Chinese American

Chinese American

Chinese Americans (Chinese: 華裔美國人, 华裔美国人, Huáyì Měiguórén; 美籍華人, 美籍华人, Měijí Huárén) are people of full or partial Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – ethnicity who hold American nationality. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well as from other countries in Southeast Asia and South America that include large populations of the Chinese diaspora. Overall demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia and South America into the broadly defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China and the United States refer Taiwanese Americans as a separate subgroup of Chinese Americans.

The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community in North America. It is also the fourth largest in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese American community comprises the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 25.9% of the Asian American population as of 2010. Americans of Chinese descent, including those with partial Chinese ancestry constitute 1.2% of the total U.S. population as of 2010. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.8 million. In 2010, half of Chinese-born people living in the United States lived either in California or New York.