作者:cangyunqiushui January 8, 2007 5 个评论

中国人在美国的生活

大家公认美国是最富有的国家，这里富人的富裕确实令人吃惊，我的见识里最惊叹的要属洛克菲勒中心了，在纽约市接近时代广场和百老汇，寸土寸金的繁华地段，居然由个人建起了一个奢华的小广场。但更让我意外的是渐渐发现大多数美国人，包括这里中国人的生活并不轻松也不富足。

由于较完善的福利制度，在美国，即使失业者也不至于像中国的农民那样生活窘迫。但同时也意味着对其他劳动者税收的加重。除了F1签证、和J签证的最初两年，其他签证类型的中国人包括美籍华人都要交纳收入的30％作为税收。

在美国，除了贿赂，中国人惯用的阿谀奉承、言听计从、喝酒开宴等等向上爬的伎俩都不再好使，加之近些年来到美国的中国人主要是留学生，或不善于或不屑于这一套，更因为美国社会多多少少的“歧华”思想，大约90％以上的中国人在美国都属于基层雇员或者基层的科研技术人员。30岁左右时平均收入大概每年$2万～$5万（典型的，博士后PostDoc年入≤$4万），税后$1.5万～$3.5万，在只有一方工作的情况下，除去吃、住、日用开销、医疗保险、车险、继续教育，基本所剩无几，如果再添个孩子那家庭的经济赤字是平常的事情。35岁之后随着工作经验的增加收入有所提高，但一般水平也只是每年$5万～$10万，税后$3.5万～$7万，虽然基本生活不愁，但因为买房等新的经济压力，中国人群体依然是美国社会中幸福感较弱的中产阶级。

而且，美国人的业余生活通常以长途旅游、参加体育活动、现场观看体育比赛、听音乐会、泡吧为主。中国人喜欢的聚会吃饭、探亲访友、近郊一日游、逛公园、遛马路、K歌、打扑克基本得不到满足；在中小城市，逛商场服务员比顾客还多，不仅没热闹气氛倒添几分不自在；打开电视就是新闻、肥皂剧、摇滚乐，不是白人就是黑人，找不到家的感觉；买份报纸，毕竟不是母语，一杯茶一张报的惬意很难享受得到。没有亲身经历过的人很难理解这样的“孤独”。

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5 comments so far

xiaow February 14, 2007 3:44 pm

you must be in a bad mood when you wrote this post. Actually, a lot of Chinese with good education and skills (they may not always equall) are living well, at least better than living at there home town.
Life is never easy to everyone. Immigrants from Europe must have had same feeling two hundred years ago. So what. It is everyone’s own choice. And I believe most of us still believe we made right decision to start our adventures.
cangyunqiushui February 16, 2007 10:24 am

Thank you for your discussion:) I really appreciate your opinion that good life needs hard work everywhere. And now, in many aspects, America is much better than China comparatively. So there are lots of Chinese prefer to start their dream here.

However, what I wrote is not “in a bad mood” but in an optimistic attitude. All statistical data are already based on educated Chinese people living in America. I haven’t included those immigrating from 1840’s as cheap labors and their offspring, and those taking care of grandchildren or accompanying their husband here whose English isn’t good enough to communicate with others. If you have different data or experience, welcome to share with us.

And I don’t think life in America is always better than that in hometown. At least, many friends from Beijing feel somewhat disappointed after arriving here.
liuyan March 19, 2007 6:53 am

Sure,i agree with ur opinion. feel really lonely and just like gone with the wind, since we r chinese and we need communicate with our relatives and friends often not like americans they can live themself
Xiaozl March 27, 2008 8:00 am

I am thinking about whether to go abroad. Your discussion is very helpful for me.
angel September 30, 2008 3:39 am

i m going to american next july 18th,and work in disney world .could u tell me that what is the most important to survive ,i
L try my best to live in American ,i L not give it up .i just graduated from the university this jun ,and now being an english tour guide in shanghai ,i want to konw that if English is the most inportant or not ,my MSN :renguozhen@live.cn
could u give me some suggestion about how to sepnd my spare time before i m going to American .i study English by myself or surfing the net during my spare time thank u very much .