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The opening images for this chapter depict objects symbolic of items used to maintain, protect, and restore HEALTH and a traditional place for HEALING that people in the Asian American communities may adhere to. Figure 10–1 is a “1,000-year egg” that is imported from China. The eggs are brought to the United States in large vats and sold in many Asian grocery stores and pharma- cies. They are wrapped either in straw or in a carbon-like substance and are solidified over time. The eggs are eaten daily in rice, seen as a source of vitamins and minerals, and are a part of a HEALTH maintenance practice. Figure 10–2 is a small bracelet with jade charms and is placed on a baby for HEALTH protec- tion. Figure 10–3 is a ginseng root. This root is known to be a HEALTH restor- ative and used to treat countless maladies. Figure 10–4 is the Byodo-In Temple in Kahaluu, Hawaii that was built in the 1960s to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii who came to work in the sugar plantation fields. It is a replica of the 1,000-year-old Byodo-In Temple located in Uji, Japan on the southern outskirts of Kyoto. It is a non-denominational Buddhist temple located in the Valley of the Temples cemetery and is a place for meditation and prayer and to seek solace.
■ Background More than 14.7 million people constitute the Asian communities and are the United States’ third largest emerging majority group (Humes, Nicholas, & Ramirez, 2011). This number represents 4.8% of the total population, one that has grown 43.3% since the 2000 census—from 10.2 million to 14.6 million people. The term Asian refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent (for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam). The Asian groups are not limited to nation- alities but are characterized by their diversity: More than 30 different languages are spoken and there is a similar number of cultures (Martin, 1995) and many different religions, including, but not limited to, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism. Over half of all people who reported Asian lived in just 3 states: Hawaii, California, and Washington. The cities with the largest Asian populations are New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, and Honolulu (Barnes & Bennett, 2002, pp. 1–3, 7).
In 2010, there were a total of 1,042,635 Legal Permanent Residents (LPR) in the United States, 46% of whom were new arrivals. People from Asia comprised 40.5% of this population. The nations that the Asian LPRs were from included the People’s Republic of China (6.8%), India (6.6%), the Philippines (5.6%), Vietnam (2.9%), and South Korea (2.1%). California, New York, Florida, and Texas had the largest populations of LPRs (Homeland Secu- rity, 2011a). There were 619,913 people who naturalized—became citizens of the United States in 2010. Of this number, 40.6% were born in Asia, 9.9% were from
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India, 5.7% from the Philippines, 5.5% from the People’s Republic of China, and 3.1% from Vietnam. Close to half of the nation’s naturalized Asian citizens lived in the metropolitan areas of New York, Los Angeles, or Miami. The me- dian number of years that the people were LPRs was 5 (Homeland Security, 2011b).
This chapter focuses on the traditional HEALTH and ILLNESS beliefs and practices of the Chinese and Indian Americans because the HEALTH and ILLNESS beliefs and practices of many of the other Asians and Pacific Islanders are derived in part from the Chinese and Ayurvedic HEALTH traditions.
Chinese immigration to the United States began over 150 years ago. In 1850, there were only 1,000 Chinese inhabitants in this country; in 1880, there were well over 100,000. This rapid increase occurred in part because of the dis- covery of gold in California and in part because of the need for cheap labor to build the transcontinental railroads. The immigrants were laborers who met the needs of the dominant society. Like many early immigrant groups, they came here intending only to stay as temporary workers. Most of the immigrants were men, and they clung closely to their customs and beliefs and stayed together in their own communities. The hopes that many had for a better life when they came to the United States did not materialize. Subsequently, many of the work- ers and their kin returned to China before 1930. Part of the disharmony and disenchantment occurred because these immigrants were not White and did not have the same culture and habits as Whites. For these reasons, they were not welcomed, and many jobs were not open to them. For example, Chinese immi- grant workers were excluded from many mining, construction, and other hard- labor jobs, even though the transcontinental railroad was constructed mainly by Chinese laborers. Between 1880 and 1930, the Chinese population declined by nearly 20%. One factor that helped perpetuate this decline in population was a series of exclusion acts halting further immigration. The people who remained behind were relegated to menial jobs, such as cooking and dishwashing. The Chinese workers first took these jobs in the West and later moved eastward throughout the United States. They tended to move to cities where they were allowed to let their entrepreneurial talents surface—their main pursuits included running small laundries, food shops, and restaurants.
The people settled in tightly knit groups in urban neighborhoods that took the name “Chinatown.” Here they were able to maintain the ancient tradi- tions of their homeland. They were hard workers and, in spite of the dull, menial jobs usually available to them, they were able to survive.
Both U.S. immigration laws and political problems in China have had an effect on the nature of today’s Chinese population. When the exclusion acts were passed, many men were left alone in this country without the possibility that their families would join them. For this reason, a great majority of the men spent many years alone. In addition, the political oppression experienced by the Chinese in the United States was compounded—at a time when im- migration laws were relaxed here after World War II, people were unable to return to or leave China because of that country’s restrictive new regulations.