ANNA
ZHENG
Anna Zheng:
Striking a Balance Between Family, Love, and Hard Work
Anna
Anna Zheng, a second generation Chinese American, walks into our Davis study room with a nervous smile. It is a nice spring day in Chapel Hill, so she is in athletic shorts and a Carolina t-shirt. She says hello in a soft-spoken voice, and introduces herself.
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My initial thoughts of Anna were that she was a soft-spoken first year, but as we continued our conversation, I realized how outgoing and personable she is.
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“There was no option for failure once you immigrated.”
Zheng’s parents immigrated from Fuzhou, China- the capital of the Fujian Province in the southeast part of China. According to Zheng, many people immigrate from Fuzhou because they are able to “have hopes and dreams in the United States,” but in China “you kinda have a set path.”
Since Zheng's parents met in New York in 1996, they have worked in the restaurant business in the United States. Her parents worked at the same dine-in and take-out restaurant when they immigrated to New York, and as they got to know one another they figured out that they lived 15 minutes away from each other in China their entire life.
"A lot of people that immigrate from the Fuzhou province, I think many of them go into the restaurant business."
Anna's parents moved to Marion, North Carolina when they realized that there was a business opportunity.
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The Zhengs' current restaurant is called Little Tokyo. Since they have been in the restaurant business for so long that they have built credibility which is good in the restaurant business.
“Once you have been around for a very long time, even when new restaurants open, it affects you less as long as you can grow with the trends.”
Zheng describes the restaurant food as
“half Hibachi and Company and what you would order at a Chinese restaurant.”
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LITTLE TOKYO
MENU
Zheng's Top Picks
Fried Rice
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Customer Reviews
-"Don't let the outside of the building fool you. Some of the best shrimp I have ever had!!
Try this restaurant!!"
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- "Good Chinese food in NC is a possibility. Moving here from NY we did not expect to find good Chinese/Asian Food. We first ate here when house-hunting and it is now a once a week dinner staple."
-"Good food. We get many take outs from this restaurant and have never received a bad meal. Always hot and fresh. Highly recommended..."
Egg Fu Young
Hot and Sour Soup
Dumplings
IS IT AUTHENTIC?
The food that is served is catered to the mostly white population of Marion, NC.
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“We don’t eat sesame chicken. We don’t authentically eat that, but we make it to where it fits our consumers’ taste.”
After the many discussions that we had in class, I was not surprised to hear that Anna said that most of the food they served at the restaurant wasn't authentic.
Typical Day at the Restaurant
If you did not prep the night before, the day at the restaurant will begin at 8:30 a.m. The average Chinese restaurant closes at 11 p.m. every day, but Anna family’s restaurant closes at 10 p.m. This is due to the fact that most places in her town close around 9 p.m.
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Although having a business can be rewarding, the amount of work you have to put in is outrageous. As Anna discussed the typical day my eyes grew wide because I could only imagine how tired her parents must be everyday.
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There is one cook for the Chinese menu and another cook for the Japanese grill. At the front of the restaurant, there are usually three people: one person packaging to go orders, one person running the cash register, and one waitress.
“The minute you can walk/ talk they sit you on the stool, and make you do mental math through the cash register
At a young age, Zheng and her siblings were a part of the restaurant. “The minute you can walk/ talk they sit you on the stool, and make you do mental math through the cash register. ‘If someone hands you a twenty dollar bill and the meal is $9.69, do the math.’” By working at the restaurant, Zheng believes she was able to achieve a good work ethic.
I was shocked to hear that Anna and her siblings worked at such a young age because I couldn't imagine myself doing what she did at that age.
“Owning a restaurant is one of the lowest but successful things they can do”
Although Zheng and her siblings help out from time to time in the restaurant, it does not consume their time. This is due to the fact that Zheng’s parents want them to focus on their studies.
It has been made clear that her parents do not want her or her siblings in the restaurant business because being in the restaurant business is what a lot of first-generation immigrants do.
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They do not want to see their kids struggle like how they struggled especially since they put so much time