Chinese community enriched with immigrants from a small province

In the early 1990s, many people from one province in China moved to the U.S. and are all succeeding here now. - - Donna Poisl

Written by Mary Chao, Staff writer

Fujian province is on the southeastern coast of China across from the Taiwan Strait. In the large immigration wave about two decades ago, Fujian men went abroad to secure jobs, mostly in the restaurant industry, sending money back to their families in China. Certain areas of Fujian province look like ghost towns as many of the young people have gone abroad, says Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventure in the World of Chinese Food. But as China's economy shifts, fewer people are leaving as there are now more job opportunities in China, local Fujianese say.

Dao Liang Sun, like many immigrants to the United States, left family members and made a dangerous journey across the ocean to find a better life for them.

And like thousands from the Fujian province of China, many from his hometown of Fuzhou, he paid thousands of dollars to a handler (the Chinese word for this means "snakehead") to smuggle him on a ship to Thailand. From there, he boarded a plane to New York City.

Sun was lucky. He secured political asylum and brought his family over two years later, including his son, Kevin, then 12.
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