In the 1930s, there was a Chinese-American actress named Anna May Wong who was quite well-known in Hollywood. She made every head turn when visiting pre-World War II Shanghai. But back home -- America -- she had to live with all the stereotyped roles assigned to her, which made her cry deep inside. She had no doubt that she deserved better, much better. And yet she could only do so much.

•  

• Anna May Wong’s fellow Chinese Americans did not generally fare better. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act kept Chinese from entering or reentering America. Dr. Sun Yat-sen was once held up under this racist act. 

•  

• Slowly but surely, though, racial tolerance had been working its way into mainstream America since World War II and the F.D. Roosevelt administration. For the record, however, the number of Chinese Americans only inched up because the slope was too steep. In 1960, there were no more than 240,000 Chinese in the Beautiful Country.
  
  Then ice broke. In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Naturalization Act. This opened the floodgates for Chinese immigrants among other Asians and along with Africans, Middle Easterners, and Latin Americans. The 2020 U.S. Census reports that there are 5.2 million Americans claiming the Chinese heritage as theirs.

•  

• Minority or otherwise, we are Americans first and foremost. Like every American, we are entitled to freedom and dignity, no more and no less. Meanwhile, we must understand that freedom is not free and never will be.

• 
  

• Personally, I am looking forward to the day when the term “hyphenated American” becomes obsolete.

• 
  

• 
  

  帶連字號的美國人

  
  

  美國是一個移民國家。先入為主；後來者就被看作客居人士。（中國不是也有“客家人”麼？）

  便於識別，更因語言差異，自然先問貴鄉：您從哪裡來的？帶連字號的美國人由此產生。

  
  

  1889年“帶連字號的美國人”正式在文書出現。不過一旦見之於文，反應就與口頭心底說說大有不同。1904年“公知”們開始筆伐始作俑者。1915年前任總統西奧多·羅斯福有意捲土重來；他的演說主題之一，正就是以團結各裔為理由、公開主張單稱美國人。

  
  

  然而，在日常生活中，剛好相反，彼此友善也好，不友善也好，都以其祖裔相稱。例如，傳媒喜歡說：紐約、芝加哥白人警察多數是愛爾蘭人。不無諷剌的是、有好一段時間，尤其是在十九世紀中葉，特別在麻薩諸塞州，愛爾蘭人備受歧視，不少被驅趕離市離州；更有雇主幹脆在門窗上貼此告示：招聘僱員，唯愛爾蘭人免問。

  
  

  值得一提的是、1988年12月20日美聯社作此報道：“黑人民權運動領袖”之一傑西·傑克遜“宣告”黑人是非洲裔美國人。左翼主導的主流傳媒，包括好萊塢（荷里活），立即加以推波助瀾。政客更自不待言。時至今日，搞“膚色政治”，打種族牌，直接或間接鼓吹“連字號的美國人”的風氣又再大行其道。

  
  

  當然，何止美國如是，西歐也不遑多讓。

  
  

  
  

  —— Lingyang Jiang