{"id":9213,"date":"2023-04-19T17:47:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/?page_id=9213"},"modified":"2023-06-19T20:47:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T20:47:01","slug":"dr-audrey-sidney","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/dr-audrey-sidney\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Audrey Sidney"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][divider line_type=”No Line”][vc_column_text]\n

Dr. Audrey Sidney Oral History<\/span><\/h1>\n[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][page_submenu alignment=”center” sticky=”true” bg_color=”#008542″ link_color=”#ffffff”][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/manuscripts-and-guides\/” title=”Manuscripts & Subject Guides<\/strong>” id=”1682003524656-9″ tab_id=”1682003524656-5″] [\/page_link][page_link link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/guides-to-the-collection-page\/” title=”Collections Portal<\/strong>” id=”1682003524670-10″ tab_id=”1682003524671-5″] [\/page_link][page_link title=”Visit<\/strong>” id=”1682003524677-9″ tab_id=”1682003524677-2″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/visit\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Make a Request<\/strong>” id=”1682003524687-6″ tab_id=”1682003524688-4″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/requests\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”About Us<\/strong>” id=”1682003524694-3″ tab_id=”1682003524694-3″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments-archives-museum-about-us\/”][\/page_link][page_link title=”Yearbooks Online<\/strong>” id=”1682003524706-1″ tab_id=”1682003524707-7″ link_url=”https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/library\/departments\/archives-museum\/yearbooks-alumni-magazines-delta-state-histories\/”][\/page_link][\/page_submenu][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_spacing=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1\/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Sidney, Dr. Audrey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tape 1 of 1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2\/4\/00<\/strong><\/p>\n

By:\u00a0 Kimberly Lancaster<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is an oral history of the Chinese in the Mississippi Delta.\u00a0 The interview is being recorded with Dr. Audrey Sidney on February 4, 2000.\u00a0 The interviewer is Kimberly Lancaster.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 I am Kimberly Lancaster.\u00a0 Today is February 4, 2000.\u00a0 We are talking with Dr. Audrey Sidney for the Delta Chinese Oral History Project.<\/p>\n

AS: I was born in St. Louis, Missouri on March 5, 1934.\u00a0 I grew up in Earle, Arkansas, which is in Crittenden County, [across the Mississippi River near] Memphis, Tennessee.\u00a0 My parents moved from St. Louis [where] they were in the laundry business. They entered into the grocery business.\u00a0 They moved in 1937 to Earle, Arkansas.\u00a0 I come from a family that had eight children. There are five girls and three boys [in our family].\u00a0 He not only had two grocery stores one at Earle, Arkansas, and the other at Black Fish Lake, which was on Highway 70 (said as seventy), but he also had a farm.\u00a0 I am not sure of their level of education. They are immigrants from the Canton, [China] area.\u00a0 The United States was the land of opportunity; thus, they came [to the U.S.] to make more money, and then hopefully go back to China, which they were never able to do.\u00a0 I am not sure when they were married.\u00a0 My oldest sister was born in 1930.<\/p>\n

What conditions did they encounter?\u00a0 They worked hard, and one thing they instilled in [their children]\u00a0 was to get a good education.\u00a0 [An education] was one of the highest priorities [for us] when we were growing up. Back then [many] Chinese people did not believe in girls getting a college education because they [believed girls] would get married and raise children.\u00a0 My parents, believed that girls should be educated. Sometimes some of their friends would [ask our parents] why are you sending those girls to college and comment they don\u2019t need to go to college.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0\u00a0 Could you tell us a little bit about your family life?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 As I said, there were five girls and three boys in the family.\u00a0 My parents had three girls before they had a son.\u00a0 Of course, as Chinese [people believe there should be] a boy in the family [to carry the family name].\u00a0 My mother would always tell her friends that the girls are the ones who are going to take care of you.