The Story of a Chinese-American Immigrant in the United States

Viktoriia Zakharova ’24

Spring 2021

Shu Yi Chen is a 19-year-old Chinese-American who immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was three years old. However, when she turned five, she was sent back to China to learn Chinese with her extended family. Three years later, she returned and stayed there permanently, only visiting China for short periods. Shu’s father came to the States first. In China, he worked for the central government. Shu’s mother was a nurse. Shu’s dad got an offer from his friend to move to the States to work in his restaurant chain. Due to financial struggles, Shu’s father decided to accept the offer: “So they thought they come here, they would quickly establish themselves, they would earn a lot of money, they would be able to pay back financial things we had in China and then, you know, buy a house, get a car and all of that. So that was definitely different from expectation.”

The American Dream truly can create high expectations of immediate financial prosperity for migrants. Sadly, those expectations rarely get fulfilled soon. Shu’s family wasn’t an exception. The first couple years of settling were the toughest: living in a big house with other Chinese families working for the same restaurant, only having one room for a family, and feeling a constant fear of migration services was something completely different from what little Shu used to know as home. “I always felt like the house itself was its own unit separate from everyone else in the neighborhood. And that was very different from where I lived in China, where we lived on the seventh floor. I think there were many worries when I was living in the U.S. There was a constant fear among the people living in the house that they might get caught. And then also, I think because when I was younger, my parents had to work more. So I had to stay in the house by myself often. Whenever someone knocked on the front door when I was in China, I’m excited, you know? Someone was coming over. In the American house when I first came, it’s always fear. Is it the police?” – despite her own family staying in the U.S. legally, a lot of families in Shu’s house were undocumented, so the fear of police took over little Shu as well.

Years passed, after moving around a little, the Chen family settled in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They now own a restaurant in the same restaurant chain. The Midwest suburbia feels different than the perceptions Chinese people usually have of the U.S.: “It’s definitely once you hit it here you’re like: “This is different from N.Y., like New York City and Chicago.”” Shu is now an American citizen. However, she still doesn’t feel neither “fully American” nor “fully Chinese” after going back and forth between both: “If the U.S. doesn’t feel like home, does China feel like home. And if it doesn’t, where is home?”. However, visiting both China and the U.S. helped Shu see each country differently from what countries’ citizens would see them.

Unfortunately, growing up, Shu did not escape racism in her social settings: “I remember the first situation I encountered in the U.S. that was kind of like microaggression was about the name. Everybody thinks your Chinese name always ends with something like Ching or Chong. People think that the Chinese are less sophisticated. And another thing is Americans have this perception that Chinese people eat weird things. Like we eat dogs and frogs.” She has also felt like her race, legal status, financial situation, and appearance always played a significant role in her social integration.

Now Shu Yi is a college student aiming for a biology degree and getting into a med school. She still acknowledges racial and gender barriers existing in the U.S. but is hopeful about her future and more confident about her self-image and role in society now: “I spent most of my life in the U.S., almost all my friends are here, my parents and my brother are here. I feel connected to this place, even though it is not the best in the world, there are a lot of problems, but I sense that I can dedicate myself to making the U.S. a better place.”

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