Immigrating from China

In discussing the immigration history of my ancestors, I do not have to look too far back. My father came to the United States from China in 1980, and his journey is quite an interesting story. Throughout my father’s childhood, the Communist Chinese government had interfered in his life, all occurring during the Cultural Revolution. I do not know the specifics, but his family consisted of landlords and they were at one point considered wealthy. This could not be tolerated and the land and property was taken away from my family. My father’s father and brother were brainwashed, tortured, and killed by communism. When my father was younger, his father told him that the only way to succeed and leave China was to study hard and be the best. So from an early age, my father spent all of his time studying. He entered Beijing University at the age of 16. All though he was at the top of his class, he was continually ostracized because of his family’s stance against the communist government. After finalizing his medical studies at the university, he was required to take a national test on his knowledge. His top scores qualified him to continue his studies in the United States, at the expense of the government. The plan was to send him to the hospital/university at Harvard, and he would return to China to be one of the first to perform the newly learned coronary bypass surgery.

So, he had no problems coming to the U.S., as the plan was to study here and then return. While in the U.S., my father had to consistently report back to a group which would watch him while he continued his studies. After his long and horrible history with the Chinese government, my father never planned on returning to China. Even though his journey to the U.S. was easy, the process to defect and stay was quite difficult. It took many months, lawyers, and expenses in order for my father to earn his freedom from the communist suppression.

I found an article, entitled Coming to America: The Story of Chinese Immigrants, which correlates with my father’s history. The article discusses the history of Chinese immigration to the U.S. In the early 1980s, the same time period my father came to the U.S., the number of Chinese students coming to the U.S. to study had skyrocketed. Also during this time period, “the Chinese government promised jobs in China to all students it sent to study in the U.S. and who received degrees from U.S. universities”. This is the same situation my father was in. Even though the promise sounds positive, from what my father tells me, it was not at all. The article also talks about a woman named Joyce Zhao, an English professor while in China, had limited choices in place of residence and where she taught. Even though the government had promised jobs and to some extent life security, these career choices and advancements were very restricted. Zhao had come to the U.S. in seek for more challenges and independence.

http://uschina.usc.edu/ShowFeature.aspx?articleID=890&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1