\u00a0 Boys are not because they are going to marry and go [along with the girl].\u00a0 I have always remembered this. I am very thankful that I do have two girls because whenever we need them they are here.\u00a0 They are always willing to offer some kind of advice and help. I am the third child in my family.\u00a0 When we moved to Earle, Arkansas, let\u2019s see I was three years old.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t encounter racial barriers in Earle, Arkansas.\u00a0 Earle, Arkansas, is a small town about three thousand population.\u00a0 My oldest sister, she did somewhat.\u00a0 Because, you know, sometimes back then in the thirties and forties some people would use the slur such as\u00a0 \u201cchink\u201d or something like that.\u00a0 I have heard her tell about some of the things she experienced.\u00a0 The oldest in the family always has to bear the \u201cgrunt of things.\u201d The parents are usually more strict with the first child than they are with the last ones.\u00a0 When the youngest in our family came along, we would say mother would never let us do those things.\u00a0 Or she never bought us those things, of course, when you have eight children; there was not enough money to buy many things. The church was a very important part to us as we grew up because people in the church cared for us.\u00a0 They wanted us to go to church.\u00a0 This was the Baptist church in Earle, Arkansas.\u00a0 My oldest sister started singing when she was a teenager.\u00a0 As a matter of fact she went on several revivals where she sang solos, and then she ended up at Baylor University for her first year of college. Because she got married, she ended up in St. Louis.\u00a0 Her marriage was, you might say, a little bit on the match side.\u00a0 My parents were very close to a Lum family in St. Louis.\u00a0 When you talk about a match marriage, which I tell my friends, it is no different now than it used to be.\u00a0 Because I have Caucasian friends who try to set up men that are bachelors or girls that are looking for a mate.\u00a0 They say I have a friend that I want you to meet. That is what they used to do.\u00a0 Of course I know in China, they did have match marriages and they never saw the other party until the wedding.\u00a0\u00a0 Over here the way the match marriage is done is if I had a son and we would just like for them to meet.\u00a0 If it works out, okay, and if it doesn\u2019t, well you know that is okay too.\u00a0 It did work out for my older sister.\u00a0 As for the rest of us in my family,\u00a0 we found our own spouses. As a matter of fact the first time my husband, C. W., visited in Earle, they had to find out all about his background. Caucasians do the same thing, if they professional, they come from a good background.\u00a0 A lot of things that they say Chinese historically will do, it is so true in many, many cultures, not just our culture.\u00a0 All the children in my family were valedictorians and received good citizenship awards.\u00a0 We got a lot of the honors.\u00a0 There were no barriers there because we studied hard.\u00a0 After school, we came home to work.\u00a0 However, in our family the girls and boys played basketball.\u00a0 We participated in sports.\u00a0 My brother played football.\u00a0 He got a dislocation in his arm.\u00a0 Of course, my mother was very protective of him.\u00a0 We were allowed to play basketball and participate in school and church activities.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 What were your favorite subjects?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Math, I was a good math student.\u00a0 I enjoyed English.\u00a0 I was good in English grammar, but I wish that we were taught to write.\u00a0 I think back then [writing] was lacking [in the curriculum].\u00a0 I know in schools today, we teach process writing.\u00a0 [Students are taught] how to write.\u00a0 Back in the fifties, you had grammar, you wrote a term paper, and you had literature.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, school did come easy for me.\u00a0 We had to work in the store.\u00a0 We worked all day Saturday from eight o\u2019clock till I want to say ten or eleven o\u2019clock.\u00a0 Now the people who have grocery stores they don\u2019t have the long hours that we had.\u00a0 As far as my social life is concerned, I didn\u2019t date in high school.\u00a0 I tried to be friends with everybody and\u00a0 I had no boyfriends.\u00a0 But there were some boys that I liked.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t allowed to date.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see, now how did we maintain our traditions? \u00a0Well, with this being Chinese New Year week, I remember every Chinese New Year we would wake up to the popping of firecrackers.