told, “Speak English!”
Here I am the doe-eyed man on CNN sneaking across the U.S. border with black trash bags for luggage. I am the little girl in a Los Angeles classroom with bad breath and a painful cavity. I am the short, plump woman selling flowers in a sushi restaurant. I am the day laborer loitering outside the hardware store.
Waiters at Chinese restaurants aren’t even nice to me here!
I was at the post office sending query letters to New York literary agencies one day. Suddenly, before I had a chance to react, a confused and disheveled Mexican-Indian lady asked, “Do you speak Spanish?” It was like looking in a mirror.
I hate seeing myself like this. And more than that – I hate being seen like this.
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User Comments
daisy on Nov 07, 2007 at 09:33:00 said:
personally,i like the article because it is so keen to show the conflict to be a minority. In the United States, the man mentioned in the article is a minority.when he lives china, he is a minority too.as a minority, the man is treated comparatively good or comparatively bad. and because of a minority, he has to do something. In America, he integrates himself by learning English, obtaining a degree, and so on.In China, maybe he has to be a real wealthy westerner.while reading,I was confused about a question. Is it good or bad to be a minority or to be treated as a minority? the question itself seems nonsense. however, if it becomes that when i am a minority or to be treated as a minority, what i should do, the question may be sensible.
guest on Nov 01, 2007 at 14:50:29 said:
To Johnny.. how exactly is MEcha a tan clan hating group?? have u ever attended one of their meetings?? Have u ever sat down and actually talked to them?? by the expressions in ur comment i think not..
My experince has been different.. And they are not what u say they are..
Although ur entitled to post ur opinion i think it would best if u didnt post such ignorant remarks....
as for Miguel.. i understand what is like to stigmatize in this country just beacuse u are Hispanic.. If u feel happy living in China then just go for it.
LATIN WOMAN on Oct 30, 2007 at 08:27:43 said:
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!! WOW!! WOW! EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY...TO COMMENT...TO CONTRIBUTE...HMMM...AND THATS FINE...EVERYONE IS ENTITTLED!! BUT PEOPLES...REALLY >> LET EACH INDIVIDUAL LIVE HIS/HER LIFE THEY WAY THEY PLEASE; SO AS LONG AS NOONE IS GETTING HURT IN THE PROCESS...LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST! YOU FEEL BETTER IN CHINA?!! THEN BY ALL MEANS, GO TO CHINA...YOU FEEL GOOD HERE IN THE USA...THEN PLEASE, STAY HERE! IS YOUR PERSONAL CHOICE. YOU HAVE THE LAST WORD. IS NICE TO GET ADVICE..AND AS A SMART INDIVIDUAL YOU WILL LISTEN, CONSIDER...BUT THE FINAL ANSWER/WORD IS ULTIMATELY YOUR OWN!!
chinaman on Oct 29, 2007 at 09:36:41 said:
Harris Beg, you are more than ignorant if you think Chinese minorities are discriminated against because of their dark skin colour. I like how you don\\\'t talk about how those dark skinned HKers look down on paler/equally dark mainlanders? Or how we see Africans as hard working but whites as drugged up tourists.
But then I guess you\\\'re one of those people who\\\'ve only read the recent glut of one page articles about China and decided to dub yourself an old china hand.
Haris Beg on Oct 26, 2007 at 19:28:20 said:
What a riciculous article! Miguel obviously is a 'white-skinned' Hispanic American with European looks. That combined with a US passport makes most Caucasian male Americans irresistibe to many Chinese women. I have seen middle-aged and older Americans going out with multiple girls on the very day they arrive in China.
Miguel seems to have experienced a very narrow sliver of life in China from his privileged position. No wonder everything looks rosy to him there. Had his skin color been darker, his experience may have been different. The Han Chinese don't look very favorably at darker-skinned minorities (Tibetans, for example) even in their own country.
Yoyi on Oct 26, 2007 at 13:08:16 said:
Hi Miguel. I know how you feel. I've gotten the same treatment in Los Angeles from Mexican because I'm Cuban that you got from Anglos because you're Mexican. Thankfully, after 43 years of living in Los Angeles under Mexican suppression, I've moved out of Los Angeles and live in an Anglo community. I'm very happy there because I'm treated as a person, not an ethnic background. My suggestion to you, move out of Los Angeles. (By the way, I am a personal friend of Miguel and know where he's comming from. I'm here to tell you that he IS a good person and means no harm to China or the US).
Stefan Bergsmann on Oct 26, 2007 at 05:41:58 said:
I have never been to China, Miguel. And I am also not part of a Minority that is seen as you describe.
