Assimilation of Chinese-Americans in Washington,D. C.*

Chinese-Americans in Washington, D. C. were studied to show their present assimilation into American society. Two contradictory hypotheses on the pace of assimilation of Chinese-Americans were tested. We found that higher socioeconomic attainment had an insignificant effect on the Chinese American's centrifugal tendencies when the effects of education were controlled. This finding, therefore, contradicts the notion that the achievement of occupational or economic success motivates Americanization. The evidence showed that education exerted sizable effects on the absorbing of Chinese-Americans, while the Chinese friendship tie served to sustain the Chinese subculture. Overall, most Chinese-Americans have preserved their key cultural values. The relatively slow pace of assimilation among Chinese-Americans was attributed to their subsocietal structure, which is a consequence of the difference in racial and cultural distinction from American whites, as Warner and Srole (1945) hypothesized.