Life of a Chinese Immigrant Student

Life of a Chinese Immigrant Student

The person that I am interviewing today is Tian Hoang. He is from Shanghai. He came to the United States in 2008 to study in computer science field. He comes from a middle class family. His father works in a hospital near the zhaozhoulu slum area. He works there because he wants to do good for the people in the slum area since he knows the feeling of living in a slum area and he had been through all of that. He knows why it is important to help the people there without taking any fees. His father used to live in the same slum area before he got a good job. They used to live in a joint family of nine where his family consisted of 4 people. Tian himself, his father, mother, sister and 5 more people of his uncles family. They all lived in three small rooms. So he knows the hardship of living in a slum area. Tian spent beginning few years of his life in the slum area. But once his father got a better job they moved to a better place. He shared few of his memories of living in the slum area with me. He said they used to have really hard time having meals both time.

With a great coincidence he was inspired by his uncle named Joe wang who went through so many hardships to come to the US to have a better life for his family. This is the same person that I saw an interview of in the old interviews document pile at our office. Tian tells me how everyone in his family is proud of Joe and how they want to see Tian to become a great person as his uncle Joe. Tian told me that he had been interested in computers ever since his childhood. “Even though I did not know how computers worked since we didn’t have a computer at home but I used to see it in television and on the posters on the street.” He says. The first time he saw a real computer was at the clinic of his fathers. “I was amazed by how a machine could remember so many things that you throw at it and it would let you see it any time after.” He adds. After that he wanted to own a computer of his own. But his father didn’t have enough money at the time so he had to wait for some time. But his father was passionate about making him an engineer. So he gathered enough money and bough Tian a computer. Tian started to learn computer and within few months he won a programming tournament in his high school. His father decided to send him to a US college and make him a future computer scientist. But the task was no easy as the fees are really high in the US colleges. He worked really hard and he also took loan to send Tian. Tian also understands the feelings of his parents and he is a really sincere student. He even works part time in an app development company to support his father in paying his fees.

When I asked him if he had anyone else living here in the US he replied that his cousin (Joe wang’s children) lived in Arizona. He also goes to ASU so he sometimes goes to his cousin’s place. On asking to further

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