PDF(2.7mb) - 國家政策研究基金會

Overseas Chinese in the United States 185
as well as transportation.
In particular, the United States returned the indemnity
for the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, with which a
Tsing Hua preparatory school established in Beijing to
matriculate students in American colleges and universities.
The preparatory school provided free education for
students selected from provinces. The indemnity also
paid for their higher education in the United States.
The Republic of China proclaimed in 1912, following
the Chinese Revolution of 1911. The government
continued to award scholarships for students to
study in the United States and other advanced countries.
At the same time, rich families sent their sons and
daughters abroad for college education. Many of these
self-provided students went on to study towards advanced
degrees.
The government of the Republic of China moved
from Nanjing to Taipei at the end of 1949. Mao Zedong
won a Chinese civil war and proclaimed his People’s
Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949.
Many Chinese intellectual refugees immigrated to the
United States when the Communists took over China.
In Taiwan, college graduates were encouraged to
go to the United States to pursue advanced studies.
Many of them returned to Taiwan to work. They were
professors, engineers, administrators, successful entrepreneurs
and top professionals. They were leaders in
different works of life. However, most of the graduate
students landed jobs after completion of their studies.
They became residence in the United States. In other
words, Taiwan exported its top of the crop to the United
States. This phenomenon called a brain drain.
These emigrants to the United States after the
second half of the twentieth century fared much better
than those in the nineteenth century and the first half of
the twentieth. There was no Chinese Exclusion Act.
Their human rights and rights of work all protected.
They did not undergo the hardships their predecessors
had in the century and a half before.
Many emigrants in the brain drain were famous for
their truly distinguished accomplishments. For instance,
Dr. Chen-ning Yang and Dr. Tsung-dao Lee were
co-winners of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1957. Dr.
Samuel C.C. Ting and Dr. Steven Chu won Nobel Prizes
in physics, too. Dr. Yuan-tseh Lee won a Nobel Prize
in chemistry. Elaine Chao served as secretary of labor
under President George W. Bush, Jr. President Barak
Obama appointed Stephen Chu his secretary of energy
and Gary Faye Locke, a grandson of a Chinese coolie,
elected governor of the state of Washington in 1996, his
secretary of commerce. Architect I. M. Pei designed the
world-famous pyramid glass entrance to the Louvre
Museum in Paris. Dr. An Wang built a computer empire
in the 1980s. His Wang Laboratories had more than
30,000 employees on its payroll in 1989. The Silicon
Valley in California offered chances to ambitious Chinese
immigrant entrepreneurs to make fortunes. Moreover,
of course, there is Terry Yang and his success story
of Yahoo! Inc.
Investors
As Taiwan wrought the economic miracle of the
twentieth century, it began foreign direct investment in
the United States. Entrepreneurs went to the United
States as investors, who brought their offspring there
for education. The youngsters were able to study at
prestigious colleges and universities. On graduation,
they could start professional careers. On the other hand,
large enterprises in Taiwan – such as the Evergreen
group, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company,
Hon Hai Precision Industry Corp., and Formosa Plastics
– invested heavily in the United States. Their investment
often topped US$1 billion per case. As a result,
thousands of their employees “commuted” between
Taiwan and the United States; forming a small
population of overseas Chinese yet to become naturalized
Americans.
One thing of note is that most of investors are
small and medium-sized businesses. They are scattered
across the United States. Their paid-in capital, however,
far exceeded that of the big businesses.