Yeni Wong has always displayed extraordinary resilience and intelligence when addressing the toughest of issues. Her governance style is an unusual combination of humanity and solid leadership. She is gentle and accessible, yet also strong and determined. As she has said, she is “just another Taiwanese woman who works, cares for her house, and goes to the supermarket.” But she is also “a woman with a calling for social struggle and public service.”
Occasionally in American society, a place emerges that captivates us and provides a vivid snapshot of who we are and the changing times in which we live. In her role as a Save America’s Treasures committee member, Yeni Wong has used her grace and vibrant magnetism to transcend race and to provide a new mainstream media lens through which to view modern immigration and ethical excellence.
Through her work with Angel Island—a station in San Francisco Bay where immigrants entering the United States were detained and interrogated, Yeni has offered up a fresh new archetype for what it means to lead while combining courage and compassion, strength and vulnerability, passion, sympathy, and unfailing reconciliation. It is a role that makes full use of her distinctive talent for drawing in American great society with such authenticity that we often forget she is leading.
Yeni’s work with the President’s Committee on Save America’s Treasures is also a source of deep inspiration, using her inherent wisdom to close achievement gaps and ignite passion among races. In a world that too often tells women to choose between womanhood and success, between femininity and a seat at the head of the table, both in the spotlight and out, Yeni Wong embodies the promise that lives in all races to shape their own destinies and succeed as “gladiators” for the causes in which they believe.
Yeni Wong is a patriot. With grit, persistence, and hard work, she built a business that employs many. She gives generously to the community, the arts, education, think tanks, and science. She cares deeply about the values that make success in America possible—community service, free markets, freedom, and competition. This has led her to the political arena, where she gives tens of thousands and raise hundreds more to back candidates and causes.
Yeni is, without a doubt, one of the most influential community leaders of modern Chinatown. But hers is the kind of influence measured not only in money and customers earned, but also in people inspired and characters formed. After her decades at the pinnacle of Chinatown real estate, her progeny fill the community’s greatness firmament. She is a role model for all of them and everyone else who wants to make a difference.
I became more acquainted with Yeni in 2010, thanks to her support for the Taiwan Benevolent Association of America. This connection led to an opportunity to attend board meetings in various cities throughout the United States.
Over the next several years, I learned quite a bit about Yeni, the organization she joined, and the common threads that expand all services for our compatriots from Taiwan and fight for the rights of ethnic Chinese in the United States. The organization also promotes economic trade and cultural exchange between Taiwan and the United States to help further diplomatic and overseas affairs in support of Taiwan.
The word visionary is lofty, overused, and somewhat abused. There are few people who can really see something that doesn’t exist. Create it. Explain it. And get others to follow. Yeni is, in fact, that visionary. I am highly moved by her vision and her strong passion for community.
I remember Yeni Wong telling me early on how badly she wanted to earn her place in our community. It was 1997, and she had just become the first chairperson of CCBA.
Go back in time to 1997. Not only has she earned her place, but she’s also raised the bar: Sshe’s a prolific community worker, a trendsetter, and a philanthropist. But it’s her decency as a person that is so impressive. She’s an advocate for causes such as animal rights and the Red Cross. She has publicly challenged lawmakers when she’s disagreed with them and has covered controversial issues in her public speech.
Yeni Wong is an inspirational example of what community leaders need to be. Her work on community revitalization and the protection of human rights and equality speaks for itself. As a Washington Chinatown community leader, with her ability to speak truth to power and to address revitalization in high places, Yeni has been outstanding.
She is fiercely intelligent; everyone wants to work with her. I couldn’t be prouder to work for her. So many young girls want to be just like her. In that sense, I see hope for the world. If I had a daughter, nothing would make me happier than to hear her say she wanted to grow up to be like Yeni Wong.
When she first ran for mayor of Chinatown in Washington, DC, I thought that race was impossible to win, but she never gave up, and she did it. She has taken that same bright, tenacious spirit I saw in her as a café worker, then as a restaurant worker, and then as a real-estate agent, serving her folks in Chinatown and fighting hard on issues like the rights of ethnic Chinese in the United States.
On the other hand, she also worked to promote economic trade and cultural exchange between Taiwan and the United States and to help further diplomatic and overseas compatriot affairs in support of Taiwan. Don’t ever underestimate her. She can go as far as she likes. If Yeni wants to be a rock star, she’ll be a rock star. But she already makes a great community leader. When she draws a line in the sand, everyone knows not to cross it.
Yeni is not only changing the direction in Chinatown; she’s also enriching our culture. Where would we be without Yeni? I’m glad that we’ll never have to know.