Frustrated by the lack of Chinese American solidarity

Every other minority group goes out of their way to bring up others of their background. Jewish, Black American, and even Korean Americans are well known to have time and again gone out on a limb to bring their people up the corporate ladder. It's only with Chinese analysts I feel like where instead of helping each other, they'd always rather compete and backstab one another. Have talked to multiple Chinese Americans in the industry, and all agree with the same sentiment that the Chinese community is splintered and unforgiving. Why is it that we don't have the same sense of community as even other asian minority groups? 

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definitely. people from HK/taiwan/singapore are some of the most self hating people ive met. they can learn a thing or two from korea/japan

 

Korea and Japan could learn a thing or two from Korea or Japan.

Civilisational level crises unfolding over there and its not even close to peaking.

 

prolly a combo of there being so many of us + parents making us think of eachother as competition over community growing up. prolly is why indian americans also dont go to bat for eachother despite there being so many of them as well

 
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idk i have family friends in tech who say indians pulling each other up is extremely high, even compared to smaller ethnic groups

 

Indians go to bat plenty for each other, even outside of corporate settings. Can't say the same for Chinese unfortunately. 

 

I have heard someone say though that sometimes they try to bring in caste dynamics even when they're in the US

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

Isn't this the point of assimilation/melting pot though?

>not american

 

The thing with America is that it's less of a melting pot and more of a salad. People will always want to help out those similar to them. Even in the context of banking recruiting, sure, even if someone doesn't go out of their way to help you because you're both of the same ethnic background, how many times was it because you guys liked the same sports team, came from the same region, liked the same hobbies. 

Assimilation is only truly assimilation for people that can seamlessly blend into the majority (i.e. Irish and Italian immigrants), otherwise, those differences are always noticeable for obvious reasons. 

 

Good point. Again, I'm not American and live in a country that doesn't really push assimilation. That being said its never really occurred to me to not reach out to someone because of their race or even nationality. Like I've reached out to Germans, Singaporeans, Chinese, etc, some who grew up in my country, many who did not...

Maybe its a hedge fund thing, given people recognise that genuine interest and obsession with markets, and it's a real interest overlap vs IB or something...

Anyway, yeah, I mean the points on sports teams and growing up in the same region do resonate, though. 

 

Do you have any actual evidence that Korean Americans (or anyone else) "go out on a limb" for people from a similar ethnic background?

China is also an interesting case, in that anyone from mainland China (and not Chinese American) might be subject to the vast pseudo-state China is running in most other countries, and thus it may not be fully appropriate to equate Chinese analysts with Chinese American analysts

 

Because in the West, China (mostly CPP though) is seen as extremely bad thanks to years of propaganda and brainwashing, so there is no pride or flare. Also if you look at the history, the Chinese is always fighting within themselves and resulting in huge migration to Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Phillipines and Indonesia, so it's baked in the DNA.

 

I lived in China for a few months and it seems to be in their culture. There used to be a saying that there was a company in China and a company in Japan competing against each other. The Chinese valued individual accomplishments and got far, but the Japanese valued teamwork and their synergistic accomplishments far exceeded the Chinese. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I thought this would be easy to answer but it’s hard. 

My guess is there are more Asian Americans today in white collar jobs than ever before, especially in “up or out” type of work environments.  This competition creates a me first mentality.  



And what it is to be Chinese American comes with very different histories, as there’s been so many waves of immigration from China over hundreds of years (into other countries and then to US), that one’s identity might be more aligned to other things such as school or hometown.  This is an observation, and others can feel different.  
 
 
Check out the Committee of 100 as a professional development org.  They have good events.  

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There are probably a lot of reasons: China is a diverse place with multiple different ethnicities and languages/dialects. Like others have said, different waves of immigration and fixed pie mentality could also be reasons.

However, I don’t think these should be excuses. Clearly this post and the comments recognize this as a problem and everyone believing this creates a coordination failure, where nobody is willing to help another because they think it’s pointless/harmful to themselves. I think that’s why you have to be the first to extend the offer to help to break the cycle - the world is filled with much more good people than bad. Happy to discuss with others on the topic and network/build a community. Just PM me

 

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