My parents immigrated from China in the 1920s and we were the only Chinese in Macon, Georgia, operating a laundry until we moved to San Francisco in the early 1950s.  At times when I was growing up, I felt embarrassed about my background.  It was not until I wrote a memoir, Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South that I began to understand the positive impact these early experiences had on shaping my character.