(Editor’s note: Wea H. Lee , chairman and ceo of the Southern News Group and publisher of the Houston Star, was a poor immigrant from Taiwan seeking better life opportunity in the United States. Thirty years later, he has become a media mogul, a millionaire, whose flagship company—the Southern News Group—was chosen among the “100 Houston Small Businesses.” This is his success story—his “journey to the American dream.”)

FIRST IN A SERIES

ON Sept. 26, 2003, when I received the “100 Houston Small Business” Award from John Beddow, publisher of the Houston Business Journal, I was deeply moved. My feeling was one of joy, pride and nostalgia—rolled into one. When I climbed up the stage to receive my trophy, my mind drifted back to my early life—how and when I came to America, in search of a better life, for me and my family.

    I was born in the little town of Lung Ling, in the southwest part of China’s Yunnan Providence. My father was principal of a local school and chief of the town’s civil bureau. My mother was also a schoolteacher in a local middle school.

    In 1949, when the Communist took control of China, my father escaped to Burma to avoid persecution. The new government was after him simply because he was a civil servant. He left behind his family: my mother, myself and two sisters.

    For two years, my mother waited for the chance to follow my father in exile. One summer night in 1951, during a school performance, my mother—with three young children in tow—left my hometown.

    I was only two years old, and I couldn’t remember. My mother later told me that horses, waiting in the dark, carried me and my two sisters. We traveled for more than one week over many mountains until we crossed China’s southern border and on to Burma (now called Myanmar).

    When we arrived in the small town of Tamonnei, some 20 miles south of the Chinese border, my father was waiting for us. He had prepared a small area for all of us, and it was a tearful but happy reunion after being apart for more than two years.

    Without a job, my father had much difficulty raising his family in a foreign land. They have to sell the family’s jewelry so we would have some money. My parents had never been anything but teachers, and they must now do something to eke out a living. My mother suggested opening a small grocery store, but they did not know what to sell in the first place. Finally they decided to buy and sell clothes. The money they made from this business was barely enough for the family.

    Meanwhile in China, the Communist regime was revolutionizing the whole country. Leaders and intellectuals of the old government like my father were being replaced and persecuted. In fact, officers of the new regime came looking for my father, but my grandmother never told them anything about his whereabouts. Actually, my grandmother did not know exactly where we were because my father never told her.

    Tamonnei is more than one hundred miles from my hometown. If you travel by foot or on horseback, it will take you more than a week to reach this small town, which is without electricity and running water. Most of the people who lived there were refugees from China. Every evening, the elders sat under the tree to exchange information about their old folks in China and to listen to the story or message from a newcomer.

    Life in this town was difficult for my family, so my mother had always wanted to move to a better place. One day, my mother met one of her former students who told her and my family about a city in northern Burma called Mong Kung. He told us the city offered better opportunity for us because he has a relative who has lived there for a long time.

    But my father did not want to leave. He wanted to stay in Tamonnei because it was close to his hometown and to my grandmother. He said being close to his roots made him feel better. So we lived in this town for one more year.

    My father finally decided to move to Mong Kung when things have gotten worse in China and security was getting tighter at the China-Burma border. With very little belongings, we had no problem relocating. We arrived in the new town after three days. Friends and relatives of my mother’s former student were there to welcome us. And to my parents’ joy, they saw a lot of old friends. They were confident the new town offered them a better future.           (To be continued )