Interview of Paul Fong - The Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Perspectives Oral History Project

Paul Fong

Date: February 7, 2023
Interviewer: Ellina Yin & Yvonne Kwan
Interviewee: Paul Fong (1952 - )

He is a former Democratic California State Assembly member from the 28th district. Fong has taught Asian American studies at De Anza College and Political Science at Evergreen Valley College. He was elected to the board of trustees of the Foothill'De Anza Community College District in 1993 and served as a trustee until 2008, when he left the board due to his election to the California State Assembly. In addition to having strong agricultural ties to the Santa Clara County region, Fong helped fund and establish a more stable building and location for Asian Americans for Cmmunity Involvement.

Transcript of Paul Fong

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Narrative & Identity Timeframe 0:00 >> 4:30

I was born with the name Fong Lai Chong. When I came to this country at three years old, I changed it to Paul Fong because my godmother changed my name. She was a Scottish woman married to my Chinese godfather. And so I was born in 1952, August 5th in Macao, China. I came over here when I was three years old to this country. We moved by the hillsides that my maternal grandfather, and we grew flowers on the hillside. We had a nursery there. In fact, most of the Chinese Americans that Chinese arrive during that period also learn for my grandfather's nursery. And they started the Bay Area Chrysanthemum Flower Growers Association as a result. And they're very dominant in this area, too. Now they're mostly Vietnamese Americans in the Bay Area south and flower growers. And then we grow flowers, they grow vegetables and grow vegetables in Menlo Park and Morgan Hill and Gilroy area. So that's slightly changed.

Okay. So I, I have five siblings or five other siblings. I my older sister, Liz. She's 72 years old now. She's born February 4th, and she was born in Macao. Also. And then I have a younger brother, Larry, a year younger than me. He was born in Macao also. He came over to and then my sister came over for and I came over at three, that kind of stuff. And then in this country, I have a younger brother, Allen Fong, who grew up who was born in America. He's born in 1964, July 20th, 1964. And then our youngest sister, also Janie. She's born in 1966, June of 1966. Janie is the government affairs officer, East West Bank. She is a corporate officer, very high-ranking officer, East West Bank. So she's doing quite well financially, economically, at her job. And my brother Allen is currently running the family business. My dad and mom left a sizable estate which I helped develop too, and he runs the family up properties. And the Larry, who is my younger brother, is very successful in in in this area. He's a lawyer, and he has invested in a lot of property all by himself. And he's quite wealthy. And my older sister is a schoolteacher. And I became a teacher, too. She lives in San Jose, and she's very active in the Asian American community through the Chinese Historical Cultural Center and other activities. She started a lion dance troupe in her middle school, which is still going on now, and most of her lion dance troupe have gone up and grown up and started a, the premier, lion dance troupe in the valley right now. And so she's contributed a lot, too, to that. We had our family started the first lion dance troupe in this area. You know, my brother played did my dad played the drums and my brother, youngest brother learned how to play the drums from him. And now he plays the drums all over the place. He plays the drums at the parade and and for the Chinese Historical cultural center. And he he just plays the drums a lot, you know, the traditional drums for Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year festivals. And I used to play the cymbal and I was the lion head, too. So when we started the first one there and we we actually my dad, because I invested on our property instead of investing on the last green house, we invested in the Chinese Community Center in Palo Alto, and that was where AACI got founded, where they started their first office and the Chinese Community Center was a central focus for many Asian Americans in the Valley at that time. It's in Palo Alto, though. It's kind of uptown, but, you know, it's downtown, too. And so and so, you know, we did we contributed to the community that way. And I used to manage the center because it didn't generate a lot of profit because it was a community center and a business complex, too, as well.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 4:30 >> 15:32

But I started in real estate when I was in college. I invested in that Chinese community center, invested in a duplex, I invested in another house, invested in some land, and I did really good in real estate. And so I became a real estate broker. My first profession was outside of the flower business because I always maintained the flower business. I started a flower stand, little flower…called Little Flower Stop in front of our nursery because my dad used to throw flowers away and only be a week old. And I used to get them all the garbage can, and I sold them out to the people in the street on North Marie Avenue because there was a bottleneck there. And so I used to make about 100 bucks when I was in high school. There's a lot of money back then. And so I was entrepreneurial back in the day when I was in high school, when I started my sophomore year.

And then by time, my my senior year came around, my parents did the corporate takeover because the business was so good that they kind of kind of took it over and they kind of built it up and they were doing a couple hundred bucks a day double the business because they focused on it. And so it was pretty it was pretty successful. I actually took that flower stand, the Little Flower Stop and moved the refrigerator that we had in there to my new flower cottage that I built in 1980. I continued with the Fong family legacy of flowers because I believe in family legacies also. And so I, I, I moved it to North Sunnyvale, which I still operate the flower cottage. It's the preferred florist in Sunnyvale according to Yelp. We're the best florist in town, in Sunnyvale. And so, um, I have my real estate brokerage right next door to it. And so I do those two businesses. I, I had to start a business because I was an activist. I spent most of my time doing activist stuff, but I had to make a living.

And so I had two very successful businesses to make a living and allowed me the free time to be a community activist, you know? And I was an activist in a big way because I started a many or social justice organizations over the years and and things that I felt needed. I just did it, you know, I just went and did it. And and so I was involved with Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI). The very beginning in the very beginning, conceptualizing because my mentors were Paul Sakamoto. He was my first mentor in high school. I met him when I was a freshman. He taught me about multiculturalism, and I carried that thought with me throughout my career. And then the second mentor and role model with Mike Honda, he's this cool guy that came to our high school. He was organizing the Chicano Student Unions. I ran with Chicanos, a lot of Chicanos. I thought I was Chicano, too, you know, that day back in the day. And so he was organizing my brothers and sisters in the Chicano community. And I thought, this is a cool, the coolest Asian guy I ever met. And so it was my junior year in high school.

And so I was very fortunate to be influenced by two very great mentors and role models. And I know that people need that. You know, I got some I had lucky role models and mentors in my freshman year in college, I met Ed Kawazoe. He was kind of a beatnik kind of Asian American guy, and I thought I was a beatnik, too, because I, you know, before the hippie days and they influenced me. I still use I sign off my name, Daddy-o, to my kids. I call myself Daddy-o, too, because I think I'm an older beatnik and and a hippie, too. I kind of grew up between the beatnik and hippie days, so I kind of evolved into becoming a hippie when I got into college. And all that, and then my, I could talk about my, my fourth and fifth mentors, which was in San Jose State University with Greg Mark. He was the director of Asian American Studies. I worked closely with him because I had connections out in the community with AACI because I was conceptualizing with him, and I was the youngest board member on AACI too. And so I merged those two together. The Asian Americans for Community Involvement, the first Asian American group named after Asian Americans in the community with Asian American Studies. And so I kind of bought the board of directors into the protest that Greg Mark led about in 1975 when we were protesting the elimination or the cuts in Asian American studies back in the day. And so I got some members of the board what the students, and we picketed and we used the sit in on in the office of Bunzel president, Bunzel and Vice President Burns. And so we got our way with Greg. Mark, tell you about that. He's really proud of that episode in his life. And so I'm proud of it, too. And so Greg Mark became kind of a mentor and role model to me at San Jose State, my first one.

My second one was Terry Christianson. You got me involved with politics in 1976. He's a political science professor. He just retired. And then there's another kind of a pseudo mentor is Dr. Toutel. He's a sociology teacher. He's kind of a space case. You know, he's just over everyone's head in sociology. But I somehow understood what he was talking about. And I, you know, I aced class and and I got in real close with him. He liked what I was doing out in the community, and he was trying to get stuff, information for me, what I was doing and how I was doing it. And so he had an interest in my sociological experiences out in the community and so that was kind of interesting. He's kind of a pseudo mentor of mine because I looked up to him even though he was kind of a space case kind of professor. He just, you know, just above everyone's head. And, you know, I, I said, God, I understand him. Can I be a space case, too? Yeah.

So anyway, and then I added Ed Kawazoe brought me along to meetings that was conceptualizing Asian Americans for Community Involvement between 71 and 73. And there was three. There's about four or five or six meetings that they had in different offices. Paul Sakamoto’s office, Ed Kawazoe’s office, and Allen Seid’s office. Dr. Allen Seid was actually the brains behind starting Asian Americans for Community Involvement. And he he's actually the the fifth mentor that I had role model the I looked up to. And so I had some really good mentors and role models to emulate. And I just tried to emulate all of them. And I think I've done that my throughout my life, that I've really carried their agenda in a sense. Okay. And so those were my role models and mentors. I was real lucky to have them.

