My 2020 Holiday Letter

December 2020

5 Alban Mews
New Albany, Ohio 43054 
Email: roderick.chu@att.net

A holiday note to my family, friends, and colleagues —

With COVID-19 keeping us from traveling and gathering with family and friends since March, my usual Holiday Letter would have been a small one indeed. Most notably, it’s been an even tougher year for my family since my Mom passed away here in Ohio on July 21st, though peacefully, with me by her side. She had suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in her sleep in my home 2 days earlier. My family gathered for a small private funeral and put Mom to rest next to Pop in our family plot in Kensico Cemetery in Vahalla, NY. I wrote an In Memoriam piece celebrating Mom’s rich and extraordinary life and shared it with those who knew her well, and also posted it on Facebook. If would like to read it, please check it out at https://roderickchu.blogspot.com.

Gathering briefly with family in Mom’s home in Briarcliff Manor, NY, I collected all the family photo albums that I could find and brought them back with me to Ohio. It struck me that since Mom’s many friends were not there for the funeral, using selected photos from those albums to tell the story of her history in America would be particularly appropriate for my Holiday Letter this year. Since my father and I have enjoyed taking photos over the years, I had tens of thousands of photos to select from. I’m glad to include photos of friends whose families are on my Xmas card list. There are gaps in the story because 1000s of loose photos are still in boxes that I haven’t been able to get through. This photo story ends abruptly in 1987 because I ran out of space and time; the rest of the story will have to wait until I produce an additional letter covering our lives since then. Still, I think there’s enough here to tell the story of Mom, Pop, and Yeh-Yeh conveying the character, values, and education we’ve needed to live the American Dream.

With the rising incidence of COVID-19, I’ve continued to shelter at home with infrequent trips out for food shopping. I decided not to drive east for our family Thanksgiving festivities and will also miss Christmas there. But we’re well connected via technology and I’m glad to report that all in our remaining family are doing reasonably well – and I just received the terrific news that my grand-nephew A.J. has gotten his first college acceptance letters!

We’re looking forward to more competent leadership of our country and the vanquishing of the virus so we can once again travel and gather safely with family and friends. Wishing you all the best with hope and confidence in a better 2021 and a nation we can all be proud of! 

Sincerely,
Rod

 

Friend me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/rodchu

My blogs: http://rchu.wordpress.com 
                  http://www.choosygourmand.wordpress.com

1920s-1950s: Our family’s beginnings in the U.S.

 

My grandfather Chun Chu 趙瑞春 (“Yeh-Yeh”) came to America in the 1920s from Fow Shek Heung 浮石鄉 in ToiShan County 台山, Guangzhou Province, China. Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, he was permitted to emigrate to America as a merchant - a partner in a Chinatown, NY store at 77 Mott St. In the 1930s, he returned to China for a visit and brought his eldest of 3 sons, Norton 趙鈺延, back to NYC with him. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School, Norton joined the U.S. Army in a segregated Chinese company, was assigned to the post-WWII occupation forces in Shanghai, and rose to the rank of Master Sergeant. After his tour of duty, he returned to NYC and was followed by a women he met in Shanghai, Frances Liang 梁 淑 儀. They married, and had a son, Roderick 趙光華. 

 

Pop attended Hunter College and received his B.S. Degree in Chemistry. He worked for Ledoux & Company as a plutonium chemist. Daughter Laura 趙慧娟 came next. Our family lived in a garden apartment in Astoria, Queens, and visited Central Park often, enjoying photos by the big cement eagles there. Pop owned a 1952 Chevrolet. Mom always dressed beautifully, and Pop was quite dapper.

 

 

Among our neighbors was Henry Calvin, who performed on Broadway in Kismet and substituted for Buffalo Bob on TV’s Howdy Doody Show. He got Laura & me into the show’s Peanut Gallery 4 times. We celebrated birthdays with Adelina Lee, Ann Damren, & others and vacationed many times at the Framingham, Mass. home of Pop’s old Army buddy “Uncle Cowboy,” and in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.

