Numerous methods of categorization have been devised to define the cultural types of Chinese living in America. However, an understanding of Chinese ethnicity in America is not limited to understanding ethnicity alone, but to how America itself is perceived. The underlying assumption in considering Chinese in America and Chinese-Americans as two separate groups with parallel perceptions of ethnic awareness and experiences, is that America itself is understood to be a changing society. The melting pot concept of ethnic groups being assimilated into a predominantly European-Anglo-Saxon society by giving up their own ethnicity is rejected. What is seen is a new ideal of cultural pluralism which demands ethnic awareness and identity. The unity of the America of the future must be discovered in and through diversity and pluralism. Here Chinese in America and Chinese Americans can help each other to discover the best in Chinese ethnicity in the American multicultural setting. An understanding of history in the broadest possible context of Chinese-American relations can liberate peoples of Chinese origins in America from narrow and inward self perceptions to new horizons and unlimited possibilities of not only ethnic and American, but international and global, awareness and identity. (Author/WI)