And in between all that, you know, before all that, I was a jock, I was really physically endowed. I set four records at my junior high school that when they were out of six records and physical education, when they closed the high school down, those records stood because there were quite incredible feat that I did. And then in high school I was one of two members that got a Gold Trunk, President Kennedy's physical fitness era time. And I got Gold Trunk, which is the highest status for physical education. Person There was ten exercises and you had to score at least 90 percentile and all ten I scored 100 percentile in nine of them and 90% in swimming. And so the other person who did the scored 90% in all ten, but I scored 100 over 100 percentile in nine of those exercises. In fact, I set six records that in Sunnyvale High School that when they closed down they those records stood. And so I was physically endowed and my brother said is because you have a high IQ with your physical endowment that's why you're able to do what I did.

And so that that could be some truth to that because I knew I was kind of smart, because in fifth grade, Mr. Clark, who told me my test scores, as you're over the chart in your test scores, I mean, you your junior year in reading a college year in math, you know, and I was in fifth grade then. And so he said, my IQ is very high. He actually disclosed that to me in fifth grade. And so they put me in SMSG Math, Stanford Mathematical Statistical project that they had. And that really messed me up, just turned me off to math completely because it messed me up in math. And so although I can figure out figure numbers really quickly in my mind, I, I just didn't get the statistical math that they were trying to teach me. And so that was part of how I grew up.

But before all that, I was just a home homeboy, a homie in the hood. I spent all my time out in the hood, and I didn't do any student activities because I was just learning from the street streets and, you know, learn from the streets are some things that you have to deviate from. You know, I was kind of a low rider kind of guy. I hung around with Chicanos. I thought I was Chicano myself. And and so, you know, because because the Asian American stereotype was that we were passive and were not aggressive. And we just, you know, we we don't have huevos, you know. And I knew I had huevos and I wanted to preserve my huevos. And so anyway, I've always fought the system because I wanted to show that I had huevos because the model minority stereotype shows that Asian American males do not have huevos. And so that's why I thought I was Chicano all this all these years, you know, because I had huevos and, you know, the crazy Chicanos, you know, they they had huevos. All I had was, you know, you know, you know what I'm saying, you know? And so that kind of got me kind of gave me the strength to do all the things I did out in the community. I wasn't afraid. I just did it. I just went and did it. And I got a lot of things accomplished as a result.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 15:32 >> 24:05

I started in a lot of social justice organizations. I served on three dozen nonprofit boards, boards and commissions, and eventually I got elected to the Community College Board of Trustees because I was teaching part time at De Anza College for, uh, six years. I got my master's program so I could teach Asian American studies at De Anza College in 1976. I taught part time to the 1992. When I quit the quit my job to run for the board because the institutions kept threatening to eliminate or cut us. Yeah, that's the story of ethnic studies and Asian American studies throughout life, even today. I mean, it's we all think they're all getting when they want to put the axe down, the first thing they look at is Asian American studies and ethnic studies seems to be a pattern.

And I thought that when I got elected to the Board of Trustees, I gave intercultural studies the power to build them, develop. They became the second largest division at the ends of college. And because that was the policy as a policymaker, you can drive your policies in the college. And I felt I was empowering my cause to do that. And so I did that at De Anza College and I decided to do it at the state level. The California Community College trustees, 750 of us. And I actually founded the Asian Pacific American Trustees Association with Mark Takano. He's a congressmember now. And Richard Tanaka, he's passed away. And there's only four of us that are back in the day in the 1993-94 era. And I said, hey, there's not enough of us. We're underrepresented in this area in governance. And I know what governance can do because I was doing it in Foothill/De Anza, and so I decided to organize the Asian Pacific American trustees.

But in order for one group to be empowered, you have to work with the other groups of color, like Latinx, the Latino group and the African American group. So I actually initiated forming the tri-caucus of the CCCT, okay. And so, you know, I got an award for that in the back there for being a founder of the Asian American Trustees Association. And so I was I already got my credit for that. And I actually joined the Association of Community College Trustees before I joined the CCCT, and I actually did the same thing there. I did it once before at the national level with 7000 trustees. I formed the Asian American and Native American Trustees Association. And I think the federal government followed our suit in putting the Asian American and Native Americans together in funding sources because we were the ones that created that as the Trustee Association, the Asian American and Native American Trustees Association, because the Native Americans felt that their they were too small and they wanted to connect with one of the groups and they felt closest to Asian Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders because Pacific Islanders were kind of Native too. And so so they wanted to join our group. And so we formed APANATA Asian Pacific American, Native American Trustees Association, and then we formed a tri-caucus with the African American and Latino group as well. I did it in the national level, I did in the state level as well. And at state level and the national level, I was just on the board. But in the state level, I became president elect of the CCCT. They wanted me to be president of that group. And that's because, you know, I cutting edge, I did all these different things for people of color and all that. And so I got a lot of support from my other board members and I was president elect and I couldn't be president because I got elected to the state assembly that year.

I got elected to the state Assembly because I had to prove to my mentees that I knew what I was doing. And the Mercury News already called me the Asian American godfather of politics back in the day. But I had to prove to my mentees that I knew what I was doing. So I ran for the…I got out of the back room. I was a backroom politico. I got in the front, and I ran for the state assembly and I won. And I knew I was going to win because I had a head start in my lot. My fourth term in the Board of Trustees election, Foothill/De Anza Board of Trustees election. I just talked to Democrats because I knew that it was a closed primary, and I had to get my word out to Democrats in order to win the primary. And it's a largely Democratic district. And so I had some fierce competition there. There was a guy that spent twice as much money as I did that I beat him by 8%, I being 38 to 30. And then there are two other prominent women that ran, and I beat them. They got 15% of the vote or so. And so, you know, I had to show them that I knew what I was doing. And so that's why I ran mainly to prove to them that I'm not just the backroom godfather, backroom politico, but I can do do things up front, too. And so I you know, and I think that that added to my creds with my mentees that I knew what I was doing. And so they continue to call me the godfather of politics for some reason.

And of course, when I got into the state assembly, I kind of brought that whole mode of operation to the state assembly. And all the state assembly members called me the godfather of politics, the Asian American community as well, because I chaired the API caucus my last two years in the Assembly, and I really promoted Asian Pacific Islander agenda in the state legislature, in all communities in the state. And so the title seems to be living with me now because everybody in the state Assembly refers to me as the godfather of politics and the Asian American community. And so, you know, it's it's a funny title because I'm just an O.G., I'm a I'm a homeboy. I'm just trying to be trying to achieve the best I can as the ultimate homeboy and and as an O.G. kind of guy. And so they kind of gave me that title because I'm an old sheet, right, you know, kind of guy. And I, you know, it's been quite a life. You know, I've been able to accomplish almost everything I set my eyes on doing. And and so in the end, it's what I do. I just just as I have for the students, it's a simple Nike slogan. “Just go do it” because you don't know what you can accomplish until you just go do it. And so that that was my the ending statement because I've been just going doing it. I just go do it. And and the thing is, I've been accomplishing great feats, I mean, better than I thought I could do because I just did it.

And I had a lot of support from people in the community and I had a lot of support from my followers and and my mentees and stuff. And and so, you know, I, I just go do it. And that's what you got to do. You just got to try it. You got to try do it. And you don't know what you can accomplish if you do. It's like Yvonne Kwan running the Asian [American Studies], is this whole program. She's doing a great job in documenting that the history of activist is really cutting edge what she's doing. And so with the you know it's I'm glad I'm part of it, too, because it's really an honor to be part of all the other activists that contributed to the development of the Asian American community because it takes a village actually do to to raise a child and it takes a village to run that village, you know, so it's it's it's…and I really believe in that, you know, And the thing is that, you know, one of the things I believe in is if you're not on the table, you're being served on the table. And so you've got to be around the table to make decisions. And that's what I've been trying to build in all aspects of the political arena. In business, I try to break glass ceilings if there are glass ceilings and in front of us and and I've been doing that all my life. It's kind of a natural behavior of mine to be doing that.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 24:05 >> 29:13

And so I try to tell my students that you just go do it, just go do it. You don't know what you can accomplish until you try. And so that's you know, the thing is I you know, teaching for the 46 or 48 years that I've been teaching, I have so many students out there that remember me in Asian American studies and political science. Yeah, Yeah. It's just an honor to have students remember you. You know, it might have been bad or good or whatever it is, but they remember you somehow. And I think it's an honor to be remembered by your students. So when they say, I remember you had you for Asian American studies. Yeah. What year? Okay. Okay. I can remember that time because, you know, every time the time is different, you know, I grow and I, I teach with my growth and, you know, political science. I grow and I teach with my growth. And so I'm somebody now and I think I've grown quite a bit since I was 20. And so, you know, I try to present that to my students, my former students. And and it's just an honor to see them doing so well out there. I mean, to see her involved with the project, too, to see them do more.