1950s-1960s: Living in Queens

 

We enjoyed the small neighborhood feel of Astoria, where Mom & Pop entertained Johnny & Mei Chen and other fashionably dressed friends. Freedomland was NYC’s short-lived answer to Disneyland. We took road trips to visit Philadelphia and Washington, DC. We moved to the new Lefrak City development with nice swimming pools where we continued to welcome friends – Min, Lily, and Minalie Chen – and made new ones: our neighbors, the Lohs (Jane, I-Cheng, Suzette, & Willie). It was only a 1 mile stroll to the 1964-65 NY World’s Fair, which Laura & I visited many weekends during its summer opening months. Christmases with aunties and uncles were always festive.

1957-1960s: World Travels on PanAm

 

 

Mom & Pop made good use of the travel benefits from her pioneering work in real-time data processing at Pan American World Airways. They vacationed in Nassau, then Barcelona and Paris, and visited our former Astoria neighbors Chet & Regina Barion in Cologne, Germany, where Chet was promoted to head the Ford Motor Company in Europe. Then on to Rome and Venice. 

 

 

PanAm was first with commercial jet planes. Mom & Pop were usually upgraded to first class by PanAm’s airport managers and flew to Paris again for some shopping. A stopover in Hawaii then on to visit friends in Hong Kong: Maria Lee in their family estate, and other good family friends in their villas and homes on Victoria Peak. On to Tokyo to see Mom’s IBM World Trade colleague, Jack Adjami, and a Geisha house visit. Family shopping trip to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and London. We still enjoy the Swan Chairs we bought in Denmark. 

 

Celebrated Christmas and the New Year in South America. In Rio De Janeiro, the Pan Am City Manager lent us his car and driver for our stay, taking us to see the Corcovado statue On our way out of the Leme Palace for sightseeing, we were asked to be cosmopolitan extras in a Janet Leigh movie Grand Slam being filmed in the lobby. Sightseeing in Buenos Aires, “the Paris of South America” and on to Montevideo, where we were guests of the Chinese Ambassador and his family for the Uruguayan Chinese community’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

1970s-1980s: Briarcliff Manor - Steven & Karen, Dinner Parties

 

 

 

In 1969, with Mom working for IBM, Mom & Pop bought a house in Briarcliff Manor to be near her client American Airlines’ data center. I was in grad school at Cornell and Laura married and gave our parents two wonderful grandchildren, Steven & Karen, visiting from Mass. 

Mom & Pop loved entertaining friends at home – William & Mai Wu, Lily & Min Chen, Lili Lee – and especially for big Thanksgiving dinners. I-Cheng & Jane Loh brought 16mm kung fu movies for after-dinner entertainment, and dancing downstairs, here with Al Sim.

1980s: NY State Commissioner of Taxation & Finance

 

In 1983, NY State’s newly elected Governor Mario M. Cuomo asked me to be his Commissioner of Taxation & Finance. I was the first Chinese-American and the youngest tax commissioner ever appointed to a cabinet position in NY State’s history. I was also one of the highest ranking Chinese-Americans in government in the U.S. Having been admitted to the Arthur Andersen & Co. partnership a year before, it meant a taking a huge salary cut, but brought great distinction to the Chinese community. Celebrating with us in Albany were my Cornell roommate, Bob Crane, who was serving as NYS’s Deputy Health Commissioner, Mike Finnerty and Wayne Diesel, Budget Director and First Deputy – who recommended me to Gov. Cuomo – and their wives Ethlyn and Carole. In NYC, celebrated with my AA&Co. mentor Paul Tom, and Laura with her former neighbors CBS radio newscaster Ben & Judy Farnsworth.