\u00a0 Our parents would always have a real good meal.\u00a0 Of course the popping of the firecrackers was to drive the evil spirits away.\u00a0 They would always give us those little red packages with money in them, which we always looked forward to getting them.\u00a0 We knew those red packages were something good.\u00a0 We always welcomed that.\u00a0 For customs, my mother, would listen to an older person, which we call Digoo, who was a great-aunt.\u00a0 Mother would always tried to follow customs as much as possible. We grew up drinking the Chinese herbals to keep our body clean. Back then, I didn\u2019t believe in them but now I do. I do believe in a lot of the things such as\u00a0 there is a [Chinese] melon that detoxins your body.\u00a0 [This belief is] just like you all believe that chicken noodle soup is good [for you] when you have the flu.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Is it a Chinese melon?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 It is a melon that you cook.\u00a0 We would also drink a tea that would detoxin your body.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, when I went to China, I bought some tiger balm.\u00a0 Growing up, if you fell down, Mother would always put that tiger balm [where you bruised yourself]. It smells horrible.\u00a0 It is supposed to help your sinuses too.\u00a0 It is supposed to be a cure all.\u00a0 All of that stuff you think when you are growing up you think it is a bunch of nonsense, but it is not.\u00a0 The most important thing that I learned at home is respect for elders, that a respect for education, and a high priority of having a good education.\u00a0 They instilled that in us.\u00a0 I think that is so true in today\u2019s world.\u00a0 That respect for your elders, and always speaking to them and letting them know that they are somebody and not to ignore them.\u00a0 As matter of fact speaking of education, I will tell you how that influenced us.\u00a0 Out of eight children, all of us but one has a master\u2019s degree.\u00a0 I have the doctorate degree.\u00a0 My sister, Betty, is getting her doctorate degree in May.\u00a0 All of the girls\u00a0 [in my family] are teachers, except one and she is a school nurse. Back when we were growing up, you\u00a0 were either a nurse, a secretary, or a teacher.\u00a0 So all of us ended up in education. Three of us have retired, but one sister says that she has changed her career.\u00a0 She is in investments now, and she is doing well [in this career].<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 What are your siblings\u2019 names?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 The oldest one is Helen, Norma is the school nurse and I am next.\u00a0 Then [Waily], Miller, [Wilkie], Betty, and then [Tong]; and we are scattered all over the United States.\u00a0 I have one in San Diego, two in Los Angeles, one in Wilmington, North Carolina.\u00a0 [There are two sisters] in St. Louis and one in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 So there is a run of nephews and nieces.<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Yes, we get together in St. Louis [at Christmas] and have had a family reunion ever since my mom died. It\u2019s like four or five of us with our families will get together in St.\u00a0 Louis.\u00a0 My children love it.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, last year when my children couldn\u2019t come, my little grandson said wanted to go to St. Louis.\u00a0 One of my sisters has a large home..\u00a0 One year there was seventeen [sleeping] down in the basement.\u00a0 Of course the basement is furnished.\u00a0 It\u2019s got carpet and everything.\u00a0 There were seventeen sleeping down there, and my brother-in-law, Frank Chong,\u00a0 said, \u201cWell that\u2019s the Great Wall of China.\u201d\u00a0 I love that. They would be on mattresses, beds, or sleeping bags [lined up one beside the other].\u00a0 I just love telling people that he called it the Great Wall of China.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Your maiden name is Haw?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Haw<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 What was your mother\u2019s maiden name?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 She was a Jue.\u00a0 My daddy was really a Jung. There are not that many of those in the south. (Tape was cut off).<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 In the store.<\/p>\n