Well, except I had one student that I met that Home First I saw on the Home First board of directors. It's the largest homeless shelter providers in Santa Clara County. And I met one of my former students there in the homeless shelter. And I said, How are you doing? He says, I'm doing okay. I won't be homeless for long. I don't know how long you still I don't know if you still homeless now. But he he had a real positive attitude about his homelessness. He's going to get out of it pretty soon. He's going to find a shelter really soon. And I. Hey, listen, power to you. If you need any help, give me a call. You know, give my number and all that. He's never given me a call, so he doesn't need any help. But you know, you know, So I have him all over the place.

I mean, most of my students are very successful in the tech industry, social media industry, in government, in working in the state, working in the feds, working in the county, working in cities. They're all they're working in hospitals because they have a lot of nursing students at Evergreen Valley colleges. There’s a requirement that they have to take political science and ethnic studies. So I have a lot of nursing students and they're all all over all over the hospitals. I had some that served me at Kaiser when I had my open-heart surgery, you know, So it was great to see that I was being taken care of by my former students to. And so it was it's just really a it's really a blessing to be a teacher, to have that kind of relationship with your former students. And and that is that the thrill of a lifetime is to be a teacher and have that relationship with your students. It is just nothing that makes you feel better. When some students if I had you for my teacher in Asian American studies or had you as my teacher for political science, it is such a great feeling.

You feel like, you know, I contributed to their growth wherever they are at that time. And so it's so that is the top priority in my life, is being a teacher and influencing students in this way, you know, and I respect what Yvonne is doing because I know that she does that too. And so and she's going to have a lot of students that will say, I had you, you know, 20 years ago or 30 years ago, you know, the class. So if they remember you, that amount of time that you've made, you made a dent in their lives. And so it's it's a great that's the greatest feeling in the world when a student recognizes you that you were in the class, you know, and the county I go the county, I deal with Santa Clara County. And I had a lot of former students that worked there.

And, you know, I go to the city of Sunnyvale. I have former students that work there. I go to the Kaiser Hospital and the county hospital. I have former students that work there. They're there working all over the place. They're in high tech and and they're in social media companies. They're all doing very well because if they're in that company, they're making good money and also they're doing well in government and all their in all areas. Some of them are teachers now and and some of them started their own company doing very well, starting their own company. And they were, you know, you know, I hope you learn something from me. I learned something. You know, just go do it. That's the thing. They just went and did it. So, you know, it's kind of the thing that I try to convince convey to my students is that you just got to try. I mean, you have a lot of skills and a lot of talent. You don't know what you can accomplish, so just go do it. You'll find out what you can accomplish. And so it's it's my it's a Nike slogan, but I mean, I was telling that to my students before Nike copied my slogan.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 29:13 >> 33:38

Well, my parents are Yick Ko Fong. His nickname was YK for short, YK Fong. Everyone used to call me YK because they would have mailbox all the time. And. And my mom is May Hon Phong. She's still alive. My dad passed away about ten years ago. He lived the good life, though. And then my mom's still alive. She's 92, 93, and we're trying to keep her alive for another ten years or so. But, you know, it's starting to lose her. You know, you get older, you start losing your senses and stuff. But she they were born, and my dad was born 1927, and he died in 2009, 2010. And then my mom was born in 1933 years younger than him. And that shows that, you know, my dad graduated [dropped out] from high school in ninth grade. He went to ninth grade, and he had to leave because his dad died and he had to take care family stuff and he had to go to work. And then my mom dropped out in sixth grade. I don't know why, but maybe the times were bad too, because what she got, they they dropped out about the same time of our school. So they have a ninth grade education and a sixth grade education. But they know the importance of education. They always encourage that to us. And and so they met through their parents. There was a setup, but they actually liked each other, you know, a lot of set ups. They don't like each other, but they actually liked each other, and they grew fond of each other. And my mom is very loyal to him to this date, you know, So you know this. They were in love with each other and and and so it is a lucky matchup by the parents because they loved each other too each. This is in Canton in Canton area.

They're born in Canton. I was born in Macao. They fled communism, and they went south of the Communist border to Macao because it was a Portuguese colony. And and my dad, he was he's an he said he was an accountant in Macao, but I think he's a street guy because I learned how to be on the street like him and he ran black market money conversion. I think that's the accountant he was. He ran the black-market money conversion dealer, converted money in the streets, and my mom was a housewife and she became a flower grower because she had to work out in the fields and the flowers. And my dad became a flower grower too, when we moved to this country. Um, and learned it from my grandfather in the Hillside.

In 1956, we came over and we we worked in my grandfather's nursery for four years and then we moved out to Sunnyvale. We rented a piece of land in Sunnyvale. That's when I moved into Sunnyvale in 1960, and we leased the piece of land on Pajaro Avenue, which is the side of tracks on the side of the tracks. And it was right next to the hood, right next to a neighborhood there. And it's a small neighborhood, secluded. It was just a lot of Latinos there, working class whites, the working-class community. And that's where I used to hang out. I used to hang out in the hood there. And I kind of ventured out further to the Westinghouse area in the hood, but I also hung out on the side of the tracks, the wrong side of the tracks, because that's the sociological delineation between working class communities and white-collar community. Other side of the tracks with white collar community. And so, you know, I, I learned mostly from my friends out in the hood. I learned from them, and I learned to be a Chicano from them. I learned how to be working class kind of guy. I learned how working-class whites are short. They think like rednecks most of the time.

And so, you know, that was during that time. And many of the union members are more progressive now because us people of color got into the union leadership and started to change that kind of thinking. But, you know, in that day, most of the working-class whites were rednecks, okay. And so there were really short and brief, and they didn't like talking about people of color or advancing.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 33:38 >> 36:23

The civil rights movement was coming in. And they [working-class whites] thought that that was kind of a conspiracy to take over the country by blacks and brown people. And so Asian Americans were kind of left out of the civil rights movement because we were kind of seen as a quiet minority that weren't that sizable. But we faced the brunt of discrimination that they couldn't get to the blacks and the brown people. They got at Asians. And and it seems like I mean, I was 1964 on this 1968, 69. I mean, I used to be called, “Hey Jap. Go home. We don't want you here.“ You know, you know, “Chinaman, chink”, all this. I mean, all these names by these redneck people as I walk home from middle school, elementary school, you know, and so, you know, I, I got I got really pissed off. I just didn't know what to do because there's so overwhelmingly anti-Asian when I was growing up and I didn't do anything wrong. I'm just walking home, and they just yell at me, and they curse at me. They make fun of me, you know? And I just, you know, I you know, fortunately, I grew up tough. I was a tough guy. I think the way to counter is to be tough, to take care of yourself and to be able to fight and be able to handle things. And so you know, I kind of became I came to I became the toughest guy in my sophomore year in high school, in a real tough school with a lot of tough guys. And so I had to be really tough to be a tough guy in a tough guy school. And so, you know, I learned how to be a good I was seen as sort of a gang leader with all these people because I was so tough, and I wasn't a gang leader. I just I just tough, you know? But, you know, so they see me, like, running these people because they all these gang leaders respected me because I was really tough. And so, you know, I was never got in a fight in high school because the second, third toughest guys would just take care of everybody. For me, they said, Who's the toughest guy in school? Paul Fong, You can even take me. So, you know, not going to touch him. So I never I was untouchable because the tough guys used to take on these new tough guys coming into Sunnyvale High. And and, you know, I never got in a fight because all the other tough guys were my understudies. They took care of things. I delegated it to them. I guess.

(Interviewer) Forever the Godfather.

Right. I guess I was O.G. back in the day. I didn't know The Godfather. I was the O.G.

Systems & Power Timeframe 36:23 >> 39:32

Well, my my grandfather was the paper son because that's the only way you can get over here at that time. Even though my great grandfather was over here working on the railroads, he went back to China in 1989, 1898 or something like that. And then he had my grandfather in 1917, and my grandfather came over in 1937, 38 when he was 21 or 22 years old. Okay. And and he was stuck in Angel Island. So I learned about Angel Island through my grandfather. He was he was interrogated for two months and they kept him locked up for two months. And then, you know, and then when my grandfather died, when he was pretty young, 57, the last thing he said to me, he goes, “Lei m seon do di bak guoi.” “You can't trust those white devils” because he was interrogated by the white devils and you know, he all saw them as the whites as devils, the “bak guoi”. So that's his last words. Good sound of advice means don't trust those white devils when he died. That's what he said because of his experience in Angel Island and him growing up during the era of racism and discrimination.

You know, and and that era has been with us since 1849 is comes in a vicious cycle. And it just happens like the last major era before this Asian hate era was when Vincent Chen was killed. There was a little still going on, but it was not a subtle I mean, it was more overt like it is now. You know, it was overt back then because the Japanese cars were doing as well as American cars in the Asian American community suffered a backlash as a result of that. And so that was the reason why Asian hate occurred then. Now Asian hate occurs because you're old and you're defenseless, and they're going to attack you anyway. And so it's a it's you know, it's racist.

