Chinese Americans To Think Twice of the Consequences of an Elected Donald Trump

Published in World Journal
(China) on 4 October 2016
by Rebecca Liao (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Kartoa Chow. Edited by Melanie Rehfuss.
One of my closest Chinese American friends always asks me a bunch of questions, such as “Is your father an engineer or a doctor?” “At a certain age, do you have to give red envelopes to your elders?” “Did you bring rice to school when you were young?”

The amusing part is that he truly believes that my answers to all his questions would be “yes.” Like my friend, my parents arrived to the United States when they were young, sacrificing everything for us to provide my siblings and me with the best opportunities. Even to this day, my mother still prepares lunch for my father. All Chinese Americans are either immigrants or have immigrant backgrounds with a common tradition.

If Donald Trump is elected president, we will not be safe. He may be discriminating against Mexicans and Muslims, but Chinese Americans will feel the impact of his malicious words and ideas. He wants to significantly reduce the number of H1-B visas issued, but many Asian Americans rely on the H1-B visas to be employed in the U.S. He plans to search schools, workplaces, and homes to arrest and deport 16 million illegal immigrants. And many of these illegal immigrants in the U.S. are hardworking Chinese Americans, including our mothers and fathers, our aunts and uncles, and our friends.

Trump’s main objective is to use prejudice and lies to make us fight each other. He is blaming unemployment of the American people on China. He threatens to start a trade war with China in order to regain these job opportunities. This will cause the situation with Chinese Americans to regress to an era of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1965, or to return to a time when Chinese Americans were treated as second-class citizens and cheap labor for building American railroads. In fact, whether native-born with history of many generations here, or recent immigrants who provide for their families through hard work, Chinese Americans have continually been contributing to the success of America throughout U.S. history.

Be it Trump, his supporters, or the Republican Party, their views do not reflect Chinese American values. We value education, etiquette, and career advancement. However, they continue to demonstrate extreme anti-intellectualism, acting for personal gains without regard to dignity.

Besides ideologies, Trump’s character conflicts with Chinese American values. He is a pathological lair who ignores the facts. He refuses to listen to the opinions of his campaign team, and also refuses to hire people with public policy experience and knowledge, because he is simply unwilling to understand and learn information or the skills that he lacks. He mocked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for learning and caring for everything related to the administration of this country. As Michelle Obama had reminded us, “our kids are watching.” If the most powerful person in this country sets such a bad example, how will our kids enjoy school and learning?

As Americans, some of us are proud to have the right to vote, but the majority have been avoiding the election. With hard work and providing for family, abstaining from politics seems to have no impact on us. The most important aspects in life are stability, economic prosperity, family, and career advancement.

However, we are at stake at this election. The most important aspects of our lives, including our values, could be stolen by a mistake made under a Trump leadership. Chinese Americans have their own right to vote as citizens of the U.S. Let us step forward to protect our own rights, to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton. For more information, please visit (www.chineseamericansforhillary.org)


我最親密的美籍華人朋友之一,常問我一堆問題,比如,「你爸爸是工程師還是醫生?」「到了一定年紀,你是不是必須得給你的長輩春節紅包?」「你小時候是不是帶米飯去學校?」

其中的笑點是,他很確信我所有回答都會是「是」。和我的朋友一樣,我的父母在他們年輕時來到美國,犧牲一切,就是為了給我們、還有我們的兄弟姐妹提供最好機會。我媽媽現在還天天給我爸爸準備米飯做午餐。所有的美籍華人都是移民或有移民背景,有著共同傳統。

如果唐納德·川普當選總統,我們就不再安全。他可能針對的是墨西哥人和穆斯林,但美籍華人也同樣會受到他充滿惡意的話語和觀念影響。他想大幅度減少H1-B簽證發放數量,可是很多亞裔正是靠H1-B簽證才能在美國工作。他計畫搜捕學校、工作場所和住家來圍捕和遣返1600萬非法移民。而這些非法移民很多是在美國勤勞工作的華裔,包括我們的父母、叔叔阿姨,還有朋友。

川普的主要目的,是要用偏見和謊言讓我們相互爭鬥。他把美國人的失業歸咎中國。他威脅要和中國展開貿易戰,奪回這些工作機會。這會讓美籍華人境遇倒退回1965年的《排華法案》時期,或回到美籍華人作為二等公民和廉價勞動力修建美洲鐵路時期。事實是,美籍華人不論是在這裏世代繁衍的土生華人,或通過努力工作來供養他們的家庭的新移民,在美國歷史上一直是為美國的成功作出貢獻。

無論是川普、他的支持者還是共和黨,他們的觀點都沒有反映美籍華裔的價值觀。我們注重教育、禮儀和職場晉升。而他們一直表現激進的反智主義,為個人利益而欣欣然不顧尊嚴地行事。

除了意識形態,川普的性格也和美籍華人的價值觀衝突。他是不顧事實的病態的撒謊者。他拒絕聽從競選團隊意見,也不願雇用有公共政策經驗和知識的人,因為他根本就不願意了解和學習他沒有的信息和技能。他嘲笑前國務卿喜萊莉‧柯林頓,因為她學習和關心與管理這個國家相關的一切。正如米雪兒‧歐巴馬曾提醒我們的,「我們的孩子們在看著呢」。如果這個國家最有權力的人樹立一個如此糟糕的榜樣,我們的孩子們怎麼會熱愛學校和學習呢?

我們中的有一些人,以身為美國人有選舉權而自豪,但大部分人卻一直避開選舉。只要工作努力,供養家庭,不參與政治,對我們好像也沒有影響。生活中最重要的是安定、經濟富足、家庭和職場晉升。

但這次選舉和我們利害攸關。我們生活中最重要的東西,還有我們的價值觀,會因一個錯誤的領導人川普而被奪走。華裔美國人有獨屬於自己、作為美國公民的選舉權。讓我們站出來維護自己的權利,為柯林頓投上一票。更多信息請訪問 www.chineseamericansforhillary.org。
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