The history of Chinese in Silicon Valley

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The History of Chinese In Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is an industrial park in the southern coasts of San Francisco Bay in California, United States of America, and Palo Alto is its intellectual center. It does not have a border and the government structure. Before rebranding it to Silicon Valley, it was initially called the “Valley of the Heart’s Delight.” It encompasses the southern bay area and northwestern Santa Clara county. This name resulted from the high concentration of computers and electronic firms that grew up in the region from the mid-20th century (Guzman and Stern 606). Due to the industrial revolution, Silicon Valley has shifted to research, computer products and software marketing, and development. However, this place is the home of high-tech companies such as CISCO system, Apple, IBM, Oracle, Intel, and HP. Silicon Valley is the valley that produces silicon chips. This valley is found in the USA, many miles away from China, which makes people wonder how did they come there in large numbers. The Chinese immigration into Silicon Valley started during the 1880s Silicon Rush. The first Chinese began to arrive in this region as early as the 1850s to provide backbreaking labor in the western frontier (Saxenian 188). They offered services such as building railroads and highways, mining, and fishing. Eventually, the Chinese were everywhere, from the north to the south. Since World War II, the Chinese were doing blue-collar jobs in Silicon Valley. As time goes by (between the 1940s and 1960s), they started doing the professional duties which were preserved for middle-class people in the region. Their contributions in the area made them emerge as the economic pillars of Asian society in Silicon Valley. In the early 1960s, the number of Chinese in the steadily increased.
The robust economic development that occurred between 1990 and 1995 attracted more Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. They migrated to the US in five waves. This immigration resulted in a high number of Chinese working in the high-tech industry all over Silicon Valley. The number of workforces from the Asian community kept on increasing, where the majority were the Chinese. According to the 1990 census data, 30% of the workers were from Asian countries,of which 10% were the Chinese. The Chinese immigrants who came to Silicon Valley during the tech-related wave in the 1950s were sponsored by high-tech companies such as IBM. In 1960, the defense industries required more workforce, which prompted the second wave of Chinese into Silicon Valley to work for this industry. Also, the third wave was a result of the immigration of graduate students from mainland China. These students moved to the US in 1970 because PRC became reluctant on the policies concerning studying in the US. The fourth wave to move to the Silicon Valley comprised the Chinese who were already in the US Mainland China, Taiwan, and other Chinese communities from the overseas. Finally, the fifty waves included the students from Mainland China who completed their graduate studies in the US and moved to Silicon Valley. This wave took place between 1990 and 2000. These graduate students came to Silicon Valley to search for employment. Besides, other students from Mainland China joined then through H-1B Visas ((Saxenian 190). The Chinese in Silicon Valley can fall under three categories related to the region they migrated from, that is, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.
Chinese came into Silicon Valley and adjusted quickly to fit the new environment that was unfamiliar to them. Currently, four categories of Chinese are living in California (Dossaniand Kumar 952). The first group encompasses the Chinese who acquired American citizenship through birth. This type has local roots in Northern California and San Francisco. There are also those students who came to study in the United States. In the process, they acquired permanent citizenship and migrated to Silicon Valley to search for employment opportunities. This category has resided in the United States since 1960, and they comprise students from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Most of them live in the Stanford area. The third category encompasses those Chinese who moved to California during the Silicon Rush. These included the Chinese engineers who hold advanced degrees who came into Silicon Valley to work in different sectors such as railway and highway construction. The majority of these are the secondary immigrants who migrated from other parts of the United States. Other groups of immigrants moved to the valley during the 1970s and after the 19th century. They came from the southeast part of Asia and various parts of the world. These are the fourth category of the Chinese who live and work in Silicon Valley. Currently, there is two leading Chinese ethnic groups in Silicon Valley. They include those who moved in from Mainland China and Taiwan.
A lot of Taiwanese obtained travel visas while those who were already in Silicon Valley because they were professionals in various fields in high-tech companies. Other Chinese were still pursuing a doctorate and master’s degrees. The Taiwanese broke the language barrier, which why they are surviving well in Silicon Valley. There are robust Chinese influences in California, where most of those who live in the Silicon Valley Chinese society are speaking Mandarin, and some have a strong Taiwanese accent. Many of the Chinese grocery and restaurants serve and sell Taiwanese foods. They have also established the Chinese religion in Silicon Valley, which guarantees them the freedom of worship. Also, various social organizations with Chinese origin emerged in California. The Americans have accepted their culture by allowing them to hold multiple celebrations where thousands of Taiwanese attends. They have established a town in the downtown called Little Taipei (Wong 227). However, there is a minor difference between the Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese in terms of communication skills. Some Mainland Chinese experience challenges in speaking fluent English, and they do not know American style and western capitalist. They lived in Mainland China when it was isolated from the international community; thus, limiting their exposure to the American culture (Duff 1610). The San Francisco Bay region is the municipal area in the US, where there is the highest number of Chinese. Most of them live in the four primary counties, that is, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo. Chinese were able to adapt to some of the American cultures that enabled them to survive in Silicon Valley. They adjusted themselves quickly because the American culture and western culture are not hard to learn and adopt.
Most of the high-tech companies are found in Santa Clara, and this is the area with the highest number of Chinese. The large percentage of the employees in these companies comprise the Chinese. Both San Francisca and Santa Clara has the highest number of Chinese. Most of them are found in the three major cities, which are the high-tech industrial parks in California. Most of these Chinese consider Silicon Valley a magnet that is attracting many Chinese from Asia and all over the world. There is always plenty of work for the professionals, unlike the old days when Chinese came to Silicon Valley to work as laborers. They now come to work as laborers in the high-tech economy, which is high paying and can cater to their expenses (O’ mara 79). Some of these workers eventually start to venture into business and become entrepreneurs. Besides, the Chinese were able to establish the companies that make them survive in a foreign county with a culture and communication skills that are different from theirs. There is an overwhelming number of Chinese engineers who are working in the American-based high-tech companies, and they have displaye...