30 Years in the USA!

Yesterday as I was chatting away with friends over dinner, it occurred to me that it was the 30th anniversary of my family's immigration to America. Funny how important dates like this steals upon you and sometimes passes without recognition. As it happened, we toasted to this day, without which many things would have been different, not the least of which, the Tsang clan. So I thought I should commemorate this date with some reminiscing.

We left Taiwan and arrived in Los Angeles Airport on December 16th, 1978. Here are some of the things I remember:

• Jimmy Carter established formal diplomatic relationship with China and told Taiwan to take a flying hike while we were on the plane waiting for take-off.
• Boston's "Don't Look Back" was in the top-ten chart.
• All my worldly possessions occupied a corner of a suitcase.
• Many relatives came to send us off. They cried a lot.
• All the English we had to learn fit neatly into a pocketbook, and it contained a section on American movie stars.
• I promised myself I would never forget who I was, and that Taiwan would alway be my home.
• Pizza was one of the most disgusting foods ever invented.

The fact is, I remember very little. What happened then is no more than a fuzzy black-and-white vignette that seems to belong to someone else: a family uprooting themselves, their hopes in an unknown land and an unknown future, their minds heavy parting with the old and not yet grasping the new, their clothing odd, their hair out-of-fashion, their speech awkward. Yet, they were a family. They moved as one, and they had faith in God. It made all the difference. I know. That much I remember.