Yuri Chia & Ingrid Wu

Title: Yuri Chia & Ingrid Wu
Description: You talk about having two homes. Can you speak a little bit more to that?

“Home is like - you have a sense of pride and happiness in where you are. When I’m in Taiwan, I like to say I’m proud to be American and when I’m here, I like to say I’m proud to be Taiwanese and Chinese. I like to share my pride with other people and try to encourage them to be proud of themselves and their heritage.”

- Yuri Chia (left)

Have you faced any misconceptions because of your immigrant status or identity?

“I think the general population thinks that Asians are all smart, all good at science and math, that we’re just born with it like magic. People don’t realize how hard we have to work. I guess I happen to be good at math and science, because both my parents are engineers, so that was expected of me. When I asked my father about an algebra problem in 7th grade, I had to stand for three hours explaining the whole theory behind how that proof evolved. My father said, ‘You work twice as hard, and maybe you'll get half the recognition.’ That’s the type of philosophy I had growing up… to say that Asians are super smart in science - I think that’s a disservice to some Asians, because there are those who have to work pretty hard at it. And that’s the key - we do have to work hard, and we do work hard.”

- Ingrid Wu (right)