{"id":916,"date":"2010-05-30T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2010-05-30T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ta100people.wpengine.com\/?p=916"},"modified":"2010-09-02T15:13:47","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T22:13:47","slug":"susan-tsay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/susan-tsay\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Tsay – Retired High School Language Teacher and Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston, TX<\/p>\n

In 1986, I co-founded the Houston Taiwanese School of Language and Culture with a group of like-minded Taiwanese Americans. In this venture I created teaching materials that would enlighten children of Taiwanese descent about Taiwanese language, culture, and traditions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"tsay.susan1\"Who are you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

During World War II, my father went to Japan to study for a degree in pharmacy. I was born in Nagoya City, Japan, and then grew up in Taiwan. My parents had eight children, of which I am the eldest.<\/p>\n

I attended Kao-hsiung Girls High School, and then after graduating from National Taiwan University I returned to Kao-hsiung to teach school and write short stories.<\/p>\n

Originally I had no plans to make a life in the US, but because my husband had gone to America to pursue an advanced degree, in 1969 I took our two young children there to reunite with him. In 1973 my husband received his PhD from Michigan State University and obtained a post-doctoral research position at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, so our family moved to Houston where we have lived until now.<\/p>\n

Before leaving Taiwan, I had taught for five years and also published a short story anthology comprising more than 100,000 words.<\/p>\n

In 1975, I began teaching Chinese language classes at Bellaire High School in Houston’s public school system. Between 1982 and 1984, I completed a Master’s degree in education at Houston Baptist University. In 1986, I published my second short story anthology in Taiwan. After 32 years at Bellaire High, I retired in 2007.<\/p>\n

All along I have been actively involved in the Houston Formosan Association. In 1986, I co-founded the Houston Taiwanese School of Language and Culture with a group of like-minded Taiwanese Americans. In this venture I created teaching materials that would enlighten children of Taiwanese descent about Taiwanese language, culture, and traditions. This would provide them the resources needed to understand their family roots.<\/p>\n

What do you do?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Since retiring, I have frequently been invited by the director of Rice University’s Chinese Teachers’ Training Program to share with their trainees the lessons of my 32 years of teaching experience. I also do my best to coach new Taiwanese immigrants in the Houston area on how to navigate the American high school educational system.<\/p>\n

Nowadays I am living the life I dreamed of as a child: gardening, reading, and writing. I spend two hours every day tending to my garden, participate in a book club that discusses a new book every two months, and continue to write. My third collection of short stories will be published shortly. The 32 essays include remembrances of my childhood, the 2-28 massacre of 1947 and the subsequent decades of “White Terror,” and the students I have encountered.<\/p>\n

Why are you proud to be of Taiwanese heritage?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Taiwanese people do not fear hard work; They are diligent, down-to-earth, do the best they can, and possess wisdom. The footprints of Taiwanese people exist anywhere the sun rises: all over the world Taiwanese people have created successful businesses and made great contributions to their local communities.<\/p>\n

I am a first generation Taiwanese who emigrated to America. I am proud of my Taiwanese heritage.<\/p>\n

What does the future of Taiwanese America look like to you?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>In the US, the second-generation of Taiwanese Americans has outstanding accomplishments in domains such as medicine, science, engineering, law, and education. Only in the political arena do we still have a relative lack of influence. Hopefully in the not-to-distant future we will see a Taiwanese American mayor of a major city, governor, congressman or senator. We should even aspire to someday elect a Taiwanese American president of the United States. As Taiwan’s ex-president Chen Shui-Bian often said: “having a dream is most beautiful, and then hope will follow.”<\/p>\n

Any additional information you would like to share? <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>My blog (written in Mandarin Chinese) address is: http:\/\/shuyuan0220.blogspot.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

You are more than welcome to visit.<\/p>\n

Comment by her younger son, Andy<\/a>, now an associate professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University:<\/strong> Several generations of young Taiwanese Americans have passed through my mother’s classroom on their way to great accomplishments, including some who have become celebrities in Asia. I have run into my mother’s former students in all corners of the world. No matter what I might accomplish individually, I suspect that I will always be better known as “Tsay lao-shi’s son.” In that I take great pride. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"tsay.susan3\"\"tsay.susan2\"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston, TX Who are you? During World War II, my father went to Japan to study for a degree in pharmacy. I was born in Nagoya City, Japan, and then grew up in Taiwan. My parents had eight children, of which I am the eldest. I attended Kao-hsiung Girls High School, and then after graduating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-100"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taiwaneseamerican.org\/100people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}