Yeh-Yeh, Mom, Pop, and I paid our respects to major Chinatown organizations, including the Pell St. Merchants’ Association and our Chiu Family Association (with our Sung Dynasty ancestral portraits on the walls). ABC TV News anchor Kaity Tong and I were fêted as Woman and Man of the Year by the Chinatown Planning Council. Mom, as founding president of OCA-Westchester, hosted a large dinner honoring visiting Governor Gu of China’s Jiangsu Province and celebrated Maria Lee’s honorary doctorate by Pace University. Billy Joel’s mother – a former NYS Tax Dept. Employee – invited Mom, Pop, & me to meet her son backstage before we saw his Madison Square Garden concert. 

 

 

One of the great perks of my job was a box at Saratoga Race Track for its August racing season. Guests included Vera Wang, Aileen Pei, Lili Lee, Peter & Ann Moran, and Elaine Chao. I rented vacation homes each year on Lake George for my family & guests to stay during the season. Cruised the lake on my boat, joined by my uncles and cousins Tony, Mai, and David Chiu. Old friends also accepted invitations to visit, including Grace & Ed Grigoleit, Bill & Cynthia Ling, and Randy Hatch.

 

1980s: China Visits

In 1985, Mom & Pop vacationed in St Maarten. Then, as NY State’s Tax Commissioner working for possible U.S. Presidential candidate Mario Cuomo, I was invited by the Minister of Finance of the Republic of China to make an official state visit with my parents and grandpa – suggested by my NY State colleague Walter Kiang. I gave lectures on tax administration and we toured many sights in Taiwan, including the treasures in The Palace Museum, where a government photographer took photos not permitted by any visitors. 

 

 

 

 

In 1987, I was invited by the Minister of Finance of the People’s Republic of China to make an official state visit with my parents. NY Budget Director, Wayne Diesel & his wife Carol accompanied us on what would be a trip of a lifetime. I was accorded the courtesies of a visiting head of state - with police escorts getting us around traffic everywhere – and provided the accommodations they gave President Nixon and Queen Elizabeth on their China visits. Mom, Pop, & I started in Mom’s hometown of Shanghai, where we were hosted by the Deputy Mayor. We visited Mom’s aunt in the home in which Mom was raised. Visited the headmistress of the former McTyeire girl’s prep school, which Mom had attended. Sightseeing at Jade Spring. On to scenic Hangzhou, my ancestral Song Dynasty capital, and its famed West Lake. In Beijing, we were housed in a villa in Diaoyutai 釣魚臺國賓館, the State Guesthouse – formerly the Qing emperor’s fishing retreat – where the Deputy Finance Minister hosted our stay. The Diesels joined us in Beijing and we climbed the Great Wall together. Dinner with the national Minister of Finance in the Great Hall of the People, then visits to the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. 

 

 

 

 

On to Xi’An and a banquet dinner of 32 courses of different types of dumplings, a museum with Buddha’s newly discovered ashes, and the Terra Cotta Soldiers dig site. In Nanjing, visited the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum and Ming Tombs, and paid a return visit to Jiangsu Gov. Gu Xiulian 顾秀莲. – first woman provincial governor in China. To Guilin and a cruise down the majestically scenic Li River and Reed Flute Cave. Paid respects at Guangzhou’s Tomb of the Martyrs and enjoyed a banquet featuring Drunken Shrimp. Fed my ancestors’ spirits at their graves – sited with perfect feng shui – in Yeh-Yeh’s home village of Fow Shek in ToiShan, where the entire school turned out to greet us and we planted a tree before we visited Yeh-Yeh’s home with another ceremony honoring my grandmother. Ended our trip in Hong Kong, visiting Maria and May Lee in their magnificent family villa, Maria’s and Fong Yim Fun 芳艷芬’s art studio, and the Kwan Yin Temple.

Printed 2020 Letter

I fit all the above into one double-sided legal sheet to include with my Christmas cards. Since Adobe stopped supporting its InDesign app except on a monthly subscription basis, I bought Affinity Publisher at a reasonable one-time purchase cost and made the easy switch to it to lay out this year's letter. If you'd like a hard copy, I'd be happy to mail you one - just send an email with your mailing address to me at roderick.chu@att.net.