AS: Chinese families migrated down south along the Mississippi Delta, back in the thirties, forties and fifties.\u00a0 The families would invest their money in the store.\u00a0 It would be a family enterprise.\u00a0 They lived in the back of the store.\u00a0 Sometimes it would be three people sharing a bed, if it was a large family.\u00a0 Maybe even more than that in some cases, but in my family some of the older ones got married or went to college, so for the younger ones it was not that way.\u00a0 As far as our home life, we did not have a lot of frills.\u00a0 We grew up.\u00a0 The main thing that we knew was how to do is to work [in the store] and have the determination to succeed.\u00a0 We wanted to do our very best.\u00a0 I think that is the work ethic of the Chinese people.\u00a0 You want to see a job that is well done.\u00a0 Now I will tell you this.\u00a0 I went to Mississippi State College for Women, it was M. S. C. W.\u00a0 when I went there.\u00a0 I was treated very nicely by the people in the school.\u00a0 It was girls\u2019 school.\u00a0 Back then, I think the population of the school was around a thousand.\u00a0 Of course now I think it is around two or three thousand. After the first year of college, I got married.\u00a0 I married C. W.\u00a0 who went into the Air Force.\u00a0 We thought we would have an Air Force life. After he went through basic training in San Antonio, we were [transferred to] Scott Air Force base right across from St. Louis in Belleville, Illinois.\u00a0 We stayed there and then he got his order to go to Korea.\u00a0 He was gone for a year.\u00a0 I had only had one year of college at that time.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when I couldn\u2019t go to Korea because we were doing the Korean War.\u00a0 So that is when we decided I would return to college.\u00a0 That was in 1955.\u00a0 Well I went back to the W.\u00a0 I would take like twenty hours a semester, went to summer school.\u00a0\u00a0 I had had only a freshman year when C.W. left.\u00a0 When he returned in December 1955, all I lacked was my student teaching. So I did it the next semester.\u00a0 So I finished all my work in 1956.\u00a0 I applied for a job at the Greenville Public School, because that was where we were going to live.\u00a0 He had some job offers, but he decided to stay in Greenville and go into [the electronic] business with his brother.\u00a0 I applied for a job when I came to Greenville and asked for an interview.\u00a0 I had an interview with the superintendent\u00a0 [Greenville Public Schools], [Mr. Koonce].\u00a0 He told me that only Caucasians could teach in the white public schools in Greenville.\u00a0 So he did not offer me a job.\u00a0 Of course, this was like a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to me, because I had not had that kind of treatment in growing up.\u00a0 Or maybe it would have good if I would have had that kind of treatment so it wouldn\u2019t be hit so hard.\u00a0 I am the kind of person that always wanted to work.\u00a0 I enjoy working, I enjoy meeting people, and I enjoy doing something.\u00a0 Staying at home is not my life.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get joy out of cleaning, moping floors, cleaning bathrooms, or doing the dishes.\u00a0 Anyway, so I couldn\u2019t get a job teaching in the public school, which was my major in college. I got a job at the Greenville Air Force Base.\u00a0 I worked out there \u201957 and \u201958. I got pregnant, and I had a child in 1958.\u00a0 When I got pregnant, C. W. and I were living in the back of his mother\u2019s store.\u00a0 We had one bedroom.\u00a0 In 1957 we wanted to look for a house in Greenville.\u00a0 Some real estate agents were nice to us, they took us around, and they went through the motion.\u00a0 Finally, one of them told us he couldn\u2019t sell us a house in any neighborhood. I was determined to get out of the back of the grocery store because I was getting ready to have a family. Of course C.W. was determined too.\u00a0 We saw a newspaper ad where somebody was trying to sell a house.\u00a0 He sold us his house for eight thousand dollars.\u00a0 We bought the house and did a lot of the work to clean it up.\u00a0 It was on [Watwood Street].\u00a0 That was in the later part of 1957 because Cynthia was born in \u201958.\u00a0 We lived there for a while.\u00a0 And then we decided that we wanted a bigger house.\u00a0 We had two children.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know where we were going to buy a lot because we felt we would still get the same kind of treatment.\u00a0 We heard from the church back then.\u00a0 I was teaching in kindergarten at the First Baptist Church.\u00a0 Somebody at church told me that maybe the H. N. Alexander Lumber Company had some lots.\u00a0 They might sell us a lot and build us a house. So we went to see Ebbie Alexander, who is still living, he sold us two lots.