Yellow Journalist: Dispatches from Asian America

11: Politics: A Seat at the Table

11 Politics A Seat at the Table RightMan,WrongTime Asian Week, November 20, 1992 Michael Woo strides confidently, with a smile, into the second-floor dining room of the Silver Dragon restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown. Gathered around in clusters, some sitting, some standing, are about eighty men and women, most of them ethnic Chinese, most of them middle-aged or older. Woo, a slender, energetic 40-year-old, seems out of place. But he isn’t. He is on a mission and the men and women waiting to have dinner with him are, in a sense, his missionaries. More accurately, they are his financiers . Woo is a Los Angeles city council member, the first Asian American to hold that high elected office in America’s second largest city. Now he is reaching higher—the mayor’s office. His quest comes in the wake of the worst urban riots in the country’s history, riots that, among other things, harmed and deeply affected Asian Americans, Korean Americans in particular. His ambitious journey makes him one of the most interesting Asian American politicians at this time. And his candidacy symbolizes the slow, but sure, ascendancy of Asian American political empowerment. It raises enduring questions about the value of ethnic politics for an ethnic group that has so little political power but yearns for more. Woo appears to be an ideal vehicle for an expanded desire of Asian Americans for a bigger piece of the political pie. Woo is in Oakland to raise money for his mayoral campaign. He’s already raised about $500,000, but he figures he’ll need from $2 million 183 to $2.5 million to wage a competitive battle, which climaxes on April 20. If no one wins a majority of the votes—and it’s unlikely anyone will, given the already crowded field of eight and probably more—there will be a runoff election six weeks later. His visit to Oakland on a Sunday, and to the San Francisco peninsula the day before, was worth his while. He raised more than $20,000 over the weekend. An array of Oakland Chinese and Asian American groups sponsored the $100-a-plate dinner. The key sponsors were the Oakland lodge of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, or CACA, and the Gee How Oak Tin Association. Woo’s banker father, Wilbur, was once national grand president of CACA and is a member of the Gee How Oak Tin Association. These old-time family-association connections are an important component of Woo’s fundraising strategy. They provide him funds, and the link is clearly ethnic, not ideological. If the elderly Chinese men at the banquet tables have any American political affiliation—which is improbable —they would likely be Republican. Several middle-aged men in the crowd, more acculturated to the American mainstream than the elders, are Republicans. They are business people and believe the Republican Party protects the interest of business. Two told me they voted for George Bush. Michael Woo is a liberal Democrat whose strength is building coalitions between various ethnic groups. His ideological stances, if known to these older men, might be offputting. But that wasn’t the point of their attendance and financial support. Tong and family-association members attend dutifully, perhaps only vaguely aware of who or what Michael Woo is. It is important to them that he is the son of a Gee How Oak Tin Association member. This part of Woo’s appeal exemplifies the multiplicity of roles an Asian American candidate plays. He or she must connect to his or her ethnic base, regardless of political ideology. Another part of Woo’s strategy is to reach out beyond his own ethnic group, as he (and most other Asian American candidates) must. To be sure, fundraising dinners and events for Woo aren’t all elderly Chinese men belonging to tongs and family associations . Younger Asian Americans, more his generation, attend also, but they don’t have the resources to help Woo reach $2.5 million. And, of course, Woo solicits funds from non-Asians as well. 184 Politics: A Seat at the Table Woo’s message to the Oakland banquet audience was clearly ethnic. He explained why he was running for Los Angeles mayor. He recounted how divided and troubled Los Angeles is, attributable to a sliding economy and the middle class moving to the suburbs. He noted how ethnic groups...