Discrimination and prejudice works in the cycle. The prejudice is always there. When they want to discriminate, it comes out okay. So that's what happens to our community. And then we have to always fight it. That's why the reason why I try to build and empower our community, because we need you need some influence to fight that. And so, you know, I got enough influence in Santa Clara County to fight it, and everyone is against it here. You know, it's not going to happen here as readily as in Oakland or some other places because we are ready to fight it here. We have groups like a APALI who Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute, who trains leaders to fight it, you know. And so we're ready for it. We're ready for it here. Yeah. And and a lot of it has to do with the fact that you know, I kind of built that structure to be ready for it because I grew up in that kind of environment, you know. So you have to be ready for fighting, you know. And so it's it's one of those things where it's a fight, constant fight all my life. I know it's not going to ever stop.

Timeframe 39:32 >> 41:27

And when I die, and I thought I was going to die after my heart attack. But, you know, I mean, my heart surgery. But, you know, I'm still alive now. I've got 15 or 30 years. Fortunately, because they found my aortic valve stenosis early on. And I had a triple bypass, too, because of the stuff I ate, the American food I ate, the greasy stuff and all that. So that clear all three arteries too. So anyway, a little bit about my health, but I'm lucky I'm surviving now. I'm recovering from my heart surgery and so everything is good.

(Interviewer) Oh, what if your grandfather knew how terrible it was, why did your parents decide to come here?

Because the opportunity, you know, they wanted the American dream. They wanted to provide a better opportunity for their kids, the children. And they came here. They worked hard. They built a nest egg; if fact, he bought land. He bought more land. He bought more property. And as a result, you know, we have generational wealth in our family, kids. Because my dad and mom, they wanted to leave a legacy behind. They have a trust, and they left it to the five kids. They actually left it to me as the eldest son. But I rebelled against being the eldest son. I said, you got to split it up with everybody. So I cut it and all my kids, all my siblings, because I'm more progressive than being an eldest son in a traditional Chinese family. So, you know, they you know, they wanted a better life for us, and they actually did accomplish that for us. And so that's why I say just go do it. My dad did it, I'm doing it. Anybody could do it. And so, yeah, so, you know, they just wanted a better life for us, and they actually provided a better life for us too.

Timeframe 41:27 >> 45:17

Well, the community I grew up in, Sunnyvale is considered the happiest place, city in the country. Okay. And it wasn't always that way, especially in the area I grew up in. There's was a lot of working-class whites and, you know, got a lot of redneck attitudes towards me. And and I learned how to deal with it. I know how to deal with rednecks because some of my best friends are actually rednecks because I had no choice to choose them. And they became my homies. And and, you know, becoming my homie is the ultimate relationship that you could have that I really believed her because, you know, you have commonality and, you know, you're different. You know, I have a lot of Trump lovers as my friends, you know, and stuff. But we see through that because we're both we're both homies. And that's the thing is that there's something greater than politics is the bond that we had. We developed when we were younger from the hood. Okay.

(Interviewer) And what did you and your family do? Do you have vacations like weekends together?

Well, we worked 24/7, and the weekends we go to Chinatown sometimes watch a movie and drove us home. That's about it. That's the only thing we did was go to Chinatown and watch a movie or something. Eat late night at Sun Hung Huen, a late-night wonton and come home. That was the only recreation that we did. But we worked 24/7 because the growing flowers in the nursery, you had to tend to the flowers. They go for three and a half months. You had to turn to them at every stage of the way. Otherwise, they they they'll die or they'll they'll fail. So you had to be successful in growing flowers. It's really hard profession. And I learned that, you know, you had to work 24/7 to really accomplish what you want to do. So I've been working 24/7, I run two three businesses and in the organizations that I work with, I teach full time, you know, So, you know, I there's enough time in the day to do all that stuff. You just got to work.

Well, when my parents took us to the movies, it was Chinese film. We went to the movies, it was American films. Yeah. My favorite American film was West Side Story because they were jets in my high school were jets, too. And we were in the north side of town, and this was West Side Story, but with the same kind of thing. Sal Mineo was a gang leader. I looked up to him and Natalie Wood was the foxiest woman I ever saw. In fact, I dated a Natalie Wood type my senior year, and we started going with each other for five years after that. And so I even I admire Natalie Wood. I went for a woman like Natalie Wood in high school because I, I, I kind of had my choice because I was big. You know, halfway good looking, you know, kind of stuff. And I was really dominant. And I had all the non-racist girls loving me, you know? So, you know, you know, I had I had my pick, but I couldn't pick any of them because my parents wouldn't let me date. They wouldn't let me date. They wouldn't let me interracially date. And so I kind of had to fight them to let me do that. You know, when I got older, 18, 19, I said, “Hey, man, I got needs.”

Well, I like the kung fu films. I like martial arts films. Before even Bruce Lee came out, I like martial arts. They used to do martial arts and Chinese films and and they had like, gu-lo [old-timer], the old Asian films. I used to watch a lot of gu-lo [old timer] films that made me cry. They're sad and stuff. And so, you know, I understood Cantonese very well. I still speak Cantonese. I'm bilingual. I'm bicultural. And so, you know, I like those old Chinese movies.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 45:17 >> 47:50

(Interviewer) How did you maintain the language?

Mostly with my parents, but I worked out in the community too as well. I worked in the bilingual center. I was organizing the non-English speaking Cantonese speakers in town. I organized ESL classes for them because they've been here in this country for most of their lives and they haven't learned English. So I said, maybe, it's time to learn English. So I organized English as a second language classes in the bilingual center. We had a bilingual center in Sunnyvale, and I organized the community around me, the mostly flower growers or the people that work in the flower growing industry and other people that work in the restaurant industry and all that. And I just got them together and had a class like 30 or 40 people, two or three classes in fact. We organized about 100 of them from the community and taken ESL classes and they loved it. They took it to three. They repeated itself, they took it for a couple of years, and they all learned English.

So I think I contributed to a lot of English learners in it from the Cantonese community and that was my time when I was organizing in college because I organized the first Asian American student organization with Robert Handa, a good high school buddy of mine. And I taught him how to be Asian American, too. And so he'd been Asian American ever since. He has a show called Asian American Asian Show. You know, he says he's just really pro Asian American now because, you know, I influenced him being Asian American. He's a couple of years younger than me. And he actually looked up to me because I was a great football player. He all he always wanted me throw passes to him. And so, you know, he actually looked up to me because we had athletic prowess as a commonality.

Well, yeah. I used to develop a system where I expedite my chores three times faster than I used to, and I used to do it, got it in the sock and I kind of twice I cut the tops of the flowers really fast. I got, you know, like a job that normally takes three or 4 hours. I do it an hour or 45 minutes. And so I got time to go out in the hood to hang out with my friends in the hood. And I do that and I go out and I hang out and then I come back and I said, okay, I'm done working that my dad, until he got me to water the plants, the water, the plants. I only the water only comes out so fast. And so, you know, he found a way to cut me off from going out the hood. You know, my dad's smart in that way.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 47:50 >> 49:17

(Interviewer) Did you ever get into trouble with your parents? Did they ever catch you?

My parents kind of abused me because I was the oldest son. I was the defiant eldest son. And so they wanted me to become the eldest son. And they used to beat me and all that. And they abused me quite a bit to be the eldest son in a traditional Chinese family. And I defied it, and I defied a can only to defied it to this day because I was as defiant towards being that traditional eldest son, because I felt it was a very backward position in this country. And so, you know, I and I, you know, I continued on to fight that because, you know, I, I fought things that were bad, that and part of the Chinese culture like eating shark's fin soup. I banned shark fin even in this country. If I got heat from a lot of the traditional Chinese people, you know, but it was the right thing to do because it saved our environment and our oceans ecosystem, saved the sharks lives. And we need sharks to be to keep the balance in our ocean. And so, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, you get half the oxygen from the ocean in the air, or if the sharks go, so does our ocean. Our oceans go dirty, and so does our oxygen. Everything it will go will go down. The earth will be plummeting if we lose our shark population. They're the top food predators that keep the order in the ocean. And we need to keep that order there. Yeah. And so I did the shark fin ban and in the assembly bill AB 3376, I left a couple of legacies there. That was part of the most prominent legacy.

