Sino-California.(Enterprising: Business as an act of creation)

Between 1990 and 2000, Southern California s San Gabriel Valley (an area just east of Los Angeles that often hatches trends which later spread across the nation) absorbed a large wave of Chinese immigrants. The only U.S. locality which got more Chinese was New York City (though as a percentage increase, places like South Carolina and Arkansas had the decade's sharpest increases in Chinese arrivals).

The largest concentration of Chinese can be found in Monterey Park and San Gabriel (which has a Chinese mayor). As early as the 1990s, the Chinese had become a majority in this area. The influx has been so great that at times a visitor is hard-pressed to know whether he's in Hong Kong, Taipei, Guangzhou, or greater Los Angeles. At least one Taiwanese realtor regularly advertises Monterey Park homes for sale in Taipei. Every day, Chinese tour buses disgorge visiting passengers for extended shopping excursions. The Chinese-run stores make them feel at home.

In the 1980s, city fathers passed an ordinance requiring Chinese-language signs to include English translations, but at this point there is no resisting the dominance of Chinese culture in the area. Writer Kenneth Timmerman has called the San Gabriel Valley China's "23rd province." No less than seven of the valley's communities now have a majority Chinese population. In these places, Chinese immigrants dominate community life, including public offices (most often as Democrats).

This inflow of Chinese is an example of what demographers call "chain migration." Anchor families bring over relatives, friends, and extended family. They set up computer manufacturing businesses, financial institutions, small grocery stores, and restaurants, which mostly employ and serve fellow immigrants. Because the state of California administers driver's license tests in Mandarin and Cantonese, there is no need for Chinese immigrants to learn English, and as many as a third have not done so. Why should they? The four-inch-thick Chinese Yellow Page directory provides countless tradesmen, physicians, real estate agents, and attorneys fluent in a variety of dialects.

This massive immigration has displaced previous residents, and huge Chinese shopping centers have replaced older non-Chinese businesses, even chain stores like Target. ...