\u00a0 In 1965 we built a house on Robert Shaw which is right across from [Emma] Boyd School. We stayed there till 1980.\u00a0 Our children went to Boyd School, which was just across the street. The superintendent of [Greenville Public Schools] saw me at church one time.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come and teach in the public school?\u201d\u00a0 I told him I was [not] allowed to teach in public school.\u00a0 He said \u201cOh yeah, because it was integrated.\u201d\u00a0 In 1965 I started teaching in public school.\u00a0 I taught from 1965 to \u201970.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to get hurt again. I said, \u201cAre you sure I can teach in public school?\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cOh yes.\u201d\u00a0 So I made an appointment with the principal at [Emma] Boyd.\u00a0 She did hire me to teach second grade.\u00a0 I taught there five years. I wanted to get into administration, so I started working on my Master\u2019s Degree while I was teaching at [Emma] Boyd.\u00a0 I think I finished it in \u201967.\u00a0 Then I started hearing about Washington School.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Delta State?<\/p>\n

AS: I have a bachelor\u2019s from MSCW.\u00a0\u00a0 I have a Master\u2019s [and] Education Specialist\u00a0 Degrees from Delta State, and then a doctorate from Mississippi State University. Washington School started organizing in \u201968 and \u201969.\u00a0 Well, I knew that they needed an administrator, and I wanted to get into administration.\u00a0 I wanted my children to get a good education. My older daughter would have had to go to Coleman Junior High.\u00a0 At that time, I didn\u2019t feel like it was going to be safe for her.\u00a0 So we went to the private school.\u00a0 I was hired as the elementary principal.\u00a0 The first year I was a second grade teacher and the elementary principal.\u00a0 We had three hundred and twenty-three students [the first year at W.S.] in one building.\u00a0 The people that founded Washington School wanted a good quality school.\u00a0 Many people in this part of the Delta [have always] sent to their children off to a good prep school.\u00a0 There was a group of people that didn\u2019t want to send their children off to a prep school.\u00a0 They wanted to stay right here and go to school.\u00a0 So that is how Washington School got started.\u00a0 At first, they thought it might be just an elementary school, but there were people involved in the school like Dr. [Nino] Bologna and Dr. [Robert] Lee who had children that were in high school.\u00a0 They said, \u201cIf we are going to have a school, we [should] make it first grade through twelve grade because they had older children that they wanted to go that school. We worked hard, and we worked long hours.\u00a0 You know it is a very successful school now.\u00a0 It was founded on the basis that it would be a college prep school.\u00a0 The founders of the school wanted to be sure that it was accredited. We were accredited by the State of Mississippi, and we were accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.\u00a0 It was one of the first private schools that was accredited by Southern Colleges and Schools.\u00a0 Washington School and Heritage Academy in Columbus were the first two schools that got [accredited by] the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. I was elementary principal until 1989, and then I became the headmaster of the school.\u00a0 The school has been good for a lot of people, not just for me.\u00a0 I know, at first, there were colleges that didn\u2019t want to have a lot to do with private schools because they were public education facilities. Well, now I know they want our graduates because they know the caliber of graduates that we graduate.\u00a0 They know that they have a really good [educational] background.\u00a0\u00a0 The Washington School [faculty] has a lot of Delta State graduates. [Many of our faculty members] have their Master\u2019s Degree from Delta State.\u00a0 We have like sixty-five percent that has Master\u2019s Degrees [Washington School has always had] high standards.\u00a0 I think that [Washington School] is the one thing that can draw people, executive people, to Greenville.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 That is a big part of your life.<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Yes,\u00a0 it is a big part of my life.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Now you are a consultant?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 I am doing some consultanting.