Chinese Resturant Sign

This is the original sign in Brownsville, Brooklyn where both of my grandparents got their first jobs when they came to America.
This is the original sign in Brownsville, Brooklyn where both of my grandparents got their first jobs when they came to America.

Both my grandparents were born into wealthy families, but suffered great loss because of the war and the Communists. My grandfather survived both World War II and Japanese invasions, being only one of the three living children left after the war out of ten. My grandmother was forced to work for the Communists because she was well educated. After my grandmother escaped working for the Communists in Beijing, she reunited with my grandfather in Hong Kong and they got married. They made the hard decision to move to America to provide better futures for their children. They lived with my grandmother’s family in an apartment across the street from this restaurant where my grandmother waited tables and my grandfather learned to cook. This sign represents the resilience and hope my grandparents had raising five children in a new country after suffering from so much pain and loss, and they are witnesses to their hard work because all of their children have become successful and have families of their own. 

Place(s): Brownsville, Brooklyn

– Maddie Wong

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant