Experiences of an Immigrant Child

Interviewee wished to remain anonymous, so I will refer to them as *David

Interviewer: Somi Benrashid

Soho Cafe: Previously located at 4350 Main St, Harrisburg, NC 28075

Now takes the form of a Mexican Restaurant “La Unica” (image courtesy of Google Maps)

Luckily enough for me, I happened to have a Chinese friend who grew up in a restaurant just outside of my hometown, though, the restaurant closed a few years back. Regardless, the following page will detail a narrative of my friend David, a Chinese immigrant and child of a restauranteur, and his experiences after moving to the United States.

The Arrival

David’s family came to the United States from Shijiazhuang, Hebei, in China when David was only 8 years old. This would prove to be a monumental change.

Most of the members in David’s family had traditionally been employed as teachers, and David, with his parents, immigrated to the United States to allow his mother to further her education and become just that! Had David’s family stayed in China his mother would have likely stayed on the same career path, but the same cannot be said for his father, who had previously worked in advertising.

Thus, immigrating to the United States left David’s father in a interesting situation, one that would give him creative freedom to express himself in whatever form he saw fit. With all this creative liberty David’s father decided to create his own restaurant in 2005, just one year after they came to the United States. That restaurant would come to be known as the Soho Cafe.

“Restauranteuring” While Keeping Your Roots

As expected, the food served in David’s family’s restaurant was far from what they would call Chinese cuisine. Popular items included basic chicken dishes, such as General Tso’s, or Chow Mein dishes.

Considering the stories of many Chinese immigrants, David’s family was not much different. What David ate at home was far more traditional and unlike a majority of the food served in his family’s restaurant.David’s family often ate noodle-based foods because his father enjoyed making noodles from scratch. These foods were generally spicy due to his dad’s roots being in the northern part of China, an area rich in peppers. On rare occasions his dad could even be found making dumplings for the family, though this was an exception mostly saved for holidays or celebrations.David’s mother, on the other hand, was more of a baker than a chef. David mentioned her baking traditional Chinese biscuits and mooncakes during festivals.

But this is not to say David’s parents were resistant to accepting Western cuisine. They were very experimental. Much of what David would come to think about American or Western food stemmed from his parents’ attempts at cooking unfamiliar dishes.

“I remember the first time my mom made some lasagna and burnt it, I thought all Western food tasted like this. I didn’t like it.”

Relearning How To Learn

The hardest part of the transition to the United States, for David, was his adjustment to the school system.

Most of us our fortunate enough to be comfortable in a learning environment in which we can openly communicate, but that is not true for everyone.

Upon his arrival to the United States David spoke no english, so naturally a language barrier was created between him and both his teachers and classmates. Throughout his early days in school David would simply follow his classmates around, not knowing their destination or why they were headed there. Much of the activities he participated in held little meaning for him. David either could not understand what was going on, or simply followed the actions of the other children in his class.

This made learning a difficult process for David. Fortunately, though, his school offered English-Second Language (ESL) courses, which allowed him to be in a friendlier environment for learning English. But, during normal class-time the teacher still had to find something David was able to do. This came about in the form of math problems. As the other students participated in grammar, history, or word-problems David would sit and practice multiplication tables. As such, the language barrier created a large disconnect between David and many of his classmates.

“The classroom sizes are much, much smaller than they are in China…”

Following Tradition

Growing up David said there was never pressure on him to pursue a career in the food industry. Despite this, he did sometimes work in his parents’ restaurant when he became old enough. This started when he began high school. David would simply work the cash register after school if the restaurant needed help, which ended up being once or twice a week on their busiest nights (Friday/Saturday). Besides that he would help by cleaning dishes and bussing tables throughout the night, although this seemed to be a much more secondary part of the job as a significant portion of the orders were takeout. Lastly, David was quick to point out that this was different than some of his other friends, who worked in their family’s restaurant very often, regardless of what type of restaurant it was.

What was more compelling to me was that David’s parents actually discouraged him from working at the restaurant too often. They thought if he was focused on the restaurant he would get too far behind in his studies. David’s parents cherished his education far more than him spending time in the restaurant learning how to properly navigate it. This gave David the ability to focus more on his schoolwork than restaurant work and the freedom to explore a diverse array of subjects throughout high school. Ultimately, David settled in the sciences.

 

David’s parents always supported him striving to become more educated, which makes sense considering they come from a family of educators. This was fortunate, as David was able to choose a career path in a field that is more interesting to him, which, as it turns out, is in teaching.

When I asked David what he wished to teach he seemed rather undecided, but seemed to just so slightly lean towards the collegiate level.

Concluding Thoughts

David’s experiences were incredibly insightful and helped me learn more about the struggles immigrants face when moving to a new country. Not only that, but I also learned that the contrasts between the stories of someone immigrating to the United States at a young age and someone whose parents immigrated here before they were born are far larger than I’d ever thought. This made me respect and appreciate the experiences of my own family when coming to the United States even more than I previously had.

Furthermore, it was amazing to see David’s parents’ cognizance when it came to his education. Not only did they put an emphasis on David doing well in school, but they gave him the creative liberty to approach any problem he wished and strive to create a life for himself, not pushing him to follow the same one they had. This has allowed David to become successful in his own way while instilling a sense of hard work and determination in him.

Lastly, I’d like to thank David for taking the time to sit down with me and let me ask him personal questions about growing up.