Nevertheless, let me contribute an experience of mine: in 1992 or so I have been in New York for the first time. And while I was walking in the street and looking a this huge buildings, a woman stopped and asked me, where the next post office was. I was totally buffled because for me it must have been obvious to everybody that I was a foreigner coming from some small corner of Europe. But then I realized the diversity there around me. And I realized that - looking European, I was not seen as a foreigner here. Quite different to my home, Austria and to Europe in general, where I am easily identified as somebody not from here as soon as I go to a different province, region or country only a few kilometers from home. Well, at this moment, when the lady asked me for the next post office, I felt really free for the first time.
What I want to say: I understand your point, and I fully agree that something has to be done against this stereotyping. But, in my view, it would not be the right way to avoid them just by going somewhere else, where people approach you with positive stereotypes instead of negative ones. What China is for you, the US might be for someone else. So we all have to work on "our" stereotypes in our environment. And this is exactly what you do with this article - which is the reason, why I like it.
Johnny on Oct 26, 2007 at 04:54:33 said:
I have lived in China, too, and my strong impression is that, frankly, the Chinese would loathe and despise the brown mestizo Mexicans that crowd the US and clamor for handouts. Certainly, blacks are not particularly welcome in China. The article is loaded with hints that the author springs from the class of white Mexican elites -- he wants us to know he appears "Italian or French" -- of the Vicente Fox variety. And his braggadocio about "scoring" with Chinese women is, as stated above, creepy and in poor taste.
While he whines like a Raza (Race) crybaby, his mewling would probably not get him invited to the upper tiers of one of the tan clan hate groups such as MECHA.
Mr. G on Oct 22, 2007 at 06:44:03 said:
To GUEST: You are obviously a self-righteous foreigner somewhere in China with the audacity to take the liberty to quantify the respective dignity of people—how dare you! To say that the slaving of migrant workers from Anhui is far worse than the slaving of the illegals in the USA is insolent beyond belief! Furthermore, your claim that migrant workers in the USA live with dignity and respect is just outrageous. Also, Chinese people happen to be more intelligent and more complicated that you think. They really DO know how you treat your blacks and your Mexicans. Chinese people who have been over there have returned with horror stories about how they were treated themselves. The reason they seem so clueless to you is because they enjoy listening to you blabber on about how great your country is. So don’t go on pretending like the USA is some paradise.
You really do seem to have very little respect for the intelligence and dignity of Chinese people, because as poor as some of them may be—they prefer to stay in China and the last thing they want is a green card from Mr. Diaz. You probably don’t know this because you probably don’t have any Chinese friends and I wouldn’t doubt that you spend most of your time at bars with other expats complaining about the Chinese.
Finally, concerning your comment, “…here they are completely clueless about this, and cannot distinguish between Nationality and Ethnicity.”
Mr. Diaz did say that he has a US Passport, which would make him a NATIONAL of the USA. Why then must people in that country continue to treat him the ways he says they do simply because of the color of his skin? Maybe Americans are the ones who don’t understand the difference between Nationality and Ethnicity. Or maybe you'll say that Mr. Diaz doesn't really feel the way he does.
Mr. G on Oct 22, 2007 at 06:28:09 said:
To GUEST: You are obviously a self-righteous foreigner somewhere in China with the audacity to take the liberty to quantify the respective dignity of people—how dare you! To say that the slaving of migrant workers from Anhui is far worse than the slaving of the illegals in the USA is insolent beyond belief! Furthermore, your claim that migrant workers in the USA live with dignity and respect is just outrageous. Also, Chinese people happen to be more intelligent and more complicated that you think. They really DO know how you treat your blacks and your Mexicans. Chinese people who have been over there have returned with horror stories about how they were treated themselves. The reason they seem so clueless to you is because they enjoy listening to you blabber on about how great your country is. So don’t go on pretending like the USA is some paradise.
You really do seem to have very little respect for the intelligence and dignity of Chinese people, because as poor as some of them may be—they prefer to stay in China and the last thing they want is a green card from Mr. Diaz. You probably don’t know this because you probably don’t have any Chinese friends and I wouldn’t doubt that you spend most of your time at bars with other expats complaining about the Chinese.
Finally, concerning your comment, “…here they are completely clueless about this, and cannot distinguish between Nationality and Ethnicity.”
Mr. Diaz did say that he has a US Passport, which would make him a NATIONAL of the USA. Why then must people in that country continue to treat him the ways he says they do simply because of the color of his skin? Maybe Americans are the ones who don’t understand the difference between Nationality and Ethnicity. Or maybe you'll say that Mr. Diaz doesn't really feel the way he does.
Pete on Oct 22, 2007 at 02:30:31 said:
Mr. Diaz is a an honest gentleman who calls them as they are. I am most honored to call
him my friend. If you disagree with him then that is your right to do so. I assure you Mr. Diaz has faced many hardships that he should not have only because he is not a wonder breaded, peanut butter; apple pie eating all American boy next door.
