THE 80 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS OF ALL TIME
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THE 80 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS OF ALL TIME
51. Robert M. Takasugi
Robert Takasugi was twelve when his family became a part of the 1942 forced disposession of Japanese Americans known as Executive Order 9066. Takasugi has never forgotten the racial bias nor the constitutional outrage that underlay those three years of his life. As Senior Judge of the Central District of California, Takasugi has bucked public opinion throughout his 28-years on the Federal bench by being a fearless defender of constitutional protection for disfavored minorities. One recent example was his 2002 dismissal of terrorism charges against a group of Iranians accused of using fraudulent means to raise money to fund terrorist activities. He has also earned bipartisan respect for his zealous enforcement of fair trial procedures.
52. Connie Chung
Connie Chung is the prototype and pioneer who inspired the legions of Asian female journalists on American TV. The burden of being the first was a heavy one, and she didn't always respond graciously to countless demands on her time. By the time she reached national prominence as an NBC correspondent and substitute anchor in the late 1980s, she was both idolized for her prominence and reviled for her rejection of the "Asian American" label. Similar ambivalence about her often abrasive personal and journalistic style may have underlain the 1995 loss of her CBS Evening News co-anchor spot.
53. Debra W. Yang
America's most powerful female attorney also happens to be the second youngest U.S. Attorney in Justice Department history -- Debra Yang was just 42 when the Senate confirmed her in April of 2002. As top prosecutor of California's Central District, she commands 260 prosecutors covering seven counties comprising the largest U.S. Attorney office outside of Washington D.C., with a collective population that exceeds that of all but five states. Her appointment by President Bush raised charges of race and gender politics, but Yang has been winning converts ever since. During her first year in office her staff filed 483 cases involving business fraud, surpassing the historically busier New York office. In the process Yang has boosted morale and helped stem the outflow of talent.
Minnesota Wild right wing and captain Richard Park grew up in sunny Southern California but saw enough ice time to win a spot on the U.S. World Junior Championship hockey team in 1994 and 95. He was a second-round draft pick in 1994 at the age of 18, making him one of the youngest ever to play in the NHL. His early goal in game 5 of the 2003 playoffs against Vancouver helped rally the Wild to a come-from-behind win in the 7-game series.
Most thrillseekers would give up a kidney or more for 504 hours in space and a 6-hour spacewalk to boot. All Edward Tsang Lu had to do was get a Stanford physics PhD, a commercial pilot's license and beat out thousands of other applicants to get picked by NASA in 1994. He was rewarded with two all-expenses-paid round-trips into orbit: one in 1997 as a mission specialist and another in 2000 as payload commander. Lu was born July 1, 1963 in Springfield, Massachusetts but calls Honolulu and New York home. He's been too busy with frivolous pursuits like aerobatic flying, coaching wrestling, piano, tennis, surfing, skiing and travel to get married.
There's nothing more American than the conviction that efficient mass production confers validation. Andrew and Peggy Cherng are well on the road to making fried tofu and orange chicken as validly American as Big Macs and fries. If they realize their dream of opening 10,000 Panda Express restaurants at about the same pace as McDonald's (30,000 worldwide in 50 years), today's teens may be telling their grandkids about the rigors of shoveling Chinese after school with a smile and a paper cap. The Cherngs' huge appetite for success was whetted in East Pasadena in 1973 when Andrew turned his back on a B.S. in applied math and got his dad to become the chef of the first Panda Inn. Today the Cherngs boast 600 locations, enough to achieve virtual suburban ubiquity.
Angela Oh was a community lawyer who stepped up to become the voice of Corean America in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Her frank criticism of the way Corean merchants had been victimized by the media and the political system earned her a seat on President Clinton's 7-member race advisory board. Oh seized the opportunity to become the liaison between the oft-overlooked Corean American population and the political establishment. She has published her insights in a collection of essays entitled Open: OneWoman's Journey.
If there's an American Dream for the hi-tech age, it may be selling your company for half a billion dollars to an industry giant, then being asked to stay on to run it. Victor and Janie Tsao made that dream come true by betting their 15-year-old company on a risky plunge into the 802.11g wi-fi standard six months before it was set to be finalized in June 2003. By getting a 3-month production jump on wi-fi router rivals, Linksys cornered the Christmas market, became the industry's quick red fox and an caught the eyes of a sleepy colossus. Cisco Systems offered $500 million for the Irvine-based mom-and-pop and asked the Tsaos to stay on as CEO (Victor) and CFO.
It takes 3.4 million uniformed and civilian personnel to defend the U.S. against foreign threats. Figuring out ways to get, train and keep the best manpower our tax dollars can afford has been David S. C. Chu's job since he was appointed by President Bush in May of 2001. Chu not only advises the Secretary of Defense on recruitment, career development and benefits for 1.4 million on active duty and 1.3 million reserves, he personally oversees their state of military readiness. Chu knows the defense establishment from the ground up. A '64 Yale magna in econ and math, Chu signed on as an Army officer when the Vietnam war blew up in 1968. He earned his captain bars at the end of his Vietnam tour. Between 1978 and 1993 Chu worked his way up the defense establishment with enough distinction to earn a DOD Medal for Distinguished Public Service with palm. He spent eight years as a senior RAND executive before answering the call to his current post as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
In Helie Lee the American mass media found an authentic, telegenic and literate channel for the hellish suffering of North Corea's dispossessed. Lee's second book, In the Absence of the Sun (Harmony, 1998), recounts her experiences in helping relatives make a daring escape from North Corea. The book made Lee a hot enough property to inspire movie talk. At the core of Lee's appeal is her impulsive, adventuresome spirit. "If a door opens," she has said of her philosophy, "be courageous enough to recognize it and walk through it instead of trying to slam it shut and open another door that won't open for you." The scariest door she has walked through is assuming a man's identity in China for six and a half months -- the subject of a documentary in the works. Helie Lee was born in Seoul on August 29, 1964 and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of five. She graduated from UCLA in 1986, then supported herself by working on In Living Color, Saved By The Bell, the Martin Lawrence Show, among other shows, while laying the groundwork for her acclaimed novel Still Life with Rice (Scribner, 1996).