Mayor Jean Quan: “Only Happen in America”

Photo: Alex Peng

Photo: Alex Peng

Photo: Alex Peng

Photo: Alex Peng

Photo: Alex Peng

Mayor Jean Quan, the 49th mayor of Oakland, California made nationwide headlines earlier last year when she became the first female Asian American mayor of a major American city. This past week she traveled to New York City, where she was found in attendance at community events and celebrations, honoring her new post as a heralding political leader.

At a fundraising party Thursday afternoon at the Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street, Mayor Quan stressed the importance of Asian Americans’ presence in government positions. Using herself as a prime example, Quan told her audience, “What I say to Chinese Americans today is, you got to stand up. When I ran in Oakland, we didn’t know what we were doing.” As the underdog candidate who prevailed in Oakland’s mayoral race last year, Quan has built a determination tougher than the upbringing she endured. Raised by a union cook father and an educationally-deprived mother, who was widowed when Quan was 5 years old, Oakland’s mayor knows everything there is about overcoming the hardships immigrants face.

In retrospect, the past two years have been remarkable for Asian Americans—particularly Chinese Americans, in the political scene. “But that’s not good enough,” pleaded Mayor Quan, “For me, it’s a personal mission that the next mayor of San Francisco be a Chinese-American. I don’t care which one of the candidates it would be, but that it’s about time.” With Judy Chu as one of the “most prominent Chinese American congress person[s]” in office, and Margaret Chin serving as District 1′s councilwoman here in New York City, the idea of Asian American women entering the political playing field is no longer as farfetched as one might’ve thought half a century ago.

The crowd at Nom Wah applauded Quan’s speech to rally support for a new progressive movement for Asians in America. Diversifying local and the national governments appears to be a promising prospect in years to come. Not only have Asian American elects thrived in the West Coast where the Asian demographic in cities like San Francisco surpasses that in the rest of the country, but even here on the East Coast our own John Liu and Margaret Chin have proved to be heavy contenders. Aware of the advantageous outlook provided by our present political era, where ethnicity is no longer the detrimental deciding factor in voting booths that it once was, Mayor Quan believes that there is leeway for further diversification in all government rankings. If she was able to rise to the occasion from her humble beginnings as a young college activist, then it is possible for any other Asian American as well. “When Barack Obama became president, he talked about having a story that can only happen in America. My story is also one that can probably only happen in America.”

Alex Peng contributed to this story.

Short URL: http://blogs.aaja.org/ourchinatown/?p=776

Posted by Michelle Jiang on Mar 21 2011. Filed under PEOPLE, SLIDER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry