As of 2002,

ethnic Chinese The Chinese people or simply Chinese, are people or ethnic groups identified with China, usually through ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, or other affiliation. Chinese people are known as Zhongguoren () or as Huaren () by speakers of s ...

and

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

people comprise the second-largest Asian-origin ethnic group in the Wayne– Macomb–

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

tri-county area in

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

. As of that year there were 16,829 ethnic Chinese, concentrated mainly in

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

Rochester Hills Rochester Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 76,300. It is the 14th-largest city in Michigan. The area was first occupied by settlers of European descent in 1 ...

, and Canton Township.Metzger, Kurt and Jason Booza.
Asians in the United States, Michigan and Metropolitan Detroit
." Center for Urban Studies,

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

. January 2002 Working Paper Series, No. 7. p. 12. Retrieved on November 6, 2013. As of 2012, Madison Heights also hosts a significant Chinese community.Best Chinese Arts & Culture Events In Detroit For The Lunar New Year
"
Archive
CBS Detroit. January 23, 2012. Retrieved on December 3, 2013. "The largest Chinatown in the Detroit area is across the border in Windsor." Within the city of Detroit, the area north of

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, downtown tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Lodge Freeway) to the west, Interstate 75 ( ...

; including the region around the

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hos ...

, the

Detroit Medical Center The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) is a for-profit alliance of hospitals that encompasses over 2,000 licensed beds, 3,000 affiliated physicians and over 12,000 employees. Located in Midtown Detroit, the DMC is affiliated with medical schools from W ...

, and

; has transient Asian national origin residents who are university students or hospital workers; most of these Asians are Chinese and Indians. Few of them have permanent residency after schooling ends.Metzger, Kurt and Jason Booza.
Asians in the United States, Michigan and Metropolitan Detroit
." Center for Urban Studies,

. January 2002 Working Paper Series, No. 7. p. 8. Retrieved on November 6, 2013. As of 2011, the largest still-operating

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

in proximity to Metro Detroit is located in the Chinatown of

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

History

Ah Chee, the first known Chinese person in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, arrived in 1872 and established a laundry business.

Zia Zia or ZIA (also spelled Ziya, Ḍiya , Dia or Diya) may refer to: People * Zia (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** A romanization of the Wu ( Shanghainese) pronunciation of the Chinese surname Xie (謝) ...

, p
62
The first Chinese businesses were established in Metro Detroit in 1879, making the Chinese the Asian immigrant group with the longest history in the city. Many Chinese started coming to Detroit after Ah Chee established laundry businesses. At one time

had its own

. In 1892, several immigrants to Detroit were sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country but, in '' Wong Wing v. United States'', the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a jury trial was needed for such a punishment. During the period of Chinese Exclusion, many Chinese immigrants chose to enter the United States extra-legally. This was frequently done by taking the

Canadian Pacific Railroad The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

from

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia to

. From there immigrants could attempt to cross the

Detroit river The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively refe ...

into the United States after contracting with smuggling organizations in the area. These crossings were often perilous, with numerous fatalities being reported during the time. In 1905 the first

Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese style, due to the history of the Overseas Chinese, Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in t ...

opened in Detroit. In the early 20th century

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

recruited ethnic Chinese living in Hawaii to work at his automobile plants.Steele, Micki.
Asian-Americans settle in Metro Detroit enclaves
" ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Februa ...

''. April 19, 2011. Retrieved on December 3, 2013. "And Henry Ford recruited Chinese workers from Hawaii to work in his auto plants in the early 20th century, while others came later in the 1930s, and some started laundries." In the 1920s Detroit had 300 Chinese laundry businesses and 12 Chinese restaurants.

Helen Zia Helen Zia is a Chinese-American journalist and activist for Asian American and LGBTQ rights. She is considered a key figure in the Asian American movement. Life and career Early childhood and education Zia was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1952 ...

, author of ''Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People'', wrote that the Chinese business community in Detroit had its peak in the 1920s. More Chinese people moved to Detroit in the 1930s, but the Chinese business and the population of Detroit's Chinatown had begun to decline after the 1920s. Much of the Chinatown was demolished in the 1950s so the John C. Lodge Freeway could be built. As a result, Chinatown moved to an area in the southern

Cass Corridor The Cass Corridor is the name of the neighborhoods on the west end of Midtown Detroit. It includes the Cass Park Historic District, the Cass-Davenport Historic District and Old Chinatown. The corridor's main street, Cass Avenue, runs parallel wit ...

focused on the intersection of Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street. In 1951 about 2,000 Chinese lived in the Detroit city limits. The more highly educated ethnic Chinese who moved to Detroit after the

Immigration Act of 1965 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act and more recently as the 1965 Immigration Act, is a federal law passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The l ...

moved to Detroit's suburbs, bypassing Detroit itself and its Chinatown. The previous generation of established laundry and restaurant owners had children who, instead of staying in the Chinatown area, tended to move outward to the suburbs of Metro Detroit, or to other cities for work and educational opportunities. Chinese American architect and engineer Marvin Chin opened the landmark

tiki In Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden, ...