\u00a0 I am chairman of the Accrediting Commission for the [Mississippi Private School Association], and I am on the Accrediting Commission for the Southern Association Colleges and Schools.\u00a0 That is my involvement into education at this point in my life.\u00a0 What is our relationship with Afro-Americans [at Washington School?]\u00a0 We do have Afro-Americans at Washington school.\u00a0 We have had them since 1990.\u00a0 The first family that applied at Washington, I talked them, and I told them what it would be like coming to Washington School.\u00a0 Just because they may hear something, it doesn\u2019t mean that it is going to be a racial slur.\u00a0 They have to be able to accept some of the things because I have experienced some of those things myself. So they can\u2019t always say it is racial. I think now there is probably ten [Afro-Americans attending WS].\u00a0 I think there is a good mixture of students at Washington School because there [several] Indian people there, Chinese people, Afro-Americans, Jewish kids, but the Jewish population is not as great as it was when it first started.\u00a0 A lot of them have moved from the Delta as a lot of the Chinese families have left the Delta.\u00a0 But for the most part the Chinese in Greenville, most of them have businesses that deal with Afro-Americans.\u00a0 The grocery stores are in the black sections of town. Even Johnny Choo who was a successful businessman in Greenville, the majority of his patrons were Afro-Americans.\u00a0 I did my business down there, and I would say eighty-five percent was Afro-American too.\u00a0 However, he did have some Caucasian business.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 A time to gather.<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 I always tell people that weddings, babies, and deaths draws the Chinese people together.\u00a0 This is when we see each other.\u00a0 We really believe in those three things.\u00a0 This is when you see your friends.\u00a0 You find out about their family life and what has been happening.\u00a0 Those things are very important.\u00a0 There are still a lot of people that have big Chinese weddings.\u00a0 In the last decade, you would see all Chinese people with an exception of maybe a handful of about ten at the most Caucasians unless they invited the mayor and some of the dignitaries in the community.\u00a0 Now there is a lot of mix marriages among the Chinese.\u00a0 It is just like any ethnic group, there is going to be a lot of mixture.\u00a0\u00a0 Predictions are saying by 2020, that there is not going to be one race.\u00a0 We are all going to be intermixed.\u00a0 I hope I am living to see that. (Tape cut off.)\u00a0 One thing that I feel that the Chinese people are different is the fact that they are patient they\u2019re reserve, we haven\u2019t banded to say we want yellow power. \u00a0We take it, as it is going to happen.\u00a0 Actually, too, we have had some advantages by being on the coattail of integration. We have never marched or boycotted.\u00a0 We work hard, and people realized we have the ability.\u00a0 We can do and perform.\u00a0 Our group is not as large as the Afro-Americans group. But I think through hard work, endurance, and believing in yourself we will get there.\u00a0 I think that is one thing that has helped the Chinese people.\u00a0 Sometimes, we are mistreated.\u00a0 We may go home and talk about it. \u00a0We may have a conference about it, but we don\u2019t demonstrate.\u00a0 I think that is a good quality of the Chinese people.\u00a0 If we were in San Francisco it would be different from in the delta, I think that a lot of people respect us. Respect what we have accomplished. One thing that I will have to say about Greenville, in a way Greenville is blue blood, but in a way Greenville that has a lot of people that are liberal. When I applied for the job at Washington School, I was dealing with a lot of people that may have been liberal. (Tape cut off.)<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 With Washington School, you don\u2019t think that they looked at your ethnicity?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 This was back in the seventies.\u00a0 They looked at qualifications and they were looking for somebody that they felt [could do the job.] \u00a0That is the way that felt.\u00a0 The personnel committee was looking at that.\u00a0 Well, when I became headmaster, I went through the process. There was only one female on the committee.\u00a0 You know this is a man\u2019s world.\u00a0 As President Clinton said he would like to get those [women\u2019s] salaries up to the hundred percent that the men are making. I am a minority by being Chinese, and I am a minority by being a female. There are not many women who are superintendents.\u00a0 I feel like we are very thorough in what we do.\u00a0 We don\u2019t just look at the bottom line.\u00a0 I think we are more detailed.\u00a0 We look at all the facets.\u00a0 Then, of course, we look at the bottom line too.\u00a0 But I think we have to consider every angle.\u00a0 Some of the men that I have worked with have been bottom line [people]. (Tape cut off).<\/p>\n

