This post is part of my research paper entitled, "A Contextualized Discipleship Framework for the Young Adults at Seattle Chinese Alliance Church." If you are interested to read the full version, please access here. I would love to hear your review and comment below, thanks.
The Demographical Context of SCAC
What follows is a summary of demography of the zip code 98108 and the greater Seattle area, where SCAC gathers. With 23,896 people living in 9,250 houses or condos, 98108 is one of the most racially diversified community in Seattle with a majority of Asian (41.6%)[1]. In 2019, the median household income of 98108 households was $61,547 with 15.9% of the people live in poverty[2]and is relatively poor comparing to $94,974 with 7.7% in King County. The percentage of people that have education attainment “less than high school diploma” is 23.9% which is “among the highest in the nation”[3]. It is worth exploring why there are 19% that is 927 of children (ages 3-17) “not enrolled in school” while there are 72% in public school and 9%in private school.
The Seattle-Tacoma area is home to about 45,000 people who were born in China. Beacon Hill, where SCAC is located, has the greatest concentration of Chinese-born residents, estimated over 4,000, and the Eastside has over 16,000 living in the South Bellevue neighborhoods[4]. SCAC has around 80% of current church members who live outside of Seattle. In general, those members do not reflect the social-economic status or the ethnical made-up of the neighborhood.
As part of SCAC history, a long-term member reports that according to the US Census (1980), 43% of the total population on Beacon Hill were Asian[5]. Between the 60s to 80s, Beacon Hill had higher Chinese population and then second generation slowly moved to the Eastside. There was a group of 10 to 20 American-Born-Chinese students prayed at church on Friday nights in the 1990s. Yet many of them did not return to the English ministry after college years. Around 1991, the Chinese young adult ministry has developed after an evangelistic event. Meanwhile leaders from SCAC has registered a Chinese Christians Club at University of Washington and continues to have weekly outreach. SCAC used to have more blue-collar members with some ladies’ husbands owns restaurants or small businesses. Today SCAC consists with more professionals and many of them work in the IT industry. There is a constant flow of people relocating to Seattle from other states, and some new immigrants move into the area and visited SCAC.
It is difficult to know the precise number of Chinese young adults living in the greater Seattle area. The U.S. Community Survey (2005) states that there are 55,771 self-identified Chinese Americans in King County, WA[6]. Based on the city population, there are 11.9% from ages 18 to 24 and 38.6% from ages 25 to 44, that suggests the young adults group (ages 19 to 29) is approximately 15-20%. With this estimation, the amount of Chinese young adults in greater Seattle is around8,365 to 11,154[7]. As an empirical observation, a few social media groups[8]can support the above estimation with members who are mostly young adults[9]:14,000in “Chinese in Seattle Life”, 655in “Seattle-Hongkonger” and 2800in “Taiwan Food”.This figure is compatible with the general Chinese Americans population in the King County, 41,930 identified as Chinese and 3088 identified Taiwanese[10]. Based on the researcher’s encounter with the Chinese young adults in the Seattle area over the last year, here is a preliminary profile of them:
· IT professionals, medical personnel, architects, real estate agent, students
· absorbed in their careers and highly stressed
· enjoy foods, entertainments, travels, and natures
· some own big houses and do not live with parents
· singles, late marriage, and married with no kids
· tend to think in engineering or psychological terms
· liberal social conscience and some politically active
· commitment-wary, relatively private and individualistic
· somewhat lonely, experience numerous transitions
· open-minded and avoid confrontation
· anti-authoritative figures, befriend with the poor
[1]“98108 Zip Code (Seattle, Washington) Profile - Homes, Apartments, Schools, Population, Income, Averages, Housing, Demographics, Location, Statistics, Sex Offenders, Residents and Real Estate Info,” accessed May 18, 2021, https://www.city-data.com/zips/98108.html.
[2]“98108 Demographics - Get Current Census Data for 98108, WA,” accessed May 5, 2021, https://www.washington-demographics.com/98108-demographics.
[3]“ZIP Code 98108 Map, Demographics, More for Tukwila, WA,” accessed May 18, 2021, https://www.unitedstateszipcodes.org/98108/.
[4]Gene Balk / FYI Guy, “FYI Guy: Where Do King County’s Chinese-Born Residents Live?,”The Seattle Times, last modified September 21, 2015, accessed May 5, 2021, https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/explore-this-where-do-king-countys-chinese-born-residents-live/.
[5]Ip, Hermia, “SCAC- Our One House with Many Rooms”.
[6]“Chinese Americans in King County and Washington State,” n.d., accessed May 6, 2021, http://www.northwestheritageresources.org/Essays/Chinese_American_essay.pdf.
[7]This number is subjected to be evaluated when new census data and tools become available.
[8]“西雅圖- Search Results | Facebook,” accessed May 6, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/search/groups?q=%E8%A5%BF%E9%9B%85%E5%9C%96.
[9]“As of January 2021, it was found that 9.6 percent of global active Facebook users were women between the ages of 18 and 24 years, and male users between the ages of 25 and 34 years constituted the biggest demographic group of Facebook users.” accessed May 6, 2021, https://www.statista.com/statistics/376128/facebook-global-user-age-distribution/.
[10]“Chinese Americans in King County and Washington State.”Further information on Chinese American in Seattle can be found at,“Seattle Neighborhoods: Chinatown-International District -- Thumbnail History.” https://historylink.org/File/1058, https://cht.cisc-seattle.org/about-us/, and “Wing Luke Museum.” https://web.archive.org/web/20141207092056/http://www.wingluke.org/. Accessed May 6, 2021.
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