This past week, the the San Francisco Department of Elections officially completed the Ranked-Choice Voting result for City Supervisor, District 3, and officially called the election for David Chiu; Chiu defeated Joseph Alioto 59.37% to 40.63%.
Believe it or not, this makes David Chiu the first elected Asian American to represent a district with a Chinatown. Chinatown in San Francisco is the first and largest Chinatown in the U.S., under the district election system. Someone questioned me that certainly Gary Locke — the first Asian American to be ever elected governor in the continental United States and first Chinese American to be elected governor — would be the first, but Locke has never represented a district and was never mayor of Seattle; he was elected King County’s County Executive, which does cover Seattle, and has its own Chinatown.
Some of you may be asking — who cares? Well, wouldn’t it surprise you if the largest ethnic neighborhood of any of America’s largest cities not ever have someone from that ethnic background representing that neighborhood? Imagine if no Italian Americans ever represented a “Little Italy,” or someone Black representing a Harlem. It should be a big deal that an Asian — a Chinese/Taiwanese American — is representing Chinatown for the first time ever, just as Americans all over the United States are excited at electing the first African American president in President Elect Barack Obama.
What is shocking is that I continue to Google for news about this historic event, and can find very little evidence and details about this. This only goes to show how invisible Asian Americans are, especially when it comes to politics and civic involvement. Hopefully David Chiu will represent a new generation of Asian Americans that are active in public service and can inspire all to be active in their communities and not in their own self-interests.
Also in November, Asian Americans Eric Mar and Carmen Chu won for the City Supervisor positions; Chu was originally appointed to her District after Supervisor Ed Jew resigned. This makes for a record three Asian Americans representing the city of San Francisco out of a total of eleven districts in San Francisco. Excellent, given the fact that San Francisco is approximately a third Asian American. So being color blind, the city of San Francisco is electing qualified candidates that truly represent the needs and constituents of the city.
(Flickr photo credit: VoteDavidChu)
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- I See Asian Americans Being Politically Involved! David Chiu, San Francisco Supervisor, District 3
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- Is David Chiu or Carmen Chu the First Asian American Acting Mayor of San Francisco?
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11 Comments to “David Chiu is the First Asian American EVER to be Elected to Represent Chinatown”
jozjozjoz wrote:
You said: “Well, wouldn’t it surprise you if the largest ethnic neighborhood of any of America’s largest cities not ever have someone from that ethnic background representing that neighborhood?”
That’s really misleading. For instance, it is well known that the Chinatown in Los Angeles is not really the location where Asians (Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, Vietnamese and other immigrants) have migrated to in (at least) over 35 years. In Los Angeles, there are suburbs like Monterey Park and Alhambra where Asians have become the majority since the 1980s AND have elected Asian American representatives to city council and mayor. (See Judy Chu or Michael Eng).
At the same time, a lot of people seem to forget about Michael Woo, who was a long-time Los Angeles City Councilman of District 13 (which is adjacent to Chinatown, but not actually Chinatown). Chinatown in Los Angeles is in “District 1″ which is also the same district as “downtown” Los Angeles. Regardless, even if Michael Woo had been elected in District 1 back in the 80s, it would have been a stretch to say he was representing Asians because, large populations of Asians did not live in District 1. In fact, Chinatown is a really small part of District 1.
Nonetheless, congratulations to David Chiu on his election.
Posted on 06-Dec-08 at 9:38 pm | Permalink
John wrote:
@jozjozjoz – I agree that “Chinatown in Los Angeles is not really the location where Asians (Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, Vietnamese and other immigrants) have migrated to in (at least) over 35 years.” – but having elected Chiu in San Francisco is *very* symbolic, especially given that Chinatown SF is the OLDEST and LARGEST Chinatown in America.
I am generally happy whenever an Asian American (Republican or Democrat) is elected to public office since I have often blogged about the lack of Asian American involvement in civic duty as well as public office.
Posted on 07-Dec-08 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
Jeff wrote:
John, Kansen Chu represents a heavily Asian district 4 in San Jose, which is larger in area and in population than San Francisco. Lots of Chinese Americans in that district – I know because I live there!
Also, Mike Honda’s district in Silicon Valley is heavily Asian, as it includes Milpitas, Cupertino, and North San Jose.
