Complexity in the Houston, Texas Chinese American community

This thesis examines complexity in an ethnic community through an evaluation of cultural attributes brought with the Chinese immigrant, what the Chinese American experiences in the U.S. and what Chinese Americans in Houston, Texas experience. The term complexity can be defined as the experiential differences that are present within an ethnic community. Complexity can be related to regional, class or other differences in both the U.S. and China. Complexity is also present in areas outside of culture and can be seen as being inherent in the assimilation process. The existence of complexity suggests that the term "assimilated" may be too simplistic for evaluating an ethnic community. Assimilation is explored as an unending process of change in the Chinese American community. Another aspect of this thesis is to examine Chinese American women in the Houston area because of the paucity of data available on females. The key idea in this thesis is not to characterize an entire community, but to use complexity to suggest that the term "assimilated" is too simplistic.