News flash: the rich are mobile, always have been.
Chinese are singled out by media because it plays on American whites' insecurity.
Chinese are singled out by media because it plays on American whites' insecurity.
1) The methods in which their parents attained their money. Most that I've met have been reticent to talk about the source of their parents wealth (as mentioned in the article).
A lot are speculated to have been involved in widescale corruption and theft of the country's wealth - this should really irritate you (I'm making the assumption that you're an overseas Chinese here, apologies if not)
2) Their spending behaviour is seen as nouveau-riche and trashy. Furthermore, they don't conform to the west's idea of "civilized" behaviour. This can be seen in the thousands of videos of mainland chinese tourists available on youtube. Whether the west is right or wrong, this sort of cultural difference is undoubtedly something worth talking about in the media, wouldn't you say?
3) Most of these kids never had any siblings or decent caregivers growing up to help them develop any kind of emotional intelligence, so they develop into "little emperors".
Often, their parents enable these kind of behaviours, like in the example of Xu Yichun - the kid who caused a death and several serious injuries with reckless driving - his parents immediately paid his $2 million bail and tried to get him out of the country.
4) A lot of them make absolutely no attempt to integrate. Whether you consider this a negative depends on your perspective, but it definitely does irritate a lot of people. I've met Chinese masters' students at top 3 universities who can't string together a coherent written or spoken sentence.
I'm aware some of these things are not specifically Chinese, but suggesting they're actively singled out is untrue. Anyone who's spent a lot of time among chinese international students in the US or UK must see at least some aspect of these issues.
Edit: I'm referring to the idea frequently spoken by Trump supporters, that somehow wealth created in a given country must be kept in that country. It's nonsense. Wealth (tied to individuals anyway) should be as free to move as those individuals. It isn't tied to any given country or state therefore they have no sway in what happens to it or what it's used for beyond the obvious legalities such as importing contraband, smuggling, that sort of thing.
2) Relativistic standards in different places. This is Xenophobia at it's finest. "You didn't spend your money like I would, therefore you are dumb/scary/silly/stupid."
3) As if any parent in the West wouldn't try to do the same damn thing for their kid if they got in trouble in a foreign country. Hell I've seen parents defending their children in courtrooms in the same country. It's a lot harder to condemn your own offspring to jail time than most people think.
4) Who cares? It's not your money, they're paying stupid tax to send their children to universities they can't complete and possibly spending enough of it to get some stupid piece of paper telling them how smart their kids are. Not going to help them when mom and dad are gone.
This whole article and topic reeks of people who haven't heard the phrase "mind your own business" enough.
If there are loopholes, they will be exploited. The solution is to fix the damn loopholes.
If they bring ambition, ideas and pay taxes, who cares? That is just my opinion, of course.
1) America has always had a fascination for the new rich. Rags to riches is the old story. In pop culture, there are entire romance book series about new rich Americans going back to England to find titled husbands for the young ladies, and then on the "modern" side, entire series about romance with billionaires. Americans love thinking about new money, regardless of who's got it. Look at other NYTimes stories about Russians and real estate in New York.
2) Chinese students (and their money) are having a real impact in American higher ed, and a lot of people are exposed to that. Foreign students are an important revenue stream, and Chinese students simply outnumber Swedes, Germans, South Africans, Saudis, etc. And when your students drive Mercedes-Benz SUVs while you are climbing into your used 2008 vehicle, you do eventually notice. (It took me 3 years to notice but I finally did figure out 28 of my students are richer than I am at half the age!)
3) Last is the insecurity. White Americans are particularly insecure because they are failing calculus because they can't add fractions while the (Chinese) kid next to them is driving a car worth the entire year's tuition payment, and can add fractions with ease. That is intimidating. Things weren't supposed to be this way! Being well-off, white, and American is supposed to be a free pass to a good future! That's why the ancestors of well-off white Americans worked toward all three goals (make money, get to America, be declared white).
You can't be serious. American history did not start in 1980. The vast majority of the US population throughout its history has been European-descended.
Maybe all non-European immigrants were only brought in as workers (and also slaves), so your argument may be right.
Let me rephrase then: The US has always been an immigration destination, so it's interesting that some immigrants are seen as different enough to be singled out. Spanish-speaking immigrants and Chinese arrived in US america much earlier than the famous NY around the turn of 20th century ships from Europe with Italians, Germans, Irish, Russians did.
I don't have numbers to cite, so I'll stop arguing more :).
I don't either, but you did say "Caucasian-looking"...
A mass migration from any foreign culture (that is, highly different from the host culture) would be treated with alarm by the locals anywhere, in any country. It's not a phenomenon specific to the US. The US just happens to provide a particular historical instance of it. Vancouver seems to be providing us another.