San Francisco supervisors honor city’s outstanding Asian and Pacific Islander residents

Norman Fong, Meifei Xu, and Cynthia Choi are among the honorees of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in San Francisco. (Courtesy Photo)

Despite the celebrations were canceled, San Francisco continued the tradition of honoring the city’s outstanding Asian and Pacific Islander(API) residents for the month of May, which is the annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

11 members of the local legislature, Board of Supervisors, each nominated an API individual or a group of API individuals from their supervisorial district constituents, highlighting their special contributions to the city and the community.

“Educating ourselves and others is part of the American story and how we uphold our values for inclusion and equity”, said Norman Yee, a Chinese American who chairs the Board of Supervisors.

He emphasized the timing of rising xenophobia and urgency for San Francisco to take a stand. “We were not able to celebrate and honor the history of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this year in person, but we did so in every virtual space”.

For the past years, the commendation ceremonies were held at the chamber in City Hall in early May. But because of the pandemic this year, the full list of the honorees was finalized in early June. The majority of the honorees this year are Chinese Americans.

Among the honorees are:

District 1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer commended the staff and volunteers in the Self Help for the Elderly — Jackie Chan Senior Center;

District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani commended Meifei Xu, a clothing alteration professional and a designer;

District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin commended Norman Fong, the long-time Chinatown activist who retired this year from the Chinatown Community Development Center;

District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar commended Cynthia Choi, the Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action;

District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston commended June Lin Arlow, an early childhood mental health consultant and family therapist.

District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney commended Michael Vuong, the director of Tenderloin Clubhouse of Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco;

District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee commended the Laguna Honda Hospital API staff: Wing Tse, Camay Ko, Ann Wong, Amy Chen, Alice Wong, Mariel Badiola, Laura Wanzong, and Quoc Nguyen;

Norman Yee(front row right) with the group of Laguna Honda Hospital staff. (Courtesy Photo)

District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman was planning to commend activist Esther Marks but can’t confirm;

District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen commended Oscar Tang and Pyrena Hui, a couple running a family child care facility and advocates for the Chinese translation services in the city;

District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton commended Jeanetta Tui-Toluao, an advocate for the community on violence prevention and community service;

And District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai was planning to commend Entertainment Commissioner Al Perez but can’t confirm.

Norman Fong and Cynthia Choi are well-known in the Chinese community since their careers in leading the major Chinatown nonprofits. But some low-profile individuals also made it to the list because of their passion for building a better San Francisco.

Meifei Xu, the clothing specialist owns the store on Chestnut Street, used her talents to sew and donate over 1,000 masks to local senior citizens; June Lin Arlow, the child and family therapist, stepped up in the pandemic for homeless people, coordinating deliveries of hand sanitizer and masks to homeless service providers throughout the city.

Oscar Tang and Pyrena Hui. (Photo: Han Li)

So as Oscar Tang and Pyrena Hui from District 9, a couple operates a childcare center in their house in Portala and is honored for their advocacy for immigrants and the vulnerable.

“There are lots of Chinese immigrant childcare workers in San Francisco with limited English language skills. During the epidemic, they were in the disadvantaged situation”, Hui said.

So the couple has been fighting for the translation services of the city’s guidelines on childcare issues, to facilitate the communication between the monolingual immigrant workers and the city. They also donated hundreds of masks to the neighboring Mission District, a community with the outbreaks of COVID-19.

“They are such amazing individuals, and we are grateful for all of their activism and big hearts”, District 9 Supervisor Ronen said in a statement.

***

A shorter version of this story in Chinese language appeared on the World Journal on June 8, 2020.