World attention riveted on China in 1989 as the country underwent the throes of a massive political upheaval. Across the strait in Taiwan, islanders also tried to map out their futures, with some staying to fight for political change while others sought their fortunes overseas.

In Hong Kong, the specter of 1997, when the British colony reverts to Communist Chinese rule, set the pace for investments and emigration as the colony braced itself for a major political transition. And then there are the ethnic Chinese of Southeast Asia, some languishing in refugee camps, all seeking a better, more peaceful future.

These groups of Chinese can be divided when it comes to dialects and politics, but they are bound by a common culture and the desire to pursue a better way of life for their families.

Just as war, famines and calamities forced earlier generations of Chinese to go to foreign lands, domestic unrest and economic uncertainty in this century have prompted growing numbers to seek alternatives in countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States.

In the 1980s, Chinese immigrants to California swelled the number of Asians in communities such as Fresno, Oakland and Daly City in the north and Monterey Park, Walnut and the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the south. The decade was a time of friction as Chinese and Western cultures clashed, sometimes from misunderstandings, other times from prejudice and hatred.

With the number of Chinese-Americans in the country projected to reach 1.7 million by the year 2000, longtime residents and immigrants alike have a shared interest in what happens in the next decade, an era destined to be as epochal as other immigration milestones.

In the 1850s, the newcomers escaped famine in China to work as laborers in the fields and on the transcontinental railroad in the United States. The work took some to Wyoming, Mississippi and beyond. But California was always the dream destination. The Chinese characters for San Francisco, for example, are "Old Gold Mountain." Today, 40% of the Chinese in the United States live in California.

There is a dark side, too, to this history. Along with blacks and American Indians, Chinese were prohibited in 1850 from testifying against Anglos. In the 1880s, San Francisco passed discriminatory ordinances targeting Chinese laundries and singling out Chinese men for wearing braids. In 1882, Los Angeles adopted an ordinance prohibiting Chinese from living within the city limits.