Carolina Celebrates Latinx Heritage Month
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WEDESNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019 126 YEARS OF SERVING UNC STUDENTS AND THE UNIVERSITY VOLUME 127, ISSUE 46 Carolina celebrates A look at immigration Latinx Heritage Month through Chapel Hill’s Chinese restaurants Meet the owners of local distant,” he said. The hardest part of Wang’s new favorites, Jade Palace and experience, however, was speaking Gourmet Kingdom. the language. “After a day of work, I watched Crystal Yu television and listened to the Senior Writer broadcast,” he said. “I slowly learned the vocabulary. It was hard Editor’s note: Some interviews to talk to the customers, but all the were conducted in a different words you used were related to the language and were translated to food and restaurant. If you work English by the writer. in the kitchen, you are not even in contact with the outside world.” It’s 10:13 a.m. After stopping Wang said his daily life revolved by his staff’s dorm on Umstead around working at the restaurant, Drive, Kevin Wang arrives at his and he sometimes didn’t know restaurant. He plugs in the vacuum what to do with the spare time and tries to spot any dirt on the he did have. Every day, cooks and DTH/BEN TRAN emerald-colored carpet. servers come into the restaurant CDS employee Francisca Ventura serves food from Latinx communities on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 at Lenoir Dining Hall. Wang, the owner of Jade Palace knowing their daily tasks will be in Carrboro, has been on the same the same, he said. schedule since 2009. “After you work in this business “I save the money of hiring two for a long time, you shut your eyes more people by working harder,” and feel numb,” he said. Wang said, rubbing his head. “I can answer the phone, pack take- Opening the restaurants away food and help out here and there. If you hire someone with a After Yu received his college fixed price, they won’t do this much degree, he worked as an electrical for you.” engineer in California. During the 1980s, Chinese When he moved to North Carolina immigrants began arriving in the in 2010, he couldn’t find a similar United States in greater numbers, job. Later that year, he decided to and some settled in and around buy the then-on-sale business of Chapel Hill. Gourmet Kingdom. Students or residents may know Yu said he wanted his restaurant some of them as restaurant owners to be known for its genuine, — or as the food they serve. But Szechuanese flavor. they might not know about the He said the restaurant was lucky people behind it. non-Chinese American customers are open to trying their food, but The United States through he said he hopes that more people their eyes try their specialties. DTH/YATES MCCONNELL DTH/ANGELINA KATSANIS “Americans are willing to eat here, Members of Qué Rico prepare for their upcoming Charanga Carolina, led by UNC professor David Garcia, is When David Yu, owner of but they have different reactions to the food. They may swerve from performance at Mi Pueblo’s Carnival on Saturday, Sept. 26. the only University-based Cuban Charanga ensemble. Gourmet Kingdom and a native of Kunming, Yunnan in China, arrived Szechuanese cuisine like spicy food, at San Francisco International cold dishes and fresh fish,” he said. Airport, he said the roadways stood “But the essence of our menu lies out to him. among those.” UNC to get Asian American Center “After I got off the plane, we Francis Chan, Wang’s uncle, drove on Highway 101. I felt like the handed down Jade Palace to him car was moving so fast,” he said. “I after owning it for 26 years. Wang Students and alumni are approached Lao with the idea for an develop the center. said his family members all dreamed Asian American Center. “I think it speaks to the necessity remember thinking to myself: such a working together to create a car-developed country with highways, to open a restaurant. “We thought, ‘What would be a of it in our eyes as a team,” Sara When that dream became reality, dream goal?’ And a dream goal would Holley, co-director of strategic petrol stations and few people.” new Asian American Center. He went to a buffet-style they started with Americanized be an Asian American Center,” junior communications, said. “Because Chinese food. Sean Nguyen, director of the Asian really comprising over 15 percent restaurant, where he said the food By Praveena Somasundarum felt more abundant than he was They gradually added more Senior Writer American Center campaign, said. of the student population and then diversity in the flavor of the dishes Subsequently, the team received not having resources dedicated to used to. “These classy living styles in Thirty years ago, Eugene Lao support from Barb Lee ’88, a us by the University or supported SEE CHINESE RESTAURANTS, PAGE 6 