Systems & Power Timeframe 49:17 >> 52:20

Okay, my first elementary school, Baywood Elementary School, with an upper middle class white community in San Mateo because we had a nursery up there, and then we walked two miles to the elementary school down to Morrison Ave to Alameda de las Pulgas. And Baywood was up the hill by Alameda de las Pulgas, this right by Aragon High School. And we used to live right below the College of San Mateo, the parking lot there that they built. And we had our nursery there. And so we used to walk to Baywood Elementary School. That's when I first encountered a friend in second grade there, beginning my second grade into my first-grade year. And he invited me over to his birthday party, and I went over to his birthday party and house guests and all my classmates were in there and the mom wouldn't let me in the house. And I was thinking, well, why would she let me in the house? I think, well, maybe because you don't know my parents and they all know each other and they're all white and they all know each other. And but, you know, I faced that type of discrimination throughout the neighborhoods. That kind of attitude existed to everybody. They want to kick me out, you know? So it's it's one of those things where I face a subtle, racist, upper middle class white community. And I learn about that very early because in first grade, second grade, I was refused entrance to a birthday party that my friend invited me to. He was really apologetic and all that and said, “I'm sorry. I didn't I didn't know. You know, my mom didn't want you here.” She said she didn't want me here. She just didn't want me there. That's what he told me. And that's you know, and I and I you know, because I was different, you know, with Chinese guy and they they didn't know what we're all about and all that stuff, you know. So that's my most memorable moment in, in the elementary school, Baywood.

Then I moved to Sunnyvale in second grade. I went to Carson Elementary School, Carson Elementary School. I had Miss Holliday as my second-grade teacher there and then third-grade teacher. I had Miss Short and Miss Short. I had her for third and fourth grade. I had the worst experience because she had a teacher's pet that maintained institutional racism for her. And they all just always discriminated against me. They just didn't like me for whatever reason because I was a Chinese guy or whatever. They didn't like me. So I already faced that in one elementary school. I'm getting in another elementary school. And so I understand how institutional racism because teacher and the principal allows the teacher to act that way. The teacher has a teacher's pet and the teacher's pet carry out the teacher's wishes, and they were very oppressive. These are like three girls and one guy. You know, there were the teacher's pet and they used to just always put me down for no reason at all because I was Chinese, I guess, you know, or whatever was. And so that's the most memorable moment that I had in third and fourth grade.

Joy & Cultural Resistence Timeframe 52:20 >> 59:11

In fifth grade, I met Mr. Clark. He's the one that told me I was really intelligent and also had high IQ. And as you know, I had test scores over the roof and all that. But by the time I was in fifth grade, I knew I was very athletic because no one could hang with me in dodgeball and basketball and baseball everything. I was just far superior athlete to everybody in school, even the fifth grade, even sixth graders, even seventh and eighth graders. I was also as good as them. And and so in fifth grade, I knew I had athletic prowess and I kept developing it, you know, and in seventh grade, you know, I just became a great athlete. I did all the sports and, of course, P.E. and, you know, Mr. Strangio was my PE teacher. He always encouraged me to do sports. He took me around. I wrestled. I played baseball, softball and football, and I excelled in all the sports. And I became the most voted the most athletic, outstanding athlete in junior high school. Banner Junior High School, and when they closed down in 1977, I held four of the six physical education records, softball throw, standing broad jump, 600 meter run. And I forgot what the fourth one was. I forgot the fourth one. But, you know, I had four of the six records that when they closed down, my brother was going there at that time, when it closed down. And he says, your records are going down as a legacy in the school, you know.

And then so I went to high school my freshman year and, you know, I was as fast in the 600-yard dash and, you know, because I had to record, you know, faster than a guy named Benny Brown who eventually ran, won a gold medal in the Olympics in 440 (quarter-mile race). He had long legs. And I just after a while, I just realized you have to have long legs to run the 440. And so I didn't have I shorter legs and Asian legs, though, you know, but I was quick. I was really fast and I was good and a quick and quick short runs. I ran hurdles. And I did run track and that's when I made all-league as a tackle, a defensive tackle and in high school football because I didn't know what position I wanted to play and I played that and then they tried me at quarterback. I was a good quarterback, and they'd try me a running back. I was a good running back. I could do everything, but I was the best defensive tackle, got through and tackle the opposite team. And so, you know, I was really I was pretty strong in that regard. But before that, in eighth grade, I was an undefeated wrestler. I used to pin everybody, you know, I used to put them down. I was really strong, you know, so I used to put them down. I was really strong. That's what kept me going in life as my strength, you know. And so I know that I can take care of myself with anybody, anybody out there. So, you know, because of that kind of attitude, I could do everything that I wanted to do. And so by the time I got in high school, I became a four-sport guy.

My favorite sport was basketball, and he plays basketball with my brother now, but I deferred basketball to my younger brother, even though I was probably the best basketball player in the school by the time I was a sophomore. Because, you know, I could dribble, I could jump high. I was fast as quick. I was unstoppable in a drive, you know. And, you know, I made 20 shots. I was 80% shooter from 20-shot of the 90% shooter from the free throw line. You know, I was I was just a good basketball player. I, I had the skills and natural set. I was good wrestler, too. So I couldn't decide what to do. I played JV basketball and I quit that because my ride then I went to wrestling. I made varsity wrestling my freshman year.

Yeah. So and then I did track and field and I and my my teammate Benny Brown, who ended up to be a gold medalist in the 4 by 400 meter thing, he actually excelled. I was the second-best track guy. That was the first time and athlete better than me in a sport. Okay. And Benny Brown? Yeah, he was a choo choo train. He just had those long legs and just kicked it in an end. And he just he just passed me, passed me by two or 3 seconds ago. This guy's a great runner. There's no way I could run like that in the 400 ago. I just saw greatness early on, and he won a gold medal in the Olympics. He died at 44, the car accident stuff. But, you know, I can remember him quite well. He played on the football team, too. He was fast, but he had horrible hands. I used to throw the ball to him all the time because it got in the open, but he dropped the ball every time. I had to put it like a loaf of bread before he caught it. He caught like three or four touchdowns at the time. But, you know, he just so he anyway and so I was athletically endowed, and I mentioned to you earlier that I got gold trunks, one of two members that got gold trunks in President Kennedy's physical education program and six of the ten records in physical education. I held. I broke and I held, and it when they closed down Sunnyvale High School in 1982, those records still stood. So, you know, I was athletically endowed and that's what kept me going. You know, I was a I was kind of a studly homeboy. I was a homie, you know, in the hood.

(Interviewer) All the sports that you're doing. But you also have to give water to plants, cut flowers. Right. How do you wear your parents encouraging of your athletic career?

No, no, I had to hide it. I said I was going to the library when I played football games at night. They didn't think they'd encourage it at all. In fact, the first football game that came to De Anza College, they sold us a running back, and it was like four or five guys trying to hit me and talking to me. And I used to take four or five guys to bring me down because I was pretty strong. And so she goes, She came out to the football field, try to drag me out of the game. Because she said, “Yum goun lah. Ni di yun, dah say nei ah.” She said, you know, she said, these guys are trying to kill you. She was worried about me. You know, she wanted to take me out of the game. I go, Mom, get out of here. The football coach, they're worried. They never supported my athletic stuff. They all supported my academic stuff. I also was at the library because I knew that they would support that when I was at the football game. Playing in the game.

Timeframe 59:11 >> 1:01:07

(Interviewer) Okay. So you go to De Anza. Why did you decide to transfer to San Jose State?

Because it was a natural progression. I mean, for us homies in the hood, you just go to De Anza and you go two years and then you transfer to San Jose State. That's where the homies in the hood went. If you want to go to school, that's where you go to school because we didn't excel. I mean, I got a 2.5 because I got all A's in P.E. and physical education. That's all I got. 2.5. I had under 2.0. If if, if I didn't happy. And so, you know, I just, you know, fortunately I had I was good in physical education. And in fact, when I first got into San Jose State, I had the double major in phys ed and sociology. I dropped a phys ed with about six more units to go I can get my degree in phys ed, I kept sociology and eventually got my degree in sociology.

(Interviewer) Why sociology?

Because I like to study of people, man, you know, because of my background, I grew up, you know, all these things happening to me. And I just want to understand it, you know? And so I, you know, sociology crystallized everything that my life, you know, experience that happened to me. And I just like to study people, learn about class system and stratification and all that stuff. And so I you know, I became a social science junkie because of that sociology background. I went into, you know, when I got my degree, master's in public administration, a political science degree. I, you know, I was able to teach ethnic studies, sociology and Asian American studies, all social science classes. I just I just loved sociology.

(Interviewer) Did you know that you wanted to be a teacher?

Yeah, I did. That was my goal in life is to be who I thought was going to be a physical education teacher. But I had ended up to being a college professor in Asian American Studies and political science.

Timeframe 1:01:07 >> 1:03:20

(Interviewer) And at this time you're doing a lot of political activity in the community as well. Can you talk a little bit more about what it was like during your time in college? Well, we're kind of the defining moments, historical moments of that time.

Okay. Well, the civil rights movement was taking hold and also the anti-Vietnam War movement. In fact, I'm into peace, I'm into peace. You know, I love the peace sign and all that. That hippie flower child in every sense of the word, literally and figuratively. I was a flower flower child. And so, you know, I thought I was a hippie. I was a beatnik when I was younger, and I became a hippie in college. And so I was anti-war, like the hippies were against it. And, you know, I, I was a love child, you know, I just believe in peace and stuff. And and I was an environmentalist because hippies are environmentalist or the ultimate environmentalist too. And so I got in the environmental movement and the labor movement and Asian American studies movement all at the same time. So I was a real junky in left wing politics.

