Advice to New Immigrants? Don't Shy From Representation

Statistician and activist Nancy Lo, Ph.D. was born in southwestern China, but escaped to Taiwan at age six. (See post one.) For most of her early days in Taiwan, she was sheltered with other Air Force families, only meeting the local children when she went to Middle/High School. (See post two.) Despite this foreign atmosphere, where she didn't always understand the language, she succeeded in going to the top university in Taipei.  And, while social pressure shunted her away from pure math, it also pushed her to attend Oregon State University (See post three).   She was an early pioneer of cross-cultural relationships in Oregon, marrying her classmate John Ferguson in 1967. She graduated with a Ph.D. in statistics. (see post four). Over the years, she's returned to work/visit relatives in China on numerous occasions. In addition to seeing pollution as an issue, she is concerned about the false "cloak of Communism." (see post five.)  Her concerns about the U.S. include excessive military intervention and our unbalanced immigration policies. (See post six.)While she isn't concerned about the U.S./China relationship, she has had concerns for China and Japan. She has worked tirelessly over the years to improve the relationship through acknowledgement of past mistakes/forgiveness through the Association for Preserving Historical Accuracy in Foreign Invasions--APHAFIC. (See post seven.) It hasn't been easy.

 Nancy lamented APHAFIC's' lack of political muscle.

“I tell lot of young people staying in the U.S. If your kids are interested in political science/social science, let them do it, instead of just getting a degree in medical science/computer science. We need more power in the political arena where can we talk through the Congress.

“You look at how many of Chinese descent are in the Congress.  (Currently, Judy Chu remains the one person of Chinese descent in the 535 members of the House and Senate.)

First Chinese-American Elected to Congress--2009

“Hopefully people will see the system in the United States. Without representation in the legislature, it’s hard.”

(With gratitude to Nancy, this concludes our interview.)