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Coming to KALIFORNIA

  • Yilen Pan
  • riverside ca
  • CHINA, 08-22-1998
  • 21
 My father was a peasant during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Now he works in his own company in San Francisco, owns a home, a family, and a host of cars that are rather easy on the eye. A peasant from China made good. That is my fathers story. To be honest, most successful Chinese-american families start out like mine. The Cultural Revolution was a time of incredible instability, an all out civil war with no clear sides, winners, or morals. Many immigrants like my father, only found solace after the revolution. Schools re-opened, forced farming and commune living disbanded, the fever of the cult of Mao melted away, and modern education and modern living were the watch words of the Deng Xiaoping Era. My father, like many others, fought their way for their education. He ended up in a decent medical school, deep in the heartland of his own province. I forgot to mention in the hubbub of the Mao Cult, my grandfather was sent to prison camp. He contracted TB, but would make a full recovery and live a resoundingly resilient life. Coming to California had its detours. For one, we ended up in England, where I was born and where my sister was born. My father was one of the lucky ones, a student deemed worthy of Mao’s China first Education abroad program, the student exchange program of the 80’s. He got his English citizenship after 14 years and moved to New York where he went to teach at a prominent medical school. So now he coasts. After building much speed and momentum, he decided to ride out the last few years, starting his own company in 2003, and passing the inertia of his success to myself and my sister. A peasant made good and became a CEO of a Bio tech company.