Telling Your Story, Building Your Brand

Introduction

Like many children of immigrant parents, I struggled to find my identity. I was born in Canada but was I Canadian? Was I Chinese? Or, Chinese-Canadian? How I viewed myself was often determined by how others viewed me. I grew up in the back of a Chinese restaurant. When I became of age, which in a traditional Chinese family meant when I could walk and talk, I did chores, I looked after my toddler brother. And then I worked in my family restaurant. By the time I was 11, I began losing the last vestiges of any Toisan accent that originated from a county in Guangdong, China, and was thrust into working behind the counter of the diner. I learned to take cash, calculated change backward, while engaging with truckers and families alike ...