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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,
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at that time was very unusual to get anything as a--They call us foreign--foreign student, but now it's international student.
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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?
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{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
I studied--I majored in sociology, uh, minor in economics, so I graduated 1965,
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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,
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um, at the Hong Kong housing society, and--of good pay and, uh, um, and a, um,
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and comfortable position so--Uh I accept it but I didn't like--I--I really wanted to go to study abroad, so,
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and--uh the second year I, I was able to get the fellowship.
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{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.
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{SPEAKER name="Samir Meghelli, Ph.D. (Interviewer)"}
And-- [[Cross Talk]]
{SPEAKER name="Esther Chow (Interviewee)"}
So--
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{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,
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so there's a track--If we went to Chinese school, we
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will eventually go to a Chinese university in Hong Kong. If we studied in English college, and then they have another,
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an-examination all left for-a left for and then, to Hong Kong University, and then that track
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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,
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uh, for us to enter university in college as in--in U.K--so most student, um,
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end up come to United States, for the advanced degree--and then I was fortunate to study with, um, several very--