{"id":187132,"date":"2025-08-30T11:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/187132\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T11:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T11:02:14","slug":"north-american-fujian-groups-celebrate-heritage-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/187132\/","title":{"rendered":"North American Fujian groups celebrate heritage in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knife and fork in hand, Cassie Lin sliced off a corner of her pizza \u2014 packed with thick layers of mozzarella, mushrooms and pepperoni \u2014 and took a bite. A visitor from Texas, it\u2019s Lin\u2019s first time trying Chicago deep dish. Her reaction was mixed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very good,\u201d Lin said in between bites, covering her mouth with her hand. \u201cIt\u2019s very cheesy, very meaty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bite. She chewed it over.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it too late to say I\u2019m lactose intolerant?\u201d asked Lin.<\/p>\n

Lin, 18, is a college student from the Houston area and she\u2019s no ordinary tourist. She was here with her mom, aunt, uncle and cousin as part of the first organized, large-sized gathering in Chicago of immigrants and their descendants from the Fujian province of China.<\/p>\n

Known as Fujian hometown associations, at least a dozen such groups from across North America gathered in and around Streeterville over the past week to participate in the convention, which was made up largely of tourist activities, showcasing the best of what the city has to offer, and culminating with a gala Thursday night at Navy Pier.<\/p>\n

Nearly 100 people came together to celebrate shared culture and brainstorm ways to stay connected as a community.<\/p>\n

For Dr. Kim K. Tee, 61, an organizer of this week\u2019s convention, the event was a great way for different associations to join forces and strategize about recruitment. Tee was also excited to introduce visitors to his home of more than 40 years, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to show them not only Chicago, but culturally what Chicago has to offer,\u201d said Tee, who lives in South Loop.<\/p>\n

That had to, of course, include the deep-dish pizza that Lin did not fully finish (in her defense, she\u2019s not a pizza fan overall, she said). Still, Thursday\u2019s lunch \u2014 in a bustling room at Pizzeria Due in Streeterville filled with the sounds of Mandarin Chinese, Hokkien, Cantonese and English \u2014 was an experience that helped Lin learn more about new cultures and old communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s here to talk about their stories \u2014 talk about their successes, their failures, how their business ventures went left or right,\u201d said Lin, born in the U.S. to a Fujianese dad and Vietnamese Fujianese mom. \u201cIt\u2019s just all stories about moving to America and becoming something more than themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home away from home<\/p>\n

Fujian is a coastal province in southeast China with a population of about 42 million people. For centuries, Fujianese people emigrated to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, bringing a group of Chinese languages, Hokkien, throughout the region.<\/p>\n

Many of their descendants eventually made their way to the United States, especially starting in the 1960s as people tried to escape the Vietnam War. Tee said they settled in New York and other big cities. In Chicago, they often joined the Asian community in the Uptown neighborhood.<\/p>\n

And in the 1980s, after the U.S. and Communist China resumed diplomatic relations, a wave of Fujianese from mainland China also immigrated to the U.S., where a mishmash of shared geography, culture, nationality and language bound them together.<\/p>\n

Johnny Zheng, 63, founded the Chicago-based American Fu Jian Business Association about 10 years ago. He said it\u2019s hard to know exactly how many Fujianese people live in the Chicago area. His best estimate, as a long-standing community leader, is between 20,000-30,000 in the Midwest. About 10,000 Fujianese live in the Chicago area, he and other leaders said.<\/p>\n

In total, there were at least 92,000 people who speak Chinese as their household language in the Chicago metropolitan area in 2019-2023, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outside of the New York metropolitan area, Zheng added, Chicagoland has one of the biggest Fujianese diaspora in the United States.<\/p>\n

While overall Chinese immigration to the U.S. has largely increased for the last few years, Tee and Zheng said they\u2019ve noticed less engagement between young people and existing Fujianese community groups. That\u2019s why conventions like this week\u2019s are so important, said Catherine Wang, outgoing president of the Chicago Fujian Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to get young people to come forward,\u201d said Wang, who is Malaysian Fujianese. \u201cThat\u2019s why we were deciding to all come together to discuss and see how to keep the organization alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

But 20-year-old Lucas Wang, Catherine Wang\u2019s son, said it\u2019s become less important for members of the Chinese diaspora to reach back to their distant heritage.<\/p>\n

Born in the U.S., he identifies more with his Malaysian than Fujianese background, even though he learned Mandarin in Chicago Public Schools, Lucas Wang said. At the gala dinner, he was one of few attendees under 30, helping check in guests.<\/p>\n

While he respects the culture, Lucas Wang said it would feel \u201cartificial\u201d to force himself into the Fujianese community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of reminds me of people that want to \u2018embrace their culture\u2019 for college applications and then get into a good college,\u201d Lucas Wang added.<\/p>\n

For older generations to succeed in keeping young people connected to their Fujianese heritage, Lucas Wang suggested more cultural immersion programs like visiting ancestral hometowns in Fujian. He\u2019s never been to China before, but took biannual trips to Malaysia before the pandemic, he said.<\/p>\n