-themed restaurant nightclub Chin Tiki in 1967. The

1980 U.S. Census The United States census of 1980, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 226,545,805, an increase of 11.4 percent over the 203,184,772 persons enumerated during the 1970 census. It was th ...

counted 1,213 ethnic Chinese in the City of Detroit. Zia wrote that the figure was "surely an undercount" but that the Chinese population in the City of Detroit "was unquestionably small." The presence of family-owned businesses in the Detroit Chinatown area had declined by the 1980s. Zia wrote that by that decade, the "shrinking base" in the Detroit Chinatown "reflected the diminished role of the merchants." In 1982, in Metro Detroit autoworkers killed Vincent Chin, a

mistaken for a Japanese American. An October 27, 2009 article by the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'' stated that "It took the slaying of ..Vincent Chin by a disgruntled autoworker in 1982 to awaken Detroit of the ugliness and danger of anti-Asian racism."Darden and Thomas
page unstated
(starts with "Dingell was not alone in the sentiment ..) Cynthia Lee, a

from Hawaii who worked as a reporter for ''The Detroit News'', interviewed Metro Detroit Chinese Americans who criticized the verdict given to the two men, who pleaded guilty and received probation and fines. The Chinese Americans interviewed by Lee stated that the sentences were too light.

, p
60

Cultural institutions

The Association of Chinese Americans (ACA, ) is the Detroit chapter of the OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates. In the fall of 1971 Dr. Andrew Yang invited a group of Chinese Americans in Metro Detroit to hear K.L. Wang's presentation that advocated for the establishment of a national Chinese-American association. The members of the ACA held its first meeting in 1971 in order to establish the organization.
"

Association of Chinese Americans Detroit. Retrieved on December 3, 2013. The organization was founded in 1972. The Chinese Community Center (CCC, ) of the ACA is located in Madison Heights. The center opened on August 8, 2005. Historically, the Chinese Welfare Council and the On Leong Merchants Association served members of Detroit's Chinese community. In Detroit the On Leong had social functions. The Detroit Chinese Welfare Council attended political functions and represented the interests of Chinatown to the city government.

Education

The American Chinese School at Greater Detroit (ACSGD, ), a supplementary Chinese school, is located in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. The first school year was 1972–1973. Other supplementary Chinese schools in Metro Detroit include the Canton Plymouth Chinese Learning Center () in Canton, founded in September 1996; and the Michigan New Century Chinese School () in

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

, founded in January 2000.

Healthcare and elderly services

The Association of Chinese Americans operated a Chinatown clinic in the

from September 9, 1973 until 1996. The Detroit Drop-In Center, a center providing services to older Chinese Americans in the Cass Chinatown, opened in October 1990. In 2005 its operations in the Canton and

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

areas opened. In January 2011 the main center moved to a new location in the Hannan House along

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

Notable people

Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. In th ...

* Vincent Chin (murder victim) * Mei Lin (chef) - Dearborn *

Anita Lo Anita Lo is an American chef and restaurateur. In 2001, she was named by '' Food & Wine'' magazine one of ten "Best New Chefs in America".Annisa RestaurantAnnisa Restaurant Biography Retrieved 2010-10-07. Biography Early life Anita Lo, a second-g ...

(restaurateur) -

Anita Lo
" "Most Powerful Women in New York 2007." ''

Crain's New York Crain Communications Inc is an American multi-industry publishing conglomerate based in Detroit, Michigan, United States, with 13 non-US subsidiaries. History Gustavus Dedman (G.D.) Crain, Jr. ( Gustavus Demetrious Crain, Jr.; 1885–1973), pre ...

''. Retrieved on September 6, 2014. "Born in Birmingham, Mich., to Chinese immigrant parents, ..

References

* Darden, Joe T. and Richard W. Thomas. ''Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide''.

Michigan State University Press Michigan State University Press is the scholarly publishing arm of Michigan State University. Scholarly publishing at the university significantly predates the establishment of its press in 1947. By the 1890s the institution's Experiment Stations ...

, March 1, 2013. , 9781609173524. * Delicato, Armando and Julie Demery. ''Detroit's Corktown''.

Arcadia Publishing Arcadia Publishing is an American publisher of neighborhood, local, and regional history of the United States in pictorial form.(analysis of the successful ''Images of America'' series). Arcadia Publishing also runs the History Press, which publi ...

, 2007. , 9780738551555. * Delicato, Armando and Elias Kahlil. ''Detroit's Cass Corridor''.

, 2012. , 9780738582689. * Mayer, Albert. ''Ethnic groups in Detroit, 1951''. Wayne University Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 1951. * Zia, Helen. ''Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People''.

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

, May 15, 2001. , 9780374527365. ** Content from the chapter "Detroit Blues: "Because of You Motherfuckers" by Helen Zia was re-published in: Shen Wu, Jean Yu-Wen and Thomas Chen (editors). ''Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader''.

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University. History Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...

, March 8, 2010. p. 35. , 9780813549330.

Notes

External links

Association of Chinese Americans Detroit
- Detroit Chapter of the OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates
Chinese Association of Greater Detroit
(S: 底特律中国人协会, T: 底特律中國人協會, P: ''Dǐtèlǜ Zhōngguórén Xiéhuì'')
American Chinese School at Greater Detroit

Chinese School Association in Michigan
(S: 密西根中文学校协会, T: 密西根中文學校協會, P: ''Mìxīgēn Zhōngwén Xuéxiào Xiéhuì'') {{Chinese Americans by location

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

History of Detroit