Most Asians Think Well of O.C., and Vice Versa : Times Poll: Most say they fare better than other minorities. Non-Asians generally give them high marks.

By large margins, Asians in Orange County view most aspects of their lives positively and say they fare better than other minorities when it comes to financial security, social acceptance and availability of housing and jobs, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll.

Likewise, non-Asians have a generally positive impression of the Asian community, giving it high marks for hard work and contributions to life in the county.

At the same time, however, the poll revealed pockets of ambivalence. For example, Asians report far less confidence in local police than do whites or Latinos, and they hold a stronger concern about crime than do other ethnic groups in Orange County.

Many non-Asians in Orange County, meanwhile, appear somewhat critical of what is perceived to be the clannishness and economic clout of the Asian community.

One in four people in the poll said they believe a “reluctance to mix” agreed that Asians--even more than whites--are “getting more economic power than is good for Orange County.”

“They come in with their money and buy up the neighborhood,” said poll respondent Barbara Smith, a white woman who works as a hairdresser in Midway City, just a few blocks from Little Saigon, the business hub for Orange County’s Vietnamese population. “I don’t want to sound like a horrible person or anything, but that’s just what I’m seeing.”

Still, almost twice as many people polled in Orange County said Asians have had a positive impact on life here as those saying the effect was negative. That’s better than the general attitude toward Latinos, whose contribution was viewed as negative by 32% of those polled. Twenty-four percent said Latinos make a positive contribution.

Asians are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Orange County, their population tripling to nearly 250,000 people between 1980 and 1990, according to the latest census figures. The county has the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, and it is home to substantial and growing numbers of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Filipino residents.

That growth has meant newfound economic muscle for Asians in Westminster’s Little Saigon and elsewhere around the county, but with it has also come racial friction, growing fear of Asian gangs and controversy over immigration.

Two Times polls, conducted earlier this month, sought to explore a range of such issues relating to Asians by interviewing 943 citizens and non-citizens in Orange County and an additional 1,232 people in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The Orange County poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points; for Southern California the error margin is plus or minus three points.

The poll found that Orange County residents hold many of the same views on Asian issues as do their neighbors across Southern California. In some cases, Orange County’s Asian population felt even better about their communities than did their neighbors around the region.

In Orange County, 84% of Asians polled said they were satisfied with their community--the highest level for any ethnic group in the region. Across Southern California, 77% of Asians said they were satisfied, compared to 72% for all ethnicities.

Similarly, seven in 10 Asians in Orange County described themselves as financially secure. Ninety percent said conditions were “good” or “very good” for them to receive adequate housing, educational opportunities, jobs and social acceptance by whites. In Southern California, 83% of Asians said conditions were good or very good.

In contrast, only 48% of Latinos in Orange County thought conditions were good or very good for fellow Latinos here. For whites, the tally was 86%. (While the opinions of black residents were included as part of the total countywide results for the poll, the black sample in Orange County was too small to include as a separate analysis.)

“I’m generally satisfied with my community,” said poll participant B. Heng, a 37-year-old Buena Park father of two who immigrated from Taiwan eight years ago. “There are good schools; we find the recreational opportunities and entertainment good as well. I have no problems with my neighbors, although there are not a lot of other Chinese around.”

One key reason for the general contentment of local Asians appears to be a relatively positive view of race relations and ethnic tolerance--at least in their own lives.

Asians paint a noticeably brighter picture of race relations. Fifty-four percent of Asians in Orange County say race relations here are good or excellent, compared with 43% countywide.

People of all ethnicities said they see discrimination as something of a problem in Orange County. But 62% of Asians say that racial discrimination is a minor problem, or no problem at all, compared with 55% of Latinos who say discrimination is a major or moderate problem.

In Orange County, 14% of Asians said they had experienced discrimination--the same rate as for Asians throughout Southern California.

Twelve percent of Asians in Orange County said they had been the victim of a “hate crime” because of their ethnicity--nine points lower than Asians polled across Southern California.

“It would not be truthful to say prejudice and racism do not exist,” said Santa Ana electrician Gary Le, 35, a Vietnamese refugee who took part in the poll. “I guess I’ve experienced some, but not enough to think about or let it bother me.”

Of those Asians in Orange County who did report discrimination, 45% said it came in the workplace.

“I had a boss who said I should know my place, and he would make all sorts of irresponsible, obnoxious comments about my being Chinese and that I should be subservient,” recalled 24-year-old Deborah Xavier of Irvine, who is half-Chinese.

Xavier said she soon quit her job at a job placement firm because of the supervisor’s verbal abuse. “It doesn’t really surprise me. It just (makes me angry). From what I’ve seen, there’s still an awful lot of bigotry among ethnic people and white people in Orange County,” she said.

Forty percent of Asians in Orange County who reported suffering discrimination said it came “from strangers in a public place,” compared to 53% of Asians regionwide. Twenty-two percent of Latinos and 27% of whites in Orange County who have experienced discrimination said strangers had singled them out because of their race.

While Asians in Orange County reported that they were generally satisfied with the state of race relations in the area today, the poll did find other areas of concern.

