There’s a common impression of people who go to America in Chinese society: they are rich; they spend several years doing nothing but playing and shopping; they come back when their visas expire without learning anything. But living in a foreign country thousands miles away from home, there are much more to every story.
Among camera toting tourists taking pictures of the New York Stock Exchange, the Charging bull, or the statue of George Washington, a handful of bankers enter those concrete skyscrapers in the morning and trudge out at night after a day’s hard work.
Vanness Yang used to be one of the tourists. Now he’s an analyst working in the Deutsche Bank building at 60 Wall St.
“I always persuade my friends studying finance here in the States to try and land a job in an investment bank. It is a great platform for career development,” said Vanness about what brought him to Wall Street. The fast-paced work style attracted him from a previous internship he had at UBS, even though he admitted that “people working there are slaves.”
From March 1st to July 31st this year, Vanness didn't take a single day off, not even his birthday, working on a deal involving Golden Gate Capital buying Red Lobster. In August, he finally got his chance to go back to his hometown of Wuhan for two weeks, to spend time seeing his family, and catch up with old friends. Now, when he’s not quite as busy, he works from 9 in the morning to 9 at night, including weekends (there’s no such thing called “weekend” for Vanness.)
After two years of working on Wall Street, Vanness is feeling the fatigue. At the beginning of 2013, he was full of motivation. At the time, he lived in an apartment in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, which he paid $500 a month. He was never pleased with that apartment, but the poor living condition propelled him to earn money and have a better life on his own. Vanness now makes around $130,000 a year and lives with his girlfriend on Wall Street.
Getting where he is right now was never easy. Unlike many others, Vanness didn't graduate with a degree in Finance. He studied Mathematics at Dickinson College, and learned what he knows how to do today by reading and teaching himself.
“Teachers always tell their students studying finance to read the Wall Street Journal everyday. I know many give up after some time. I didn't have such a choice. I have to read more than them to become competitive.”
Learning the required knowledge and skills is only the first step. Getting a job, especially a job in banking needs a lot more efforts. While attending Dickinson College, Vanness was very aggressively networking with the school’s alumni. Sometimes when he couldn't get someone’s contact information, he would try by guessing his or her email address. “I need to persuade people that I'm able to learn this stuff by myself and do my job.”
Vanness proved himself.
Xia Chaofeng is among the earliest group of Chinese students earning their places in America. He came to the States in 1992 at the time China started to implement economic reforms and open itself up. He was 30 that year and working at a company producing chemical compound materials.
“At that time, I didn't feel the Chinese enterprises were growing and I couldn't find much space for me to develop, so I decided to go to America.”
After applying for universities in the U.S., Chaofeng was accepted by the University of New Mexico and flew here with $600 in his pocket.
Arriving in Albuquerque, Chaofeng soon realized that he needed to build a new life from scratch. Besides his own efforts, he got a lot of assists from fellow Chinese students and the Chinese Embassy. They helped him look for a place to live and learn how things work in America.
In the following year, his wife Minfei Chen and son Michael came to America with F2 visas, the nonimmigrant visa that allows spouses and children of F-1 student visa holders to enter the U.S. From that point, Chaofeng was determined to gain permanent residency.
“I couldn't see opportunities and challenges in China before coming to the States. Even though there weren't many things going on at the time in New Mexico, I found the economy here very prosperous. The quality of living was also much higher. ”
Chaofeng worked very hard during the years in the University of New Mexico. He won the first prize of the National Interests Outstanding Scholar. In 1999, two years after graduation, he applied for national interests and finally got his green card. Ten years later, he got his American citizenship.
Now Chaofeng lives with his wife and his two sons in Dallas, Texas. He works at Honeywell as a semiconductor expert. He’s also an owner of several houses and spends his spare time doing managements for the properties.
After 22 years living in America, Chaofeng said that the American culture didn’t change him much. “A lot of American love guns, which I’ll never like,” said Chaofeng.
“There’s an old saying in Chinese literature: ‘When one’s personal life is cultivated, one’s family will be regulated and then one’s state will be well governed; and when all the states are well governed, there will be peace and harmony throughout the world.’ We can't govern the states or make the world a peaceful place, but at least we can enrich our lives and develop our own hobbies and interests.”
Chaofeng’s passion are in badminton and singing. He’s a member of Minnesota Badminton Club and Minhua (stands for Chinese from Minnesota) choir. Every week, he plays two or three games with his friends. Throughout the years, he’s also performed traditional Chinese songs with his choir at his company or at American conventions.
What America did bring to Chaofeng is the awareness of constantly elevating his professional skills to be competitive. This consciousness of competition is what he’s looking for when leaving China, a place he spent the first thirty years of his life, for a not so familiar country not only for him, but for the majority of the Chinese society at the beginning of 1990s.
Yichen Chen said she came to America because she didn’t feel the study she did as an undergraduate student at China University of Geosciences was real study.
“The study we had back in China was always when it was two days before an exam, we stayed up all night preparing for it. We didn't really need to worry about getting good grades as long as we didn’t fail.”
After coming to University of Texas, Dallas to study Accounting, she soon realized that it was impossible to accomplish all the amount of work in just two days. At the beginning, Yichen didn't feel ready for the difficulty of some her courses, Individual Taxation as an example.
“We were required to learn the tax law, which was always changing year after year, so we also needed to adapt to the new law. It’s quite complicated and sometimes confusing for me. When you feel you just get started, the exam is already near.”
Despite some obstacles she faced in her classwork, Yichen didn't encounter many issues transiting into the American lifestyle. Having spent three years in Wuhan Foreign Language School, Yichen felt she could speak better English than many other students from China, which gave her the advantage when communicating with others. Moreover, Texas is a bible belt state. As soon as she arrived in Dallas last year, Yichen felt the hospitality from the members of the churches. They organized different activities for Chinese students weekly to help them know more people and learn the American culture. Yichen didn’t know much about Christian, but being with them, she didn’t feel uncomfortable or intimidated.
“People here are willing to invite you to their houses, spend holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas together, and get to know you. It makes you feel appreciated and welcomed.”
Last November, Yichen met her boyfriend Michael their family’s Thanksgiving party. Yichen first met Michael’s mother in U.T.D.’s library where she was pursuing a bachelor degree in Computer Science.
Michael has been living in the States since he was six. He and Yichen share many similarities. They both eat Chinese food, love anime and cooking, but language is one thing that can sometimes cause some problems or laughter during their communication. They are both bilingual, but growing up in two different environments, they have different ways of expressing and acknowledging things. Yichen would sometimes use some Chinese idioms which can't really be interpreted into English.
When they first met, they had a debate about what was called “dating.” For Yichen, “dating” only happens after two people have confirmed their relationship.
“The first time Michael asked me out, he thought that was a date, but to me it was just hanging out with a friend,” said Yichen.
“It’s just different cultural backgrounds. I'm soaking more and more from her and then she soaking more and more from me, hopefully we'll reach an understanding later on,” said Michael.
Years ago, many Chinese used to watch Hollywood movies and dream about walking by the Hudson River or bathing in the California sun. Today, more and more of them are able to afford that one-way ticket and fly to this foreign country. That long trip is what they dreamed of, chose, and the new start of their lives.