Posted on 07-Dec-08 at 11:08 pm | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
Agreed that David Chiu’s election is symbolic given the “OLDEST and LARGEST Chinatown” aspect. It’s just that you didn’t really make that point very clear in the original post and you made it sound like an Asian representing Asians has never happened before.
Speaking of which, the Little Saigon area has been very good in the recent past in electing Vietnamese Americans into office.
PS – With regard to your statement “I am generally happy whenever an Asian American (Republican or Democrat) is elected to public office since I have often blogged about the lack of Asian American involvement in civic duty as well as public office.”
I don’t think you should blindly support people based on race. Asian American or not. Likewise, I don’t think women should vote for women, solely based on gender. If we want to get anywhere in this country, we should do what many people did in the Presidential Election of 2008: LOOK BEYOND RACE AND VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE THEY BELIEVE IN.
Also, I wish you would stop talking about the “lack of Asian American involvement in civic duty.” The more you say things like that, the more people believe it.
The truth is, Asian Americans ARE involved in civic matters; I mean you blog about Asian Americans in politics ALL THE TIME!
Please stop perpetuating myths about “uninvolved Asian Americans!” You give the ones who are involved a bad rap!
Posted on 08-Dec-08 at 1:21 am | Permalink
Jim wrote:
The author appears to misunderstand the short history of district elections in SF.
Gordon Lau, for one, represented all of SF, including C-Town of course, when we had at-large elections.
Two people have represented this particular district in all of history – John Molinari and Aaron Peskin. David Chiu will be the third.
Posted on 08-Dec-08 at 8:39 am | Permalink
John wrote:
@Jim – actually, I did know that the first Asian American was elected to an at-large supervisor position during the Harvey Milk, George Moscone era, but I was unable to actually Google info regarding the specific name/person until you mentioned it.
A Lawmaker’s Legacy
S.F. mourns the death of its first elected Asian American supervisor
http://asianweek.com/042398/bay1.html
My point still stands though – no Asian American or Chinese American has specifically been elected to represent the very symbolic Chinatown San Francisco – the oldest and largest “Chinatown” in the United States.
@jozjozjoz – as I had said, I am *generally* happy that Asian Americans *are* elected to public office *because* Asian Americans *are* generally not as involved in civic and community service. This is a fact that I have unfortunately observed while being active in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had commented or blogged when I met another Asian American who had volunteered for the Obama campaign and he said when he was phone banking, he was the only Asian American volunteer, despite the fact that Asian Americans in most communities in the Bay Area represent 15% to 25% of the population on the peninsula / Silicon Valley.
Yes, it is nice to see an active Vietnamese American community in San Jose, despite the efforts to recall Madison Nguyen.
Posted on 08-Dec-08 at 4:23 pm | Permalink
Chris Wong wrote:
And also, what about the larger Chinese-plurality neighborhoods in SF like Sunset or Richmond?
Posted on 09-Dec-08 at 9:48 pm | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Chris: There has actually been a long history of Asians who have been supervisors in the Sunset, and they have used it as a springboard for state politics, like Leland Yee and Fiona Ma, and now Eric Mar’s the supervisor for the Richmond.
Guess our esteemed colleague doesn’t realize that SF does have a lot of Asians everywhere.
Posted on 10-Dec-08 at 9:56 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Stating the Obvious: Cupertino has a lot of Asians: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:
[...] However, what is more typical in the South Bay, and much of California overall, is that no single ethnic group commands a majority – Whites, Latino and Asians make up many communities in California. Of course, if you’ve been a minority living outside of California and have just moved to the area, this can take some getting used to. And there can be some backlash, especially when it comes to high schools and “white flight.” Asian Americans in the South Bay have also flexed their political muscle a little bit more (at least until recently relative to San Francisco) [...]
Posted on 13-Dec-08 at 11:00 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Strong Showing for Asian Americans in NYC Primaries wrote:
[...] – the first Chinese American to represent New York’s Chinatown, within one year of San Francisco’s David Chiu of being the first Asian American to represent ANY Chinatown in the United [...]
Posted on 18-Sep-09 at 10:28 am | Permalink
DavidGaffaney wrote:
Visual attraction is a key factor in establishing romance, first impressions really do count in this as much as if not more than in other blind date uncensored aspects of life and, shallow as it may sound, human beings do tend to make snap judgements about each other based on their appearance.
Posted on 04-Oct-09 at 3:30 pm | Permalink
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