If you ask them if they are Chinese, they will tell you they are American.
Their “ethnicity” is Chinese, yes. But their patriotism, allegiance, and citizenship are American.
I taught some of the family when they were younger.
All are now out in the world doing great things.
World citizens, yes, they are. But Americans, foremost.
I love this family so much, for so many reasons.
They represent everything that is great about America ...
and about being a good human.
This wonderful family has for decades owned and operated a Chinese food restaurant on State Street in Bristol, called the Shanghai. In this pic you can see all the children, the parents, and their deeply beloved grandmother, who is seated front and center.
Over the past thirty years or so, I have eaten at the Shanghai more times than I can count.
I personally taught three of the children of this family when they were in elementary school. I still feel very close to them all.
Four of the five children in this family graduated as valedictorian of their respective class while at Bristol Virginia High School (and the other came pretty darn close).
You might want to read that last sentence again. How amazing a fact is that?
All the children eventually went off to prestigious colleges, many of them far away from Bristol. Colleges with names like Vanderbilt, Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth. One attended college closer to home at ETSU. All five of the children earned full academic scholarships. All five are now grown and doing wonderful things out in the world, making their careers here in America.
Three of the children are now living on the West Coast. Two others are on or near the East Coast. This wonderful family has America covered.
(Word also has it that the children are intent on funding some type of scholarship opportunity for graduating seniors at Bristol Virginia High School - to be given annually in honor of their parents.)
I will tell you a brief story about one of the children of these honorable parents. This story is about Devon, the youngest child.
Devon was the one you could often find playing classical music on the piano (even as a young child) there at the back of the Shanghai.
When I taught him in elementary school, Devon begin to “slack” a bit.
His mother asked me, “Why he not make straight A like the others?”
I replied, “He’s every bit as smart as any of the others. But he also likes to have some fun.”
She said, “He can have fun making straight A.”
I told her I would talk to him about it, which I did.
Later, when Devon was a senior at Virginia High School, he wrote an application letter for a particular scholarship. Here is an excerpt from that letter, regarding my talk with him about how he should not “waste” his strong intellect.
Devon went on to make straight As the rest of the way, even while taking the most rigorous of subjects all the way through high school. He graduated as valedictorian of his class.
If you were ever a patron of the restaurant while the children were growing up, you’d see a couple of remarkable things going on while you ate there. You’d see the children either helping out in the family business or studying away at a table. You never saw any of the children sitting idly or wasting time. Ever.
An immensely strong work ethic and an abidingly deep honor of family; these two tenets were obviously instilled within these children since birth.
I will now return to the words I wrote at the beginning of this article. Good storytelling often repeats itself, as I will do here … right about now:
“If you ask them if they are Chinese, they will tell you they are American.
Their “ethnicity” is Chinese, yes. But their patriotism, allegiance, and citizenship are American.
I taught some of the family when they were younger.
All are now out in the world doing great things.
World citizens, yes, they are. But Americans, foremost.
I love this family so much, for so many reasons.
They represent everything that is great about America ...
and about being a good human.”
However, in a couple more weeks it will all be over. The parents are retiring. I cannot think of anyone who has earned retirement more than these people.
My hopes are that the restaurant will be sold to another wonderful family and live on in some way. If so, I will certainly give any new owners a try and eat there (and perhaps even write about them here).
Dear readers, you have two weeks left to eat at the Shanghai. (I plan to eat lunch there today, myself. Not kidding.) Please also consider going by sometime over the next two weeks if you possibly can. If you don’t have time to eat, just drop by and tell this wonderful family how much you have appreciated them for rearing such very bright and wonderfully good children who are all now scattered across America, changing the whole world for the good … and please thank them for being such an integral part of Bristol for the last several decades.
Thank you to all this good and wonderful family … for all you have done for Bristol, for America, indeed, for all of humanity.