Museum of Chinese in America

Tina Yao & William Yao talk about their immigration life experience, their family tradition and the cultural legacy they want to leave to their offspring. William Yao talks about his childhood in Shanghai, his father who worked in the silk business died of a stroke when he was young. Although three of her five children lived with her brother it was still hard for William mother to raise her children, financially. After WWII William went to the Shanghai provincial State High School, later he left Shanghai to look for a job. His mother’s brother asked him if wanted to come to New York through his newspaper company. His first job had bad pay and that’s when he applied to Pan Am, where he stayed. Later on when his children were growing up they went and lived in Flushing, which was convenient, had mahjong and Chinese food places. His wife Tina Yao lately joins his oral history.