I have two daughters.\u00a0 One graduated in \u201976 and the other graduated in \u201977.\u00a0 Both of our daughters [graduated from] Mississippi State University.\u00a0 When Cynthia went, we were told to encourage her to go out for sorority rush, which she did.\u00a0 She did not get a bid.\u00a0 She got invited to all the parties, but did not get a bid to join.\u00a0 Then, of course, it hurt her, and it hurt her friends.\u00a0 Many of friends were at State.\u00a0 There were probably about thirteen of them.\u00a0 They convinced her to go out for \u201copen rush,\u201d in which she did.\u00a0 She got into a sorority.\u00a0 She was a pledge chairman, and got model pledge member.\u00a0 Cynthia ended up her senior year of being president of the Panhellenic, which was over all of\u00a0 [sororities].\u00a0 When Cheryl went to State, Cheryl\u2019s problem was different because Cynthia had paved the way. Cheryl got invited to all the parties, and when the bids went out it was which one shall I pick.\u00a0 So it was quite different for her. Both of our girls did very well at Mississippi State.\u00a0 They participated in many activities. They were selected for [Who\u2019s Who Among American High School Students].\u00a0 Cynthia got Miss MSU.\u00a0 Cheryl got Homecoming Queen and she was a cheerleader.\u00a0 Education was the primary focus. Cynthia majored in Computer Science. She graduated in 1980. Cheryl graduated in accounting, and she graduated cum laude.\u00a0 She worked for Arthur Anderson in Houston, Texas, for a year and half.\u00a0 Then she decided to get a master\u2019s degree, so she went to LSU and got her M. B. A. [and the same year she got her CPA.]\u00a0 Cynthia graduated in the [first computer science class] at Mississippi State.\u00a0 There were twenty-three in her class. When she went to California, she was a [regional] manager, but now she is a vice- president of C. G. I. International.\u00a0 She is also on the International Cybase Software [Board].\u00a0 She will go to Australia for their meeting the end of February. (Tape was not able to understand.) All of us are Mississippi State graduates.\u00a0 My husband, my two daughters, my two son-in-laws, and then I got my doctorate at Mississippi State.\u00a0 I had no choice.\u00a0 Really and truly I did go to Ole Miss to check into it, but then when I put everything down, I considered the drive to Mississippi State was going to be an easier drive than driving from Ole Miss at night.\u00a0\u00a0 Mike, my son-in-law in Jackson, is one of the vice-presidents for Stuart Irby.\u00a0 [My other son-in law, Mike, is with shopping. com, an Alta Vista Company].<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 They started in elementary school?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 At [Emma] Boyd [Elementary School]\n

KL:\u00a0 At Greenville public school<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 They went to Washington when I did.\u00a0 One was in the sixth grade, and one was in the seventh grade.\u00a0 At Washington School they had no [racial] problems.\u00a0 People say W.S. has cliques.\u00a0 I have checked with some friends that went through Greenville High, and they said there were cliques back in Greenville High.\u00a0 They always have cliques every school.\u00a0 They have cliques in churches. Going through Washington School, my girls were very active in extracurricular activities.\u00a0 They were cheerleaders.\u00a0 Cheryl was the Homecoming Queen.\u00a0 It seemed like Cheryl had the easy way.\u00a0 All she had to do was to be there. In Cynthia\u2019s class there were more girls that were very popular.\u00a0 She was a cheerleader, and she did a lot of extracurricular activities. I would tell the Chinese kids that went to Washington School to participate because for the most part they wanted to be study and that\u2019s it.\u00a0\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want to participate in any of the extracurricular activities.\u00a0 So I would tell them that they need to participate because colleges now days not only look at your academic record, but they look at the extracurricular activities because they want you to be a well-rounded person.\u00a0 So I would try to convince them that they needed to do other things beside make straight A\u2019s and have a 4.0 average. It\u2019s important that you can interact with people.