(Interviewer) So you're managing playing football? Hmm. A political involvement, right.

That that that was the clash because football is very conservative, right-wing run. And I'm a left-wing person. I had long hair and all that. I was good enough to play on the team but not liked the coaches because I was a lefty. Okay. And so, you know, they knew that I was a lefty and they used to kind of make fun of me being that way. And but, you know, I was good enough to excel on the team. I made All-Conference first string as a running back at De Anza. And I, you know, I excelled in San Jose State. I was the MVP of the scouting team. I used to know all the plays and excelled in the scout team gets the starting defense that we had. We were the number two or three defense in the country that year in base because I showed them plays that they had to stop all the time. So I knew how to, I knew plays. I was really intelligent as a football player, more so than my athletic ability, but I had athletic ability too. So, you know, I used to run like [Christian] McCaffrey kind kind of thing.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:03:20 >> 1:11:35

(Interviewer) And also in college for a lot of, I think students early in the Asian American studies movement, they have shared that, you know, prior to Asian American studies, they saw themselves as, you know, more of their ethnic identity, Chinese. But then with Asian Americans studies, there was this identity of Asian American, was that something that also happened for you?

It happened two years when I was conceptualizing an Asian American Community Involvement in 1971, 72, before I got into San Jose State. All all saw myself as Asian American, not Chinese American, because of the Asian American studies movement in the community. And then when I got to start as a state, I just further enhanced that with Asian American studies. And I developed my Asian American studies identity through Asian American studies. And I also saw myself as Asian American. And I kept that agenda. I built Asian American politics, Asian American, everything. I mean, I don't do Chinese American stuff. I don't do the Chinese stuff or at all none of that stuff. I see myself as Asian American and I participate in Asian Americans include Vietnamese Americans and Korean American kids and, you know, all the other ethnic groups that know.

(Interviewer) And now we're going to talk a little bit more deeply into your activism, I think especially with actually your activism, in particular with Asian American studies and the barracks at San Jose State. I know you mentioned a little bit going with Greg Mark to the President’s Office and protesting.

Okay. The barracks. The barracks was these steel shacks that were look like internment camp homes. But as the military barracks, the military barracks are still shacks. And it's really distinguishable in the in the campus because they were like steel shacks in a in a higher education institution. So they kept it as temporary things. But it was our permanent home. It was Asian American studies’ permanent home. And, you know, it was hot in the summer. And it was just really a functionally obsolescent place to operate academics. But I felt good in it because I felt like a militant, and I was a militant and people the other students saw me as a militant type of student because I was very strong in my belief on the left and believe in Asian American studies developing and and in the hippie movement and the antiwar movement and all that stuff was in me. And so, you know, I, I kind of felt at home in the barracks, even though it was really functionally obsolescent, you know, because I grew up in the shack, too, in a nursery business. You know, I grew up in a shack. And so I kind of mind me in my youth days growing up in a shack. And so it's a it was okay for me to do. I used to spend a lot of time studying there and do my homework and everything because I like that feeling. You know, I didn't really think of it as a a degrading place. It was a degrading place, but it was like home to me because it was my kind of home when I grew up. You know, I grew up in a shack. And so, you know, I you know, my friends used to come over, and I'd come out of shack. I'd be like an animal. And so that kind of helped with my creds to being an animal as well. Anyway, that's why I like the militant type of feeling that I had going to a functionally obsolescent building.

(Interviewer) And then how did you all organize to get the resources for Asian American Studies right? Were you at that meeting when I think the president was invited to the barracks and it was really hot?

I was outside because I was outside that meeting, but I wasn't inside because it was just the Greg Mark and the people that were involved, like Allan Seid from the community, and there were the important people that were negotiating in our behalf. I was just a shit rouser, but back then, so they want to a shit rouser in there because they're negotiating some of the things, but you know, Greg is really proud of me too. You know, I've really grown and taken leadership in the movement and stuff. And, you know, I'm proud of Greg, too, for being my mentor and role model in Asian American studies during the day, back in the day. So and so we have a good relationship now. We keep keep in touch. Yeah, we thought the struggle was a fight is a fight all along. You know, every time we make a step, they're trying to push us back a few steps and we try to take gain a step. We were not institutionalized yet, though. We were just kind of floating around and free flowing, you know, activists. And that kind of kept that whole attitude with me throughout life. I'm a free-flowing activist, and I learned at San Jose State University.

Well, I you know, I knew that San Francisco State University was started by the labor movement. The strike was a labor movement strategy. And so I all supported labor and Asian American studies because the labor was the one that founded us. And so I used to picket the Zhong Sai workers, the I-Hotel in San Francisco. I used to walk picket lines and and march and stroke, struck for them, and and I've been involved with a lot of picket lines since that time. I don't cross the picket line at all. I never cross the picket line. Even when the Chinese Historical Cultural Center had an award from my family at a hotel, which is being picketed by Unite Here, because they were treating their workers badly. I didn't go get the award. My brother went and got it instead. But, you know, I you know, I don't ever cross picket lines because I know how important it is for the labor movement to support that. And so I've been a labor supporter ever since my college days. In fact, I, I all supported my union. I all supported the unions that that served in this county.

And when I got a dual endorsement from the Labor Council, the South Bay Labor Council, they gave the other endorsement to a racist, old boy network kind of guy because that was still dominant in labor. When I got it in 2008, it was 2008 just recently, and so that was still very dominant in labor, the racist attitude that they had back in the Kearney days, Kearnyism, which started the labor movement in California, they started as a result of anti-Chinese movement. He said, you got to get your muskets and shoot to kill the Chinese. That's how you got the whole movement started. And unemployed Irish, got a bite into it, and they were starting to kill the Chinese because they wanted jobs, you know, not jobs that the Chinese had, but just want a job, period. But but they anti-Chinese. That's what how the labor movement got started in California. In fact, I talked to Amy Dean, who is executive officer. I said, hey, you got to apologize for that shit that you did to the Chinese. You never apologized for. You know, you couldn't go on in life and you're going to continue. That's okay. That's not okay. And so I actually I had a deep conversation with her in that, and they thought I was being anti-union because I was very pro-union, but I was just being pro Chinese Americans to Asian American because they they really messed them up.

And so when I did the apology in the state of California, one of the first groups to apologize was the labor fed, California Labor Fed. They apologized for, oppressing and discriminating against the Chinese when they were founded in California. And this is in 1878, 79. That's what led to the Exclusion Act of 1882. And the federal government got into the act, and they further discriminated against the Chinese to because the state was discriminating against it, supporting the labor movement. The Kearnyism started and and the state discriminated. And that's the thing that got me involved. I wanted the state to apologize for all that stuff. And I got an ACR 42. My first bill was an apology to the Asian American through the Chinese American discrimination that Chinese Americans faced throughout 1849 to 2009 when they apologized. 2009, you ACR 42. That was my first bill that I presented. It was written by Bill Hing. The the measure was written by Bill Hing, an Asian American studies instructor up in UC Davis.

Timeframe 1:11:35 >> 1:16:34

(Interviewer) Can you also tell us a little bit about Sacred Heart?

Sacred Heart, Community Services. You know, Pancho Guevara, he's the son of two activists that I knew. Older activists Juana Guevarra and Al Guevarra. And I knew them when I worked in the bilingual center because they were working in a bilingual center with the Latino community. I worked with the Asian American community. We work together. And so I knew that their activists and the social justice activists, and they raised a son. He became a social justice advocate. And he knew that I was a social justice advocate because he knew me from his parents. So he recruited me to serve on the board, and at that time, the board was more traditional. They're more likely conservative, and they're into providing food and shelter for people. The good-hearted thing, the religious thing that they do and all that. But he wanted to bring a social justice element to Sacred Heart Community services. So he had me interview for the board. They made it really difficult for me to get on, but I passed the test and they put me on the board and the first thing he did was he started the social justice component of Sacred Heart, which is really dominant in Sacred Heart now.

And so he needed an ally, he need allies. He actually got two more board members on there that were social justice advocates, too. So we had enough votes to support him. And, you know, the more traditional people supported him, too, because, you know, they could count the votes. And so as I started by Pancho Guevara, young as a son of two activists that I knew in the old days, and so I agreed to serve on it to help him with that. And because it was a good cause, and he was like family and kind of thing. And so I, I got on Sacred Heart, Community Services, Board of Directors. I served six years. That's a good term limited out. And I was able to effectively do what I wanted there for and be part of half of social justice.

