For many people, changing from a comfortable situation to a difficult one is often not easy. It is the same for moving from a higher end of the social status to the lower end. This was what happened to my grandfather– upon coming to America, he changed from a chairman in China to a kitchen worker in America. For this Oral History Project, I interviewed my grandfather about his immigration history, which ultimately impacted my own life.
Taishan, China
Taishan, China
My grandfather’s family was the first one to arrive in America back in the 1970s. His older sister first moved to Sacramento, California from Taishan, China, and is currently still living there. At the time, China has yet to trade with the rest of the world and was heavily dominated by communist ideas. Therefore my grandfather’s sister came to America to hope for a better future. Then in the 1980s, my grandfather, in his 40s at the time, came to New York from Guangzhou, China.
Before coming to America, he was actually the chairman of a factory that produces fitness equipments. At first, the business went well and my grandfather’s family was quite well off. Very often, he would go on to business trips to Hong Kong, a city that was very busy in trading at the time, to make deals with clients. On most of the days, he would not be able to make it back home to eat dinner with the family, and often got drunk because of his clients. In return, he would get many benefits and gifts from different businesses for his family and was able to purchase a rather expensive unit to live in at the time. However, because he wanted to look for more freedom in America and to produce a better environment for his future generation, he decided to quit his job to come to America. He believed that America has a better system of government and education that his family would find better to live in and that people would have more equality. Comparing to America, China was full of Communist ideas at the time that my grandfather considered to be unfavorable for his future generations. Since my great great grandfather was one of the victims of communist ideas, my grandfather had a lot of disagreement with such ideas.
When he first came to America, because he did not speak English, he could only work for the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. Because he wanted to bring his family over, he sought for help from Chinese organizations that allow him to learn enough English to pass the civics exam for the citizenship. For someone at the age of over 50, it was definitely not something easy. Eventually, after my grandmother gained his U.S. citizenship for five years, he finally brought my grandmother over with my uncle. At the time, because my mom was over-aged to become a dependent and was about to get married, she did not come to New York City with her family.
For my grandfather, it was actually harder for him to adjust to a new life in America. Since he had been the chairman of the factory, working in a restaurant was a big job environmental change for him. Not only was it a physical struggle, but also a mental struggle. While he could have lived in China comfortably, he chose to do this for his children.
“It was definitely hard… especially when I came to New York with a tourist Visa and had to borrow someone else’s social security card to work and worrying about getting caught. When I finally made enough money, I decided to give the restaurant business a shot.”
In 1995, my grandfather decided to go to California to start a restaurant business with his friend, and my grandmother along with him. In California, they lived in my great aunt’s house. After a few years, because my grandfather’s business was not successful, he came back to New York. Here, he continued to work at a restaurant until he retired. On the other hand, my grandmother worked in various stores as part-time workers to help out the family before she retired.
During the time that my grandfather has been in America, because he never had a chance to learn enough English, they did not have much opportunities for a better job. Therefore, even now, they are still unclear about a lot of the official procedures in the country, and is still living on government benefits. However, in the last ten years or so, my grandmother decided to start a craft vendor business for fun. Every week or so, my grandfather would go to his little stand in Soho selling Chinese crafts.
Even though my grandfather was definitely not a supporter of the systems of administration in China, he wanted to retain as much as the traditions from his home country as possible. For example, on every Chinese holiday such as Lunar New Year, they would set up a table to worship the gods. Also, my grandparents would still make many of the traditional Chinese dishes at home. In addition, upon coming to America for more than twenty years, my grandfather looks forward to the chances that he could to visit his hometown as often as possible. Currently, he is living at an apartment 10 minutes away from Chinatown so that he can visit his friends and be in a more language-friendly environment easily. When he was younger, he used to go to China a lot more often to visit relatives.
“I would love to go back every Chinese New Year or some other holiday to see the other relatives… but the flight is so long and tiring. I’m not sure if I will go back that often now.”
Even though many things changed for my grandfather after coming to America, many of the Chinese family traditions still remained; and his goal to make a better life for himself and his offspring remained. Not only was it not easy for my grandfather to start a new job at the bottom role, he was also had to worry about his legal status and whether he could bring his family over.
My grandfather’s coming to New York City had a great impact on my own life, therefore, I chose to interview him for this project. Because of him, I was able to live a better life than I did in China and expanded my vision of the world. I am very grateful that my grandfather decided to immigrate to America. Like many others, his experience was a typical story of the older generation of immigrants from Asia trying to make a better living for themselves and for their offsprings.
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