By brothers Brendan and Bryant Yang. Brendan, a two-time winner of the Gim Hong Lee scholarship awarded to a top college student, is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, who majored in computer science and biology. Bryant is a student at UCLA, majoring in electrical engineering. Before that, he won the Roy Lim and Gim Oi Wong scholarship as the top high school student. This combines their essays on their grandfather, Karl Lee, a longtime member of the Scholarship Fund executive board.
Our grandfather, Karl Lee, is the type of person who speaks little and does much. Born in 1928, our Gung Gung grew up in Gom Benn Village. He liked playing volleyball and spent part of his youth in a boarding school (where he learned to eat fast, lest he miss out on a meal).
The Japanese invaded China in 1937, and by 1940, the fighting came to Gom Benn. Our grandfather was 12. He remembered the low-flying Japanese planes and the villagers running into the hills where they had paid $2 to have fox holes dug for them to hide. During the war, our grandfather earned money by buying and selling salt. He’d walk to town, beginning at 6 a.m. and arrive there by noon. There, he’d buy 50 pounds of salt and carry that all the way home. By then it was already 7 p.m. But that didn’t stop him. He would then go to the neighboring towns and sell the salt for a 20% profit (Gung Gung was quite pleased with the outcome of this story).
Once, Japanese soldiers came to his house for rice, and made his mother carry heavy loads for them. After the soldiers left, Gung Gung went out to the village pond. He had never seen such a sight. He gazed at the deep red color in the water as well as the pile of bodies, stacked atop one another. This image “left [such] an impression – I can’t get rid of the memory”, recalled Gung Gung.
Gung Gung referred to himself as “lucky” because he later attended a bilingual high school in China and learned English. Although he admitted that his English wasn’t the best, he felt this skill was something that many people from his generation struggled with when they came to America. After college, and while still in China, he worked as an instructor in physics and mathematics. Then he married our grandmother, Becky, and had three kids – our aunt Winnie, our uncle Kent, and our mother Paula.
Eventually, the whole family moved to Hong Kong. At the time, the communists were sweeping through China, and Hong Kong remained part of the staunchly capitalist British colonies. The large influx of immigrants to the city resulted in grueling work and measly pay. There were threats of assassination for unrest or disobedience. Gung Gung feared for his own safety, as well as the safety of his family, and came to the conclusion that it was time to leave Hong Kong.
They immigrated to America in 1963, when our mother was 2. For Gung Gung, this was bittersweet. He would be leaving the comfort of Hong Kong and Gom Benn, but would also be reuniting with his parents and siblings in America. But despite being “lucky” with English, life in America was difficult. This was especially true of Gung Gung’s forays into occupations foreign to him. He and our Po-Po (grandmother) were determined to succeed in America. Through hard work and dedication, they were able to own and manage a grocery store, and then a laundromat. Gung Gung then went on to work in the restaurant industry before settling on a career in software. He ended up working at this job until he retired.
Bryant added, “And now here I am, Karl’s youngest grandson, writing down these stories about my grandfather while getting beat by him during our weekly family mahjong night. My grandfather is the funniest, strongest, and most resilient role model one could ever wish for. These are the stories of my grandfather, Karl Lee.”
Brendan added, “After hearing about my Gung Gung’s experiences, adapting to life in America and utilizing both ingenuity and diligence to become successful, I couldn’t help but feel proud. Proud to be his grandson, but also to have such a positive role model to look up to. Throughout my life, he has always expressed the value in education. One of the reasons Gung Gung came to America was to give his family better opportunities for higher learning. My mother, aunt, and uncle were all able to take advantage of a college education, and I am proud to say that I can count myself among them.
“My Gung Gung has always encouraged me to achieve academic success through hard work. And while I may not quite have his years of work experience, I do share his motivation. My Gung Gung’s drive to provide for his family and to support the next generation inspires me to work harder. Whether it was during stressful cram sessions in the library the night before an organic chemistry exam, or during a critical presentation of a carefully coded application, I try to remember to be grateful for the blessings afforded to me by my family’s struggle. Without my grandfather’s pioneering spirit to move to America, I would not have been able to graduate summa cum laude with a dual Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Biology (but not a doctorate so I suppose I have some work to do).
“Thank you Gung Gung.”
Karl Lee passed away Feb. 23, 2021.
