The family lived in a good neighborhood of the French section. "We lived at
the end of the block," Wang recalls. "I remember parade and so forth." His
memories of the house were refreshed by photos brought back by his parents
and older brother Tony who visited Shanghai at about the time of the
Tiananmen Square massacre. "I remembered the house. We had a nice
house. We had servants and so forth." The family favored Mandarin over
Shanghainese, and today Wang speaks Mandarin rather than Shanghainese.
Shortly before the Communist took over Shanglhai in 1949, the elder Wang
gave up his judgeship to go into private practice. Despite his upper-crust
background he seems to have had a sincere desire to stay in Shanghai under
the Communists. Unlike most Chinese of the upper classes he made no effort
to leave China. To better situate himself for life under a Communist regime,
he gave up his law practice to take a position as the president of a woman's
college. Though the elder Wang had no Guomingdang ties, his family
background wasn't so easily forgotten. "It didn't work out every well," Wang
says tersely.
In the fall of 1952, when Charles was eight, the family escaped to Hong Kong.
That October they reached New York. The elder Wang found a position
teaching international law at St John's University in New York while going to
law school at night to get an American law degree. Three years later he
passed the exam and became a full professor of law at St John's where he
taught for 34 years. Remarkably, he retired from teaching about six years
ago to begin yet another career as a partner of Wang & Wang, a law firm
founded by third son France. The practice is successful, currently employing
a staff of 80 with offices in New York, San Francisco and Taipei. It specializes
in protecting American copyrights from Taiwanese bootleggers, representing
clients like Encyclopedia Britannica, Walt Disney and many software houses.
Even today the elder Wang travels regularly between Taipei, San Franciscco
and New York.
Mary Wang adapted quickly to the life of struggling immigrants. She worked
as a clerk at the public library while studying evenings for a masters in
library science. After getting her degree she worked in the Queensboro
public library system and became the head of a branch before retiring
several years ago.
Though the boys spoke no English when they arrived Wang recalls having no
trouble adjusting. "Kids adjust to anything," he says dismissively. "We
learned [English] very quickly." For elementary school the boys attended a
private Catholic co-ed school in Queens called Incarnations. The tuition might
have been prohibitive but for the fact that as members of the Catholic church
they enjoyed reduced rates. All three boys were A students. Wang played "a
lot of baseball and so forth" but doesn't consider himself to have been an
exceptional athlete.
Despite two incomes it was something of a struggle to make ends meet.
"Yeah, you struggle and you go on," as Wang puts it. "America doesn't look
upon its education specialists with such great pride as in China. A teacher's
salary is not the greatest."
[CONTINUED BELOW]
Throughout Wang's childhood the family lived in an apartment but he recalls
having felt no sense of privation. "We were just children."
Eldest son Tony seems to hve received the most attention "as in any Oriental
family," Wang says. Wang was the typical middle child.
"I don't think parents make a conscious effort to say you're not as important. I think
raising a second child is different than raising a first child because you have
experience. You know what's more important, what isn't. I think the second
child benefits from it in some ways. If you want to look at the negative side
of it, he doesn't get as much attention, but I think it's probably good, maybe
it's more normal in one sense."
The result, according to Wang, is a distinct personality difference between
him and his older brother. "I think I'm more of a risk-taker than he is. He's
a brilliant student, a much better student, much more responsible in that
sense. I'm probably [more aggressive] just in terms of trying things, I'll try it
first. My nature seems to be that I like to try this, I like to try that. I'm
maybe innately more curious than most people. 'Let's try it: what've you got
to lose' type thing. He'll analyze it bettre." Wang attributes his risk-happy
attitude to his mother's influence. "My mother's the more curious one; she's
always wanting to try this, try that. I think that sense of adventure is from
her side."
"I think the most important thing my father taught all his sons is the
integrity of a man's word," Wang says. "He not only told us, he lived it.
When he said something, you knew you could take it to the bank. If there's
one thing about us, we may be reluctant to commit to something but, boy,
when we commit to it, it's our word on the line. We'll move heaven and earth
to live up to the expectation of that word."
Wang credits much of his success to that principle. "A man's word is
absolutely the most important thing. Forget about contracts. Some people
have this wonderful attitudes -- 'Well I didn't sign it yet.' Ultimately it's the
integrity of tthe person. That word has to mean so much more. People in the
company all know [that] Charles may say yes [or] no, but when Charles says
this is the way it is he'll live [up] to that word. That sends a confidence
through whatever, however you live your life, whoever you live it with,
whoever you associate with. That confidence, integrity is the most important
thing you have."
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