Meet the People

Cheung’s father used to work for the KMT government in China. After the 1949 revolution, the KMT government fled to Taiwan and split into two sides. Chris’s father stood on the wrong side during that time, which resulted in 10 years in prison. When Chris was in Taiwan, he can feel that people spying on him and looking at his family all the time. “After college, I became a civil engineer and worked in the field all day long. One day, my manager, who had a similar experience as my father, called me up to his room and said, ‘Chris, you are different from the people here. Don’t waste your time. If possible, get out.’” 

In 1977, Cheung decided to leave Taiwan for America. Cheung applied for the civil engineering Ph.D. program at Arizona State University in 1977. Most Taiwanese students at that time, would seek for science and technology education in America. STEM majors have attracted many international students as it potentially promises future career prosperity and does not necessarily require proficient English fluency.

He was the first non-white employee in his last company. Chris believed that he had reached a glass ceiling in his company due to implicit stereotyped perception on his English accent. As a senior engineer in his company, he lost his promotion opportunity to a white employee in his company at lower levels. He recalled that his supervisor once said to him, “if you have better English, a manager position would be yours now.”

(Chris Cheung also talked about Glass ceiling. Click here to read more)