At least one-fifth of San Francisco Bay Area inhabitants in the nine (9)-counties of eight (8) million people consist of ethnic Chinese of various backgrounds, many of whom are native-born San Franciscans, while others are foreign-born immigrants from mainland China, from Taiwan or from HongKong, or from other parts of Southeast Asia....and even others from Latin America.
This convergence of many ethnic Chinese from different areas and regions of the world, some born here in California, while others from China and Asia-Pacific who settled here as high-tech professionals, underpinning the Silicon Valley work force, or as merchants or workers has seen a galvanizing and mobilization effort because of recent events enveloping China and the WEST.
The ethnic Chinese used to be divided politically, but recent events have galvanized and cohered them together. This is a remarkable phenomenon.
Recently, given the ugly controversy and disrespect shown by part of liberal San Francisco over the Olympics torch relay "pit-stop" into San Francisco on April 9, 2008, in America's only torch relay stop, and the controversy over TIBET which ensued, there has been a major awakening.
And in the catastrophic aftermath of the May 12th earthquake in Sichuan Province, China..... there has emerged a renewed effort by the many diverse Chinese groups in the San Francisco Bay Area to unite, mobilize, and work together for a common cause. Click on a report by Anna Ustinova of the San Francisco Chroncle, the mainstream English newspaper in San Francisco, about the mobilization efforts.
Ustinova, the San Francisco Chronicle reporter noted in her report: "Chinese Americans in the Bay Area speak different languages, come from all walks of life and have different political views. But this year, with China in the international spotlight, the community has come together, observers say."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/18/MNTD10O1SP.DTL