I managed as general manager of our flower business after I got out of college for four years. And so I stayed in I, I worked in the field and I actually managed the people in the fields, too. And so I got out of the flower growing industry because UFW was really strong. I didn't want to exploit anyone outside the family. It's okay to exploit family. I work for nothing, and I have been working for nothing for my family ever since, you know. When I managed the property, I bought a community center. I property managed to shopping centers and multiple units. I did it for free because I'm used to working for free family, you know? So, you know, I could have made 40 or 50 grand as a property manager in this property, but I didn't take any money because I. I was used to working for free for my family. And so it's, uh, and the flower growing business is really a tough business. But I learned my work ethic through that. You know, I worked hard, you know, I had to “come bow” [“cover the cloth”], you know, cover things in the evening, and I had to open the cloth, the black cloth and in the morning so that gets sunlight. They got to cover it, make it dark at night and stuff like that, because you have to control the growth you to get the stems big and the flowers healthy. And so there's a lot of tricks to doing that. And my grandfather learned all those tricks and he taught my father, my father learned it and it and he taught me.

And so generation to generation thing. And so I you know, I learned how to work hard and maintain the flowers three and a half months till it grows and blooms. If you get $0.25 each for a flower, that's it. But in an amount of time and energy you do get $0.25. But the thousands of flowers, I mean the thousands, tens of thousands of flowers that you create. But it was it's a decent living. It was a good living. We were making about a quarter of a million back in the day, which is a lot of money, but most of it went to bill. You knew about 20,000 a month or, you know, in the wintertime. And so, you know, and then, you know, you had to hire people to work in fields. You know, you barely break even, but you could live. That's all that you could live. You could survive. And that's what we did. I lived in survived in the flower growing business with my parents. And he actually got smart. He used to build greenhouses, he invested in equity, and he invested outside of the greenhouse. He invested in buildings and stuff. Because, you know, you can you could do that. And the agricultural lending business. So there's a lot of advantages being an agriculture also besides growing. Well, I also kind of learn how to grow pot back in the day. You should grow, you know, greenhouses, just a natural environment for pot to grow in. So I just experimented and I grew some pot. And my god, they were huge, so you know that's how I learned that's all I got…You know the flower child, every sense of the word.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:16:34 >> 1:20:39

Well first of all, I ran for the board of trustees because they kept threatening to eliminate ethnic studies and intercultural studies and they were not in pro diversity like they claim they were. And inclusion, which they claim to be. And so I just ran to make sure that they lived up to the dream of diversity and inclusion, and in fact, that they would stop threatening ethnic studies on the campus. They stopped threatening ethnic studies. They lived up to the dream of diversity, inclusion. And so I accomplished everything. I wanted to do it at Foothill De Anza. And so I took it to the state level and then the national level as well, accomplished everything I wanted to do there. And so I did everything I could possibly do in the governance of community colleges. So I decided to run for the state assembly because I still had to prove to my mentees that I knew what I was doing politically. And so I got out of the back room as a backroom, political as a, you know, godfather kind of time. And I showed that I knew what I was doing as a candidate because I had to do that I had to prove that to them. And so I proved it to them. And, you know, I and I run to run to make change, to own to make bills that had a lot of issues that I wanted to take care of the community colleges, for the working families, for the environment, for all of these things I wanted to do. And I did them all.

I made 51 bills that became law and addressed all the concerns I had. I made voting easier as a chair of the elections and Redistricting committee. I made voting easier for California, just increase the voter turnout and and stuff. And, you know, I'm I'm opposite of suppressing votes like in the South. I'm into promoting votes and voters, you know so that's what California is good about. You know, it's I was one of the most progressive members of the state assembly. In fact, in 2012 or 2014, when I left and voted the most progressive voting member in the state assembly, I voted for so much progressive stuff, like I even voted for the Romeo and Juliet Law, which got me in trouble later. That was when because 18 years old, dating a 17-year-old, if you have consensual sex with them, you could still be charged with statutory rape, if the parents want to charge 18-year-old. As I tried to make that prevent them from getting on the criminal justice registry, you get in the criminal justice registry. Your life is ruined and has some students in that. So I tried to make sure that the judges have the discretion not to put them in the criminal justice, criminal registry. And, you know, I got some trouble in that later in the future because they said I was too relaxed on crime and all that stuff. And which I was. But, you know, it but it was just to help my students. I voted for that. I was just like 17 votes was really only the progressives did.

[Dog Java, co-star of the Fong household, interrupts]

And so, you know I kind of, I left a good legacy there. You know, I did a lot everything I wanted to do when I it just go do, and I did it and you know environmental bills and solar bills solar for all. I made tenants eligible for solar rebates as well you know so because tenants can’t put solar in their house, but they should get the advantages of solar a solar for all my bobblehead right here, that's a group that it was the progressive Asian American social justice environmental justice group that was involved with that. Environmental justice and social justice are very similar because it deals with underrepresented station of people and stuff like that.

Transformation & Change Timeframe 1:20:39 >> 1:23:31

Um, when I was doing the shark fin ban, almost all the Asian American legislators went against me. They said, Hey, you're, you're hurting our culture and all that. I said, No, I'm not. I'm not hurting the culture. I'm promoting the environment and promoting saving of sharks. They're essential in our ocean’s ecosystem. That's what I'm doing it for. I'm not doing it to hurt our culture. Our culture doesn't need things that hurt people, you know, like they used to binding woman's feet and all that. You don't need that shit, you know. I just you don't need that stuff. And so, you know, they you know, they were getting down on my case and they were going public, you know, against me in the newspaper because they were, you know, like Ted Lius, he he's also kind of a mentor of mine too. He went against me on that. He was the Senate leader of the API caucus and I was the leader of the overall EPR caucus. And so, you know, you know, I had to deal with my own Asian American, uh, legislators because they were taking the side of these money people that want to make money on shark fin and shark fin soup, and they felt they attached to our culture, which is not part of our culture. It's just a bad practice that our culture. In fact the Chinese government has done did away with shark fin soup in their official banquets because they know it's bad for the ocean and bad for the sharks population. And so, you know, a lot of people, you know, when I started that bill, you know, you just grew 11 states have banned shark fin. We're trying to get to the United States government, federal government to do it through Congress, but it just gets snagged up, all because there's a lot more conservatives in there now.

And, uh, and so, you know, I'm progressive, I'm liberal, but I work with conservatives, too. I play cards with them up there all the time, you know? You know because I know how to deal with conservatives. I know I'll deal with rednecks and all that, you know, good, real. The ultimate conservative is a redneck. Our side of the political scale of conservatism, you know, like Donald Trump appeases the rednecks. That's what his claim to fame is. Okay, so anyway, I've got to deal with that, and I know how to deal with that. But I had a hard time doing my own kind because they're all prominent like me. And, you know, I just I just held my ground and, you know, as a result, the environment is better in shape, the shark's in better shape. You know, humanitarian animal lovers are in better shape. They all and they, you know, I got love from them, but I got hatred from my own folks. And I really didn't appreciate that. But that's the life in politics.

Timeframe 1:23:31 >> 1:25:55

(Interviewer) Now mentioned earlier about, you know, being at the table or you're going to be served on the table and back-room politics. Is that how you describe your involvement in like as chairs and committees and like boards and commissions, the stuff that is a little bit more behind the scenes from elective office?

Well, you just make it happen. You make it happen with key stakeholders and you work with the key stakeholders to make it happen. That's how you do it. You know, I developed some key stakeholders as well, and of course they will make it happen. Like the this whole project is happened because a key stakeholder, I made the request to him and he just complied. That's how it works, you know, that's how things work in the in the reality of this world. And I participate in the reality of this world. Well, you know, all the organizations I got involved with grew exponentially. I don't know why they grow when I'm in in the role. They grow to like 20 or 40 or 30 million to $40 million, like AACI grew to 20, 25 million. When I got in Home First, they grew fivefold, and I got in Sacred Heart, they grew three or four-fold. It is growth because I see that growth that's needed; the services for the people are undeniably there. And so you just have to convey them that the services are needed and you need more money for that. And so that's how we grow.

And so, you know, the mental health programs were started because of that. You know, for Asian Americans that AACI started in a mental health program. And before that, Asian Americans were not served at all. They would not go into mental health facility seeing a white guy or some, you know, Latino person or whatever for their own particular mental health needs. It has to be culturally relevant. And so, you know, we we made sure that there was money for culturally relevant mental health services. But that's one example I got. I got involved with the Mental Health Advisory Board, which is the commission that makes the allocates the money for mental health so that we can get the first $250,000 to provide mental health services for Asian Americans. And after that, we justified it. And now it's gone to about $5 or $6 million or $10 million of needs. You know, you got to start somewhere and, it grows because you can justify those needs after you service the community.

