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Transcription: [00:00:02]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
I was thinking maybe we could begin, um, before getting specifically into DC's Chinatown, maybe just talking about

[00:00:09]
your arrival in the United States, um, you know in--in, um, when exactly that was and under what circumstances.

[00:00:19]
Was it for UCL--the UCLA graduate program or did you arrive before starting at UCLA?

[00:00:27]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
Um, I got a fellowship, um, with--to go to graduate school, so I first went to, uh, Southern Illinois University.

[00:00:37]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
In Carbondale?

[00:00:38]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
Yeah, Carbondale (laughs) in the middle of nowhere. Um, I, I got my M.A. there, and then I, uh, I think missed the cornfield air [laughter],

[00:00:53]
and I would like to see the ocean, so I applied to California from my graduate school and got accepted to the UCLA program.

[00:01:06]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
In sociology?

[00:01:07]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}

Yes, in sociology.

[00:01:09]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
And how did you end up in Southern Illinois? Was that, um, [[Cross Talk]]

[00:01:11]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
No, just a--

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
through--

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
some--yeah through my professors, who I contact there and, uh, um, they offer me a fellowship,

[00:01:21]
at that time was very unusual to get anything as a--They call us foreign--foreign student, but now it's international student.

[00:01:33]
Uh, po-politically correct. Uh, uh of face. Um, so, so--I when I came-- [[Cross Talk]]

[00:01:43]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
Did you know you--

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
Here after I, yeah I finished my B-B-B-B.A. degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

[00:01:53]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
Hong Kong--and what did you study there?

[00:01:57]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
I studied--I majored in sociology, uh, minor in economics, so I graduated 1965,

[00:02:08]
and then I was waiting to, uh, have opportunity to come to the United State, uh, to study abroad and I couldn't go the first year but I got a fantastic job,

[00:02:25]
um, at the Hong Kong housing society, and--of good pay and, uh, um, and a, um,

[00:02:39]
and comfortable position so--Uh I accept it but I didn't like--I--I really wanted to go to study abroad, so,

[00:02:50]
and--uh the second year I, I was able to get the fellowship.

[00:02:56]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
And-- [[Cross Talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
The first year I couldn't go because of financial, they--I, my parent couldn't, my mom couldn't afford me to--to, uh, to study in the United States.

[00:03:09]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
And-- [[Cross Talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
So--

[00:03:11]

{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
And what attracted you specifically to the United States for your studies? Was it, was it something-something in your experience or something in your studies--or, what was it about the United States that made you want to study, um, here?

[00:03:26]

{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
Well, I think that, uh, as you know Hong Kong is a British Colony--and my mom make a deliberate choice for me to, um, attend a Chinese high school and university,

[00:03:48]
so there's a track--If we went to Chinese school, we

[00:03:58]
will eventually go to a Chinese university in Hong Kong. If we studied in English college, and then they have another,

[00:04:08]
an-examination all left for-a left for and then, to Hong Kong University, and then that track

[00:04:18]
will-would lead student to study in--in-uh the United Kingdom. So those who attend Chinese-you--we didn't get that kind of, um, prep-college prep,

[00:04:37]
uh, for us to enter university in college as in--in U.K--so most student, um,

[00:04:49]
end up come to United States, for the advanced degree--and then I was fortunate to study with, um, several very--