Just 27% of Asians in Orange County said they had “a lot” of confidence in local police to protect them, compared to 52% of whites and 37% of Latinos. Sixteen percent of Asians said they had “no confidence” in the police.

More Asians voice a concern over crime compared to other groups in Orange County or the region, with 38% ranking it the most important problem in their community. Gangs came in second at 17% among Asians, and traffic/congestion was third.

Asians and non-Asians alike said they believed the Asian community has been held back in society by its reluctance to mix with other cultures as well as by language and cultural differences. Prejudice was seen as only a small factor.

“Even though culture is important, I think (Asians) are held back because they don’t try hard enough to break away from it,” said Roy, a respondent of Japanese descent who resides in Diamond Bar. He asked that his last name not be used.

“I see more and more Asians out here (in Diamond Bar) but there’s still not a lot. It’s one of the reasons I moved here. I wouldn’t want this place to turn into another Garden Grove (a diverse community with an Asian population of more than 20%). I think the same holds true for blacks and Latinos as well; we have to try to merge with the general community better.”

Despite such criticism, the general population nonetheless praised the Asian community for what was perceived as industriousness, intelligence and devotion to family.

In Orange County, more than half of those polled said they believe Asians are working harder than other groups to succeed. Latinos placed a distant second at 22%.

Susan Tobia, 30, a mother and retired schoolteacher from San Clemente who took part in the poll, remembers how impressed she was as a child with the Japanese business people that her father worked with in the oil industry.

“Ever since then, I’ve always thought of the Asian--mainly the Japanese--as taking over big companies. There’s a lot of companies that are Asian-owned, and they just seemed to be working really hard. . . . It’s a drive to succeed that I think is bred in them from day one.”

But Xavier, the half-Chinese woman who had problems with her boss, said she believes such attitudes have a definite downside for Asians.

“That’s a very big stereotype,” she said. “It can be a negative, because people expect more. If an Asian person acts like a typical American, they’re looked down on because most Americans expect Asians to be studious and quiet and hard-working.”

Times staff writer Lily Dizon contributed to this report.

How the Poll Was Conducted

The Times Poll interviewed 943 adult residents of Orange County Aug. 12-15. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the county. Random-digit dialing techniques were used to ensure that both listed and unlisted numbers had an opportunity to be contacted. Results were weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and labor force participation. Asians and Latinos were oversampled to ensure large enough samples for analysis; these groups are weighted to their proper proportions in the overall, countywide results. Comparative results for Southern California are from a separate Times Poll of 1,232 adults conducted Aug. 7-10. The margin of sampling error for percentages based on the entire sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points in the Orange County survey and 3 points in the Southern California survey; for subgroups the error margin may be somewhat higher. Interviewing in both polls was conducted in English and Spanish; only those conversant in one of those languages were interviewed.

Asian Life Is Upbeat

Asians in Orange County have a higher degree of satisfaction with their communities than do county residents generally. And satisfaction is higher locally than in the Southern California region as a whole.

* All things considered, would you say you are satisfied or dissatisfied these days with the community in which you live? Orange County

Total Asians Satisfied 78% 84% Neither 1 2 Dissatisfied 21 12 Don’t know * 2

* Less than 1% Southern California

Total Asians Satisfied 72% 77% Neither 2 3 Dissatisfied 25 19 Don’t know 1 1

Source: Los Angeles Times Poll

Asian Community Is Positive, Proud

Orange County’s Asian population sees other ethnic groups as the prime victims of discrimination, a view mirrored throughout Southern California. They are more likely to view cultural and language differences rather than prejudice as inhibiting factors.

* Which group, if any, do you think suffers the most discrimination in your community these days? Orange County

Total Asians Latinos 36% 26% Blacks 21 30 Asians 11 16 Whites 9 7

Southern California

Total Asians Latinos 45% 45% Blacks 36 38 Whites 10 2 Asians 9 18

Note: Not all responses are shown

* What do you think is the primary thing holding Asians back in Orange County: Is it prejudice, or language, or their own reluctance to mix in mainstream society, or cultural differences, or inadequate social services, or the bad economy, or lack of political power or is it something else, or don’t you think Asians are being held back at all in Orange County? Orange County

Total Asians Language 34% 44% Cultural differences 30 43 Reluctance to mix 26 12 Prejudice 8 8 Lack political power 5 20 Bad economy 3 10 Nothing 29 11 Don’t know 6 4

Southern California*

Total Asians Language 25% 24% Reluctance to mix 24 18 Cultural differences 19 27 Prejudice 13 17 Lack political power 7 21 Bad economy 6 15 Nothing 29 15 Don’t know 6 6

* Asked about Asians in Southern California Totals add to more than 100% due to multiple responses; not all categories shown

Local Impact The county Asian community sees itself as having had an overall positive impact here. The view is the same regionally.

* Generally speaking, what impact have Asians had on life in Orange County? Orange County

Total Asians Positive 36% 60% Negative 19 8 Both equally 39 29 Don’t know 6 3

Southern California*

Total Asians Positive 41% 49% Negative 16 10 Both equally 37 37 Don’t know 6 4

* Asked about Asians in Southern California Source: Los Angeles Times Polls