Hong Kong People In The United States

Hongkongese Americans (Cantonese: 美籍香港人), include Americans who are also Hong Kong permanent residents who identify themselves as Hongkongers (who see Hong Kong as their home and are culturally associated with Hong Kong, especially through descent, growth, birth, long term residence in Hong Kong, or other types of deep affiliations with Hong Kong), Americans of Hong Kong ancestry (inhabitants of the New Territories), and also Americans who have Hong Kong parents.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and before that it was a British colony from 1841 until the Transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997.

Many of the Hong Kong Americans hold both United States citizenship and right of abode in Hong Kong. Other than the US passport, many of them also hold a HKSAR Passport or the British National (Overseas) passport.

Most of Hong Kong Americans were born in Hong Kong, United States, or Guangdong.

History

After the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, an influx of Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong immigrants settled in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, Chinatown, Los Angeles, California, and Chinatown, Manhattan, New York. In Chinatown neighborhoods, many Hong Kong immigrants opened businesses such as Chinese restaurants and supermarkets.

During the 1980s and the 1990s, a large number of high-skilled Hong Kong immigrants settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where many were employed by high-technology companies in Silicon Valley. Many of the Hong Kong immigrants in the Bay Area resided in suburban communities, such as Burlingame, South San Francisco, San Mateo, Fremont, and in the Richmond District and Sunset District in San Francisco. Many also settled in the New York Metropolitan area.

Many Hong Kong immigrants also immigrated to Greater Los Angeles's San Gabriel Valley in the 1980s and 1990s, most of them settling in Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel, Temple City, and Rosemead.

Population

As of 2012, there are 219,231 people in the United States who are born in Hong Kong. 96,281 of people born in Hong Kong live in the state of California. 39,523 of the people born in Hong Kong live in New York. New Jersey, Texas and Washington have 9,487, 8,671, and 8,191 Hong Kong-born residents, respectively. There is also a sizable community of Hong Kongers in the Greater Boston Area, especially in Quincy, Massachusetts. Massachusetts has 7,464 residents who were born in Hong Kong.Quincy's Asian American community is growing, changing
''The Patriot Ledger'' All these numbers would have excluded those who were born elsewhere than Hong Kong (mainly the United States or Guangdong, China) as well as their descendants.

Notable people

* Nathan Adrian – swimmer and Olympic medal winner
*Celia Au – actress and filmmaker
*Jin Au-Yeung, professionally known as "MC Jin" – rapper, songwriter, actor, comedian
* Brian Burrell – actor
* Flora Chan – TVB actress
* Francis Chan – preacher
* Jaycee Chan – singer, film actor
* Melissa Chan – journalist
* John S. Chen – CEO of BlackBerry
* Kevin Cheng – TVB actor
* Amy Chow – gymnast and Olympic medal winner
* Denny Chin – judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (1994–present), first Asian American appointed as a United States district court judge
* Margaret Chin – member of the New York City Council representing Chinatown
* Khalil Fong – singer-songwriter
* The Fung Brothers – comedy and hip hop duo
* James Hong – actor
* William Hung – singer
* Yuet Wai Kan – pioneer in the use of DNA to diagnose human diseases; helped set the stage for the Human Genome Project
* Michelle Kwan – Olympic medal winner, ice skater
* Nancy Kwan – actress and model
* Kent Lai – tenured full professor, University of Utah School of Medicine
* Brandon Lee – martial artist and actor
* Bruce Lee – martial artist and actor
* Justin Lo – Cantopop singer-songwriter
* Byron Mann – actor
* Jimmy O. Yang – comedian
*Robin Shou – actor, martial artist and stuntman
*Harry Shum Jr. – actor
* Vivienne Tam – fashion designer
* Sam Tsui – musician, singer-songwriter and an Internet celebrity through YouTube
* Margaret W. Wong – Hong Kong-born naturalized American immigration attorney
* Daniel Wu – actor
*Wayne Wang – film director

References

{{Demographics of the United States

Culture of Hong Kong