THE CHINESE IN PITTSBURGH, A CHANGING MINORITY COMMUNITY IN THE UNITED STATES

The Chinese were discriminated against ever since their first appearance in the Pittsburgh area. In order to avoid conflict and humiliation as well as to maintain their cultural identity, they segregated themselves socially and lived in their ghetto which later became known as Chinatown. There in the ghetto, they lived their own ways of life, far away from the American melting pot.;As a result of discriminatory immigration policies, the Chinese were forced to live a broken family life or stay single. Without the satisfaction of a normal family life, they were forced to seek alternative outlets on gambling tables which often led to bloody Tong wars.;Institutional discrimination not only shaped the occupational and behavioral patterns of the Chinese, it ultimately led to the decline of Pittsburgh's Chinatown. The Chinese Exclusion Acts cut off the supply of new immigrants and the lack of women made procreation of a new second generation impossible. Without new immigrants and the birth of a second generation, Pittsburgh Chinatown shrank until it finally vanished from the scene.;The Chinese Exclusion Acts were repealed in 1943. This, together with a more liberal immigration policy and social changes in both China and the U.S. during the post-War years, enabled more and more Chinese--particularly those with better education--to come to the U.S. Without institutional discrimination the Chinese community during post-World War II years underwent rapid change. An originally homogeneous community became relatively diversified. The small number of Chinese restauranteurs are still there, but the Chinese laundrymen who used to dominate the community virtually disappear. In their place are highly educated professional workers, both native-born and foreign-born. Released from racial discrimination, today, the Chinese in Pittsburgh are on the move: they moved into white suburban residential areas, and, through education, they moved to prestigeous occupational positions.;Since the Chinese were legally discriminated against and were barred from all industries, they adapted, accommodated, and formed a complementary economic structure by becoming laundrymen and restauranteurs: occupations that did not have to compete with white laborers.