\u00a0 You have to have good people skills.\u00a0 As far as my life in education, I feel very humble with the experiences that I have had.\u00a0 I have been on a lot of committees and so I feel it\u2019s good to network with all the private schools.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feel like I have been ostracized by being an administrator in a private school sector.\u00a0 A lot of people think by being in the private school that you want to be segregated, but I never felt that in private school business.\u00a0 At first, I was the only Asian teacher in private schools.\u00a0 Then now I do see a few, but not that many.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it, the money is in public schools now.\u00a0 As far as being an administrator, I was one of the few female minority administrators in the private school, but I never let it bother me.\u00a0 Cause I think a lot of it has to do with the way you feel about yourself.\u00a0 You can\u2019t let those things bother you.\u00a0 You have to go for it, and that is the way I feel probably because I was born and raised in the United States.\u00a0 If I were born in China, I may have a different feeling.\u00a0 I know my husband doesn\u2019t feel exactly the way I do because he grew up in Greenville.\u00a0 Born in Greenville. He went to Chinese School.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t go to the public school till his senior year.\u00a0 Then he went to Mississippi State.\u00a0 So his background for growing up is quite different from mine.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Does he talk much about school, the Chinese mission?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 No, of course you know we do have a Chinese mission here in Greenville.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 At the First Baptist Church?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 At the First Baptist Church, we meet on Sunday afternoon.\u00a0 We used to have a larger Chinese community here in Greenville, but so many of the Chinese have moved to where their children are located.\u00a0 When the students get their education in college, they go where the job is offered.\u00a0 So when you get older, you want to get close to your children.\u00a0 Your children can help take care of you, your needs, and your health needs. I am not going to move to California.\u00a0 It is too far.\u00a0 I would have gone to California in the fifties, even in sixties, maybe the seventies.\u00a0 Now, in the new millennium, I love it out there. It is nice to visit.\u00a0 It is always nice to come back to where there are not so many people.\u00a0 Of Out there it is a hodge podge of ethnic groups.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even feel like you are different.\u00a0 Of course I don\u2019t feel like I am different.\u00a0 Matter of fact one time when C. W., and I went to Hawaii and we got off the plane.\u00a0 The islanders that greeted us said,\u00a0 \u201cwelcome home.\u201d<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Have you been to China?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Yes, in 1996, our family went as a group with four sisters in my family,\u00a0 some of their children, and my two girls.\u00a0\u00a0 I am really thankful my sons-in-laws for allowed my two girls go.\u00a0 They took care of the children while their wives went.\u00a0 My children have a great respect for their background and their culture.\u00a0 They don\u2019t feel like they need to do away with their Chinese culture in which I am grateful.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 You daughters, your sons-in-laws?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 My sons-in-law are Caucasians.\u00a0 When our children were growing up, we tried to instill the Chinese heritage in them.\u00a0 We did not speak Chinese to them, but [we expected them to] the different traditions.\u00a0 We would take them to the Chinese and Chinese functions. They not only went to the Chinese Missions but they went to First Baptist Church, and did the activities at the First Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

KL:\u00a0 Morning and afternoon?<\/p>\n

AS:\u00a0 Morning and afternoon, on Sundays they went to Sunday School.\u00a0 They left on 9:30 and got home at 8:30 that night.\u00a0 You would be at church from 9:30 to 12:00, come home, eat and go to the mission at 2:30 to 4:00.\u00a0 Then, they had choir practice, training union, and finally church.\u00a0 So it was till 8:30 at night.\u00a0 We knew we couldn\u2019t do homework on Sunday.\u00a0 (Tape cut off.)<\/p>\n

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