The second wave of Chinese immigration brought, in general, more skilled Chinese workers to the US.  The immigrants from the second wave thus essentially comprise much of the upper middle-class Chinese-American families today.   The varied backgrounds of these immigrants account for the diversity of the upper middle-class Chinese-American families.

            Lee-Beng Chua, in his book Psycho-Social Adaptation and the Meaning of Achievement for Chinese Immigrants, describes how in 1949 there was a “huge wave of Hong Kong immigrants” to the US in response to the Communists “seizing control over mainland China.”  As Hong Kong had been a British possession, its citizens were generally more educated and had more skills than people in the rest of mainland China.  Therefore, this migration of Hong Kong immigrants to the US brought a portion of the families that comprise the upper middle-class Chinese-Americans.

            Some people from mainland China definitely form part of the upper middle-class Chinese-Americans as well.  After World War II, says Chua, many Chinese students came to the United States to obtain skills so that they could reconstruct their country upon completion of their academic training.  However, Mao Zedong’s takeover of the government made it such that the US government prevented these students’ return to China, fearing these students would use American-learned skills against America and democracy.  These Chinese students were basically stranded in the US, but unlike the earlier Chinese laborers, these students had marketable skills.  With these skills, they were able to obtain moderate-paying jobs and also could establish families with decent standards of living.

            The intelligentsia also joined the upper middle class in America during the 1950s.  According to Chua, many people “associated with the Nationalist/Kuomingtang Government who fled to Taiwan eventually sought refuge in the US.”  These people were typically former officials and thus highly educated and brought many service skills to America, and were therefore also able to get decent-paying jobs and have a middle-class lifestyle.

            Clearly, with all these Chinese people of different backgrounds making up the Chinese-American middle-class family, there exists much diversity within the Chinese-American middle class.  This is manifested in the various ways that families have adapted to America and also in the level of adaptation to American life and culture.