Coming to America in the ‘80s—and Finally Understanding Capitalism

Min Luo represents the brains of China. He came to the U.S. on a government-sponsored scholarship in 1987—without knowing more than what he had heard from an English phrase book and--more dauntingly--Chinese government propaganda that pegged America as a horrible place.
Despite this, Min said, he was not afraid.
“I was young,” he explained.
He vividly remembers the day he arrived in the U.S. 29 years ago.
“Number one: I remember very few people walking on the street. In China you saw everyone walking on the street or biking."

"I didn’t see bikes either. You only see cars. I was totally shocked.

"Number two: from the airport I went to a small place where we stayed. You have jetlag and cannot sleep, so you turn on the TV. When I watched TV, they have 'R' movies. You never saw that in China. That was --Oh, my God. In China, you didn't even see people kiss in the movies. I remember there was a movie called 'Romance on Lu Mountain.' It had a kissing scene, and people went to see it many times just to see that scene."

“The third thing: I went to the college and saw the people and they were friendly and polite. And I went to the grocery store and there was so much food, every kind of food.”
Min got his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. When he graduated in 1993 he got a job working for a big company in Ohio, designing robots.
“It wasn’t challenging enough,” he said.
I raised my eyebrows. I mean, really? Designing robots isn’t challenging enough?
He shrugged. “I was young and energetic.”
In 1997, he applied and got a job designing storage systems for a company in Minnesota. He moved his family into a lovely neighborhood, bought a house, enrolled his daughter in school. Then, three years later, everyone in the company was called to a meeting.
“It was right before Christmas. They told us that the company wasn’t doing well and they were going to close the site. We all got two weeks pay. That’s when I understood Capitalism.”
Fortunately, by then, Min had built a reputation for himself. Within two weeks he received five job offers, one of which was to work in the Bay Area. Min took that offer.
He was shocked by the cost of real estate in California. In Minnesota he had paid $120,000 for a 3,000-square-foot new house on a half an acre of land. In San Jose, he paid $450,000 for a dumpy old house that had a hole in the roof of the garage.
“When my wife saw the house, tears were just running down her face.” Min remembered.
But Min and his wife stuck with the job and the house, and they have lived in the Bay Area ever since. Over the years Min has returned to China many times. Many, many times. Sometimes he goes back nine times a year.
“What changes have you seen?” I asked.
This time he raised his eyebrows.
“So many changes,” he said, glancing at the time on his phone as if calculating how long it would take to explain. The Starbucks morning crowd had turned into a lunchtime crowd. Min’s phone started ringing. He had a golf engagement. But he kept talking.
“From 1987 to 1989, people’s minds started to change. People started to go overseas and see what other countries looked like. Meanwhile, in China, (Leader) Deng Xiao Ping started changing China. Before all the businesses were owned by the country. You weren’t allowed to open your own business. But from about 1985, you were allowed to have your own small business, such as a restaurant. Or a street vendor. You started to see 10,000RMB People.”
“What?" I asked.

Min explained that “10,000RMB People” is how the Chinese referred to the wealthy. The average salary of an educated engineer at that time was 700RMB/year, so 10,0000RMB was a huge sum. 

Min explained that even the “Four Big Pieces”--articles everyone lusts after, articles that one has to own in order to be considered somebody--got bigger. In the olden days, the Four Big Pieces were a watch, bicycle, sewing machine and radio. 

But, in 1989, the Four Big Pieces became more advanced. They were a color TV, refrigerator, washing machine and a boom box. “Internally China was changing so much. China didn’t have a stock market before. They started to have a stock market in 1986-87. They start to build an internal stock market. At that time, if you have money and you’re daring, you just buy. In China there were many opportunities for making money."

“In the U.S. you never see a person--he’s just a regular people-- and in the next few days he became super-rich. You rarely see that. But in China, you see a regular people, and the next few days he’s become rich. Nobody reads about it (in the newspaper). There are too many people. China, in my opinion –the richest people are still in the U.S., but there are probably more rich people in China than in the U.S. now.”
Min’s phone rang. He had to go. We agreed to meet again.
(…to be continued. Next: China’s 9/11)