Timeframe 1:25:55 >> 1:29:11

Okay. I was married once before to Shirley Gee. And she's from Oakland, too. You know, I was a home away from Sunnyvale. She's a homegirl from Oakland, and she remains a homegirl from Oakland. I remain a homeboy from Sunnyvale. And there's a difference between us. And so we got a divorce after five years. We had a son, Sean. He's married right there, and he's considered million-dollar babies. But $6 million now because my wife had fertility problems, and she had to go get [fertility treatment] for that. And my wife back then, but my second wife was really the defining moment. She gave me freedom to do what I wanted to do in the political arena in business. She supported me in business by making sure that she filled the gap in both the flower cottage and PF properties so that would be running and be continue to be successful. I was barely hanging by a thread because I was running that and the community at the same time, but she was able to step in and and build my business up and she gave me the freedom to become a full-time professor in political science. I was all part time, so I focused on becoming a professor of political science and Asian American studies as well. And so I was able to get a full time gig at Evergreen Valley College. And that actually added to my credibility to, you know, I was able to start more social justice organizations because I practice what I preach, this kind of stuff. And so, you know, I was able to be free to do what I wanted to do with my second marriage. And I had two girls, two daughters with them with my second wife.

(Interviewer) What's your second wife’s name?

Grace. Grace Mok. They're both ethnic Chinese American. I met her at Connie Chu's wedding. My neighbor, the flower grower neighbor’s wedding. She she was getting married, and. And she had a lot of friends that were flower growers. My wife is a flower grower's daughter, too, in South San Jose. And so I just met her there. And I, you know, I, I actually hired her to work for me in the beginning and, you know, things got pretty heated between us. And I got married. We got married.

(Interviewer) And what year was this?

We got married in 1989. I met her in 86, 85, 86. Two daughters from. Yeah, Nicole, born in 1990 in Sydney, born in 1992. Well, my mom always checks in on us. You know, she always makes me soup “fu gua” [bittermelon] and all that good ethnic food that she makes. And she still does that. She just makes sure that I'm healthy and all that she doesn't like my beard at all, like my long hair, but she's traditional that way. But I said, Hey, mom, it's me. I got to keep it, you know, So, you know, she criticizes me. She still treats me like the oldest son in a traditional family. And I'm ten or five years old, still. You know, I had to deal with that because she she remembers she remembers that time very well, fondly. And that's her the height of her motherhood.

Timeframe 1:29:11 >> 1:32:03

You know, after my second marriage was a turning point, I was able to accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish with her help maintaining our economic base allowed me the freedom to do my activism and my politics and everything else. It gave me the freedom to teach, gave me freedom to do my politics, gave me freedom to do my activism. And so I just went full time on on those things more than full time. So I left the business to her. And I help out now and then I make boxes and make stray deliveries in the shop, that kind of stuff. You Yeah. The flower cottage, Flower Cottage in Sunnyvale. In my business, but my real estate broker just properties, my initials, P.F. Properties. I'm one of the oldest brokers in the Silicon Valley Real Estate Board, which is affiliate NAR and CAR, National Association California Association of Realtors. I've been a member since 1976. Makes me one of the oldest members of the real estate board. Well, you know, I got endorsed by the the Real Estate Board and CAR California Association of Realtors, and they gave me a lot of money for my campaign. But I don't support all their policies. I don't support the policies that keep homes unaffordable. I don't support I, I like affordable home policies a lot of affordable home policies because that's why I joined CHC community housing developers and affordable housing developer company, because I believe that real estate was getting out of hand. And this is why when I was going up to $500, 600,000, now it's like 2 million for these homes. So, you know, I just believe in affordable housing because not everyone can make that kind of money to to to live here. I mean, you have to have like $280,000. You have to work it out. Computer, basically, or two people working at Apple Computer to buy a house, you know, that kind of stuff.

And so it's it's really getting out of hand. It's got a a lot of students are starting out, you know, all those times, so I want to make sure that they can afford to buy a home, because that's part of the American dream is to be able to buy a home, you know, And so I'm I'm not for the policies that they support that keep the affordable affordability out of the hands of those who can't afford it. So I know my I know my politics, and they still supported me except for the SJSU board don't like me because I do that they got some rednecks on there. But the SILVAR [Silicon Valley Association of Realtors] Boards got uptown people. They support me they the more flexible about, you know, the more affluent, more flexible about my policies. That's the way it works in the society, unfortunately.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 1:32:03 >> 1:34:03

Well, I think we need more diversity in our government policies. I support that. I support the Latino community Latina/x community. I support the Asian American community, support the African American. I support the Native American, support LGBTQ community. You know, I support all the underrepresented so that they can have equal access to everything. That's what I'm working for. And so they don't have equal access to everything. In fact, we're still struggling for equality. The people of color groups, the Latina LGBQT community group, are still struggling for equality and their struggle for equality. What is wakes me up every day and motivates to do something about it. Well, there's there's an entry point for everything. You just have to find the entry point to get started. Like you can get involved with the Democratic Party. You just enter. You just get drawn under 35 group, you join affiliation, you you run with people like your peers. You gain the respect of your peers. Then you can grow, you can grow. And that's how you have to gain the respect people. And you know, I just got the Lifetime Achievement award from the Democratic Party. That's the highest honor and reward. You know, I've been working really hard on developing the underrepresentation of that party. Well, I was the very first when I started with the party, there were two Asian Americans, Peter Chu and I, I said, hey, this this is something wrong here. Mean that is 10% of the population. You only got two of us in here. I said, you need more Asian-Americans. So I started it. I cofounded with Margaret Abe Koga, the Silicon Valley Democratic Club. To get more Asian Americans involved with the Democratic Party, you need a starting point. The Asian American Democratic, the Silicon Valley Asian-American Democratic Club is a starting point. You can get involved with that, and they're affiliated to the party, the Democratic Party, the larger party. And you can grow that way. There's a starting point for everything, and you need to find that starting point. And you just got to put yourself in it and just go do it.

Narrative & Identity Timeframe 1:34:03 >> end

(Interviewer) So all this you've done, some people might call it activism, maybe you call it something else, but how would you define activism in the work that you do?

It's what you call shaking the system, waking it up, it's waking it up and making sure that they're accountable to all the groups and people, especially the underrepresented people. And so if they're not, you have to be active to wake them. And so that's the whole idea of activism is to wake up people on the needs of the underrepresented folks. So that's part of activism. But activism is much further than that. You can get into politics. You could you could make policy with your activism. I've made policy with my activism. You know, you can go to the highest level in activism. You know, there's unlimited levels. I can go the federal level, you know, all that. And you can work you can work in the department, highest department agencies, you know, that kind of stuff. There's a lot of levels in activism that you could bring it up to. I mean, I brought activism to wherever I go. I'm an activist. I'm an activist politician, I'm an activist businessman. I'm an activist teacher. You know, I'm an activist everything. I mean, that's what activism is all about.

(Interviewer) What are some key policy issues that are really affecting our communities.

Well, Asian hate for one you need to make policies to address Asian hate. You have to document the crimes. You got to try to make sure that those crimes are addressed at the local level, at the police department level, at our law enforcement that are aware of it, and that they have to have preventative measures from it. And so that's one that's really clear. That's really clear because of the Asian hate that's going on. Other issues are dealing with the Asian Americans being stereotyped. I mean, they're stereotyped in our tech field, in our in our social media or in the social media field. You you need to stop that because they create glass ceilings with stereotypes. And so you have to to eliminate that. That's much more subtle, that's much more sophisticated. You have to people in business to to understand that and to make sure that they're on board on that. And they can that they can prevent those glass ceilings and stereotypes. So you can get the highest up and down to the lowest levels to participate in that, you know.

(Interviewer) So that that be something like a a resolution would accomplish?

Be resolutions are the easiest resolutions or ACR. It's a recommendation that they do that it's not law because I made a recommendation to the government apologized. They apologized for, you know, it's a similar kind of current resolution. But the bills that become law are much more difficult, much more you have to pass it through the whole process. And they look at that fine tooth and all that stuff. And and so you can make bills, too. You could participate in making bills. Still involved with making bills on the side. I'm trying to prevent dogs from getting eaten in China and Asian countries right now. And that's that's a difficult because you're trying to change the habit of a people in another country. Yeah.

Well, we need more Asian American activists. I try to encourage my students that are Asian American to get involved, to be active. You know, a successful one here. I mean, that's great. And so I think that we need to rock the boat more often. We need to show that we're there more often. If we are subtle and we let things happen to our community, that's the worst thing that can happen. So we need to make sure that we rock the boat and they know that we're there and that they're to the API, AAPI community. All groups are, you know, so you have to work with other groups too. You have to work with Latino groups, African American group, LGBT, even white groups. You mean dominant groups. You have to work with all groups to make yourself successful. And I've I've done that. I do that all the time. I don't I know I can't operate as an island, so I work with all groups. I try to cut deals with all groups and that's where you make things happen.

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