Karl Der Grosser on Oct 21, 2007 at 21:32:15 said:
Drop the Mexican Indian label. Indians are not native people from Mexico. Intelligent and educated journalists, writers, etc. in Latin American refer to natives of the Americas as Indigenous. Let us not continue with the ignorance of Christopher Columbus. And as for the Italian American who commented, your people migrated to the Americas in the millions to flee oppression and poverty and to find a better life in the early part of the 20th century. I am quite sure that all your people didn\\\'t come legally.
Carlos De Leon on Oct 21, 2007 at 13:15:32 said:
Mr. Diaz,
I know exactly how you feel. My parents came here from Central America, and I am a law school graduate. I earned my law degree via the GI Bill. I lived in Germany for two years when I was in the service and I never felt discriminated until I landed back on these shores two years later. I am now a practicing attorney and make a good income, but despite that I never feel treated here with respect and bonhommie like I do when I travel to Europe or Latin America. Do not let anyone dissuade you from expressing what you feel, your experience has been a mirror image of my own.
guest on Oct 21, 2007 at 11:08:33 said:
Your pick-up line “Your hair is beautiful. I love your soft skin,” is just creepy, and it's only met favorably in China because they have no idea what you're saying, or they just want a green card, which is probably only ironic to you, but they couldn't care less.
A few more questions to consider -- is China communist? Are you just another foreigner here getting away with whatever you consider freedom, because it's an homogenized society and you're a curiosity and living in an expat bubble? (The girls here just assume your bad pick-up lines are normal and polite in your country!) Do you enjoy seeing millions of migrant workers from Anhui slaving away in conditions far worse and more demeaning than that of Mexican immigrants to the USA? (That fat Mexican woman selling flowers at your sushi restaurant is living a WAY better life, and with much more dignity and respect than the migrant workers here in China!)
I'd also question your belief that the Chinese know that the "United States is a land of immigrants" -- in my years of experience here they are completely clueless about this, and cannot distinguish between Nationality and Ethnicity. Which -- is part of the reason you're having such a dandy time here, frankly.
Pope on Oct 21, 2007 at 04:09:28 said:
To J Cir and John Creasy: Is it a crime to seek a better life? If you lived in a place of little hope and prosperity would you not also seek to go to places where opportunities abound. Our founding fathers started a country of open doors. It appears you two would like to see those doors bricked over. Illegal immigration is only illegal because we pass laws labeling it such, but will those laws ever be able to change the reality, which is that honest people will break those laws if it means a better life for their families and their children. Apart from all of that, you two gentleman totally avoid Mr. Diaz's main assertion which is that he as a Mexican American feels discriminated against or at least prejudged because of his ancestry. Who are you two to tell him that he doesn't feel the way he says he feels. And who are you two to suggest that those feelings aren't valid neither of you being of his ancestry. I grew up in Fresno California, and in my time I have heard many of my fellow gringo's make terribly racist comments about the people who I say bring a special and unique cultural identity to our state, an identity and culture we should value, not deride. And by the way communist china is hardly communist. Come over an visit us some time. I think you would like this place J Cir, tax dollars never go to the poor, and capitalists are free to hord all thier earnings to themselves. In fact there really isn't much of a real income tax at all so you would be really happy knowing that none your tax dollars were going to Miguel and the other American Mexicans we have here.
J Cir on Oct 19, 2007 at 14:01:10 said:
Communist China for the democratic US? Have a great time, Mr. Diaz. I have doubts about the level of hardship you face in the US because of your skin color or possible accent. Perhaps you’re exposed to collateral indictment by overhearing American citizens rightly lamenting the injurious impacts to US schools, hospitals, housing markets, prisons, and government budgets from millions of illegal immigrants, most of whom are unquestionably Mexican. Perhaps you’re plagued from association by guilt, as opposed to guilt by association. I’m an American of Italian background, and believe me, if 12 to 20 million Italians had entered the US over the last 20 years, I would be just as incensed at their presence as I am to the current crop of illegals. Who are you allied with, Mr. Diaz? The sovereignty of the US and its citizens or illegal immigrants who sense of entitlement and disregard for the welfare of America seems to have no bounds?
One more thought. In 50 years perhaps, when the eventual Hispanic majority in the US (many of whom who initially entered the US illegally) are in power and have to contend with the next massive tidal wave of illegal immigrants, maybe from Africa or Southeast Asia, it will be fascinating to see how compassionate and accommodating and welcoming the US Hispanic power brokers will be. They will hopefully put their money were their mouths are and ignore the language disparities, conflicting cultures, burdens on schools and health care, arrogant demands on entitlements and for citizenship, and competition for prison space, all at taxpayer expense, of course.
Bon voyage, Mr. Diaz.
John Creasy on Oct 19, 2007 at 11:20:06 said:
What Miguel fails to understand is that, in China, mexicans/hispanics aren\'t threatening Chinese culture with their population and language, destroying their borders, running amok on their highways killing people, stealing identities, defrauding the system at large etc.,as they are doing here in the U.S. I guarantee that if they were doing those things in China that they would be met with even more severe consequences than they are currently facing here in the U.S.
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