Taiwanese Americans In New York City

New York City is home to the second-largest Taiwanese American population, after the Los Angeles metropolitan area, California, enumerating an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 individuals as of 2020.

History and location

The Flushing neighborhood of the borough of Queens in New York City, is one of the largest and fastest growing Taiwanese enclaves outside Asia. Main Street and the area to its west, particularly along Roosevelt Avenue, have become the primary nexus of Flushing's Taiwanese community. However, this community continues to expand southeastward along Kissena Boulevard and northward beyond Northern Boulevard. Taiwanese began the surge of immigration in the 1980s. Flushing originally started off as ''Little Taipei'' or ''Little Taiwan'' due to the large Taiwanese population. Due to the dominance at the time of working class Cantonese immigrants of Manhattan's Chinatown including its poor housing conditions, the more affluent Taiwanese population could not relate to them socioeconomically and settled in Flushing.

Later on, when other groups of non-Cantonese Chinese, mostly speaking Mandarin started arriving into New York City, like the Taiwanese, they could not relate to Manhattan's then dominant Cantonese Chinatown, as a result they mainly settled with Taiwanese to be around Mandarin Chinese speakers. Later, Flushing's Chinatown would become the main center of different Chinese regional groups and cultures in New York City. By 1990, Asians constituted 41% of the population of the core area of Flushing, with Chinese in turn representing 41% of the Asian population. However, ethnic Chinese, including Taiwanese, are constituting an increasingly dominant proportion of the Asian population as well as of the overall population in Flushing and its Chinatown. A 1986 estimate by the Flushing Chinese Business Association approximated 60,000 Chinese in Flushing alone. Mandarin Chinese, commonly spoken by Taiwanese, has becom the lingua franca in New York City's ethnic Chinese communities.

Elmhurst, another neighborhood in Queens, also has a large and growing Taiwanese community. Previously a small area with Chinese shops on Broadway between 81st Street and Cornish Avenue, this new Chinatown has now expanded to 45th Avenue and Whitney Avenue. Since 2000, thousands of Taiwanese Americans have migrated into Whitestone, Queens (白石), given the sizeable presence of the neighboring Flushing Chinatown, and have continued their expansion eastward in Queens and into neighboring affluent and highly educated Nassau County (拿騷縣) on Long Island (長島). Facilitating migration from Taiwan to New York City is China Airlines, which flies non-stop between Taipei Taoyuan International Airport and JFK International Airport in Queens.

Taiwanese New Yorkers

File:Malan breton2.jpg, Malan Breton
File:David Ho in lab.JPG, David Ho
File:Eddie Huang.jpg, Eddie Huang
File:Joseph-Lin.jpg, Joseph Lin
File:John Liu at the 2009 West Indian Day Parade by DS.jpg, John Liu
File:Grace Meng Official Congressional Photo.jpg, Grace Meng
File:Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou in Albany.jpg, Yuh-Line Niou
File:Alexander Wang Photo by Ed Kavishe Fashion Wire Press.jpg, Alexander Wang
File:Jason Wu Shankbone 2009 Metropolitan Opera.jpg, Jason Wu
File:Tim Wu, Campaign Event, Summer 2014.jpg, Tim Wu
File:Andrew Yang talking about urban entrepreneurship at Techonomy Conference 2015 in Detroit, MI (cropped).jpg, Andrew Yang
File:Lozupone Jeffyang.png, Jeff Yang

Academia and humanities

* Tim Wu – professor at Columbia Law School

Academia and sciences

* David Ho – scientific researcher and Helen Wu professor at Columbia University

Business

* Sam City - Yerrr

Entrepreneurship and technology

* Andrew Yang – founder, Venture for America; U.S. 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and pioneer of the Universal Basic Income concept

Law, politics, and diplomacy

* Grace Meng – member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New York's 6th congressional district in Queens
* Yuh-Line Niou – member of the New York State Assembly, representing the 65th District in Lower Manhattan, elected in November 2016
* John Liu – first Taiwanese American and Asian American to be elected New York City Comptroller, in 2009

Media

* Eddie Huang – writer, journalist, author of '' Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir''
* Jennifer 8. Lee – journalist, credits including ''The New York Times''
* Hua Hsu – journalist, ''The New Yorker''
* Jeff Yang – media consultant, "Tao Jones" columnist for ''The Wall Street Journal''

Theater, arts, and culture

* Malan Breton – fashion designer
* Jenny Lin – pianist
* Joseph Lin – violinist
* Paul Huang – violinist
* Alexander Wang – fashion designer
* Jason Wu – fashion designer
* Sophia Yan – classical pianist; journalist

See also

* Asian Americans in New York City
* Chinese people in New York City
* Bangladeshis in New York City
* Demographics of New York City
* Filipinos in the New York metropolitan area
* Fuzhounese in New York City
* Indians in the New York City metropolitan region
* Japanese in New York City
* Koreans in New York City
* Russians in New York City

References

{{Reflist

Taiwanese people by location
Ethnic groups in New York City
Taiwanese-American culture