co-founded UNC’s original Asian founding member of the UNC by the University, I think there’s America are nice, but they felt Students Association, now the Asian Alumni Committee on Racial and clearly a need.” American Students Association. Now, Ethnic Diversity. Nguyen, Yom and Undergraduates on the team Lao, class of ’91, and fellow alumni other team members met with Lao have struggled with representation are working with students to create and Lee in August to discuss the on campus. Before joining Asian- an Asian American Center on campus. development of the project. The interest Greek life in the spring of The campaign team has 13 people, campaign team will continue to focus her first year, Holley had trouble with 11 undergraduate students and on alumni and campus engagement finding a community at UNC. two alumni. The projected opening going forward. “I think it’s just difficult feeling date for the center is fall 2020. Asian American students have like you don’t have somewhere to Lao originally intended to give a repeatedly pushed for representation go to when you want resources $100,000 gift to AASA. Senior June on campus in the past. In 2017, specifically relating to your Asian Yom, president of AASA, and other students such as David Choi American identity,” Holley said. student leaders thought the money advocated for the creation of an “And I’m really excited to see a space could have a greater impact. Asian-American Studies program. where everyone can convene, and “We all collectively realized that “Asian American students at UNC also a space where Asian Americans though this money could be good for have been pushing for this for the at UNC can share their identities the sustainability of AASA as a student last 10 years, but it hasn’t been able with other groups on campus.” organization, it could be better to give to get traction and no institutional Interim Chancellor Kevin back to the entire Asian American support had existed,” Nguyen said. Guskiewicz and Provost Robert community at large rather than AASA Though he graduated in 2018, Blouin approved the request for being able to serve food at every event Choi is on the Asian American Authorization to Plan Asian DTH/MORGAN PIROZZI or stuff like that,” Yom said. Center campaign team. The team is Kevin Wang, age 36 and owner of the Jade Palace restaurant, takes a customer’s Yom and other students now working with administration to SEE ASIAN AMERICAN CENTER, PAGE 6 order on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. He has worked the same schedule for years. I don’t want an uneventful and safe life, I prefer an adventurous one. ISABEL ALLENDE 2 Wednesday, October 2, 2019 News The Daily Tar Heel The Daily Tar Heel Established 1893 Sierra Club endorses candidates for local office 126 years of editorial freedom By Amena Saad of their proven commitment to MADDY ARROWOOD Staff Writer leadership and advocacy when it EDITOR-IN-CHIEF comes to combating climate change. [email protected] The Orange-Chatham Group “We are lucky to live in an area MARCO QUIROZ-GUTIERREZ of the North Carolina Sierra Club where no serious candidate is debating MANAGING EDITOR recently released its 2019 candidate whether human-caused climate [email protected] endorsement list, placing a special change is real or whether we should, at EMILY SIEGMUND emphasis on candidates who value some level, be doing something about ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR climate change mitigation. it,” Parry said. “But there’s a difference [email protected] The Sierra Club identified the between acknowledging the problem MYAH WARD climate crisis as “the defining issue and prioritizing the solutions.” DIRECTOR OF ENTERPRISE of our time,” and said in a press Parry said endorsed candidates [email protected] release that its candidates for local were chosen because they recognize government have responded to this relationship between environmental MAEVE SHEEHEY reality by “prioritizing livability, bus justice and other key economic and UNIVERSITY EDITOR rapid transit and bike-pedestrian social issues. [email protected] projects” in their platforms. Tai Huynh, a UNC senior and ANNA POGARCIC Allie Omens, president of the an endorsed candidate for Chapel CITY, STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR UNC Environmental Honors Hill Town Council, recognized that [email protected] Fraternity Epsilon Eta, worries younger citizens play a critical role JESSICA HARDISON candidates are making promises in enacting change. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR that will go unfulfilled. “With the youth climate strikes [email protected] “Election time creates a lot of talk, around the world, I think we are RYAN WILCOX and it is sometimes hard to tell how beginning to see some real change,” SPORTS EDITOR much of these words are going to be Huynh said.