One strategy Catherine Wang said became more important to her during this week\u2019s convention is starting cultural education young. Parents should teach their children about Fujian-specific traditions, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese New Year, what do Fukienese do? We need to have g\u0101nzh\u00e8, sugarcane,\u201d Catherine Wang said. \u201cWe tell them, \u2018Do you know why we put these two sticks next to the door?\u2019 Because Fujian culture: We were saved from World War II because we were hiding in the sugarcane forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hometown associations, like the Chicago Fujian Association Tee used to lead, have long served as important social groups for Chinese immigrants looking for community in the U.S. They generally form on the basis of a shared city, province or region of origin. There are at least a dozen Chinese hometown associations active in the Midwest, most based in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Tee arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s to study as a 19-year-old from a \u201cvery poor family\u201d in Malaysia. The Chicago Fujian Association helped Tee feel a \u201csense of belonging\u201d after an isolating education experience, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met John Tan, who was the third president of the Chicago Fujian Association,\u201d Tee said. \u201cHe invited me to the Spring Festival dinner, and right there I felt at home because everyone spoke Hokkien.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for Lin, this week\u2019s convention has helped her understand her family more \u2014 especially her dad, whose generally stoic temperament seems to not match his sense of humor at times, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like our culture, we joke around a lot,\u201d she said she learned. \u201cWe are able to have fun, we\u2019re able to talk to people in a very carefree, light manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, later Thursday, the Fujian associations held their gala dinner to inaugurate the new Chicago Fujian Association president and celebrate their progress in growing membership. The dinner rounded out with a Tina Turner impression performance and a hearty rendition of the Hokkien song \u201cYou Need to Love to Fight to Win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting down to business<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s Fujian hometown organization started in 1988, said Catherine Wang, 54. It commonly hosts more local events centered around holidays like the Lunar New Year or Mid-Autumn Festival, but this week\u2019s convention was a bit more business oriented, she added.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Wang, a Malaysian Fujian, and outgoing president of the Chicago Fujian Association, visits Pizzeria Due in Chicago, Aug. 28, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

For about the last decade, international Fujian hometown associations have convened for worldwide conventions \u2014 2024\u2019s took place in Malaysia, Wang said. Because of limited seats at the global conferences, organizations under the United Fukienese of North America umbrella group wanted to be able to confer ahead of time, she added. That\u2019s part of why they decided to hold an event like this week\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The Chicago convention included visitors from California, Texas and Edmonton, Canada. Of the 100 association representatives in Chicago this week, potentially only 10 could attend 2025\u2019s convention in Quanzhou, Fujian.<\/p>\n

United Fukienese of North America\u2019s member groups are apolitical, focusing on business development and cultural awareness, Wang said. Often, they\u2019ll help advise each other on how to get a new factory started or the best people to know in a particular industry, she added. The guest list for the Thursday night gala included business leaders like Kevin Chan, CEO of 63-year-old Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe help each other to make business,\u201d Catherine Wang said. \u201cLike, \u2018Oh, I have money, you have money, you have skill? Why don\u2019t we put (it) together and do something?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sustaining community<\/p>\n

For Dr. Tee, the path forward involves meeting young people where they\u2019re active. He said he hopes the Chicago Fujian Association\u2019s internet and social media presence will grow, and that he\u2019s looking into using Facebook as a communication tool.<\/p>\n

As more Fujianese people \u2014 like other Chinese and Asian immigrants \u2014 spread into the suburbs, he said the Chicago association tries to host events out west in the Naperville area.<\/p>\n

And Zheng from the Fu Jian Business Association said he\u2019s most concerned about language loss. He said fewer U.S.-born Chinese people can speak Mandarin, much less dialects like Hokkien or Fuzhounese, which he speaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor dialects, there\u2019s no way to teach them,\u201d Zheng said in Mandarin. \u201cThere\u2019s too many dialects. Even with Mandarin as a mother language \u2014 to keep it going would already be very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, Zheng said, he focuses on supporting Chinese language schools, like the Asian American Cultural Center in Chinatown.<\/p>\n

Angela Hu, 32, who works with Chicago\u2019s Chinese Crisis Responder group, said she thinks people eventually step up to keep diasporic communities connected. She attended the convention as a sponsor and isn\u2019t Fujianese. Still, these patterns span different hometown associations, she said, especially as young immigrants prioritize their careers and families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will change,\u201d Hu said. \u201cTheir minds will change too, if not focused on their family or work, they will have actual time to do something they want to. For example, some people want to help other people \u2014 then they will go to the association.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Lin said she\u2019s glad she came to Chicago to learn about her Fujianese identity and connect with her community. In the past, she didn\u2019t talk much about her regional heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I have all this, I can be like, \u2018I\u2019m different,\u2019\u201d Lin said. \u201cThis is my story. This is my family\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knife and fork in hand, Cassie Lin sliced off a corner of her pizza \u2014 packed with thick…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,5386,1818,409,1370,108,50,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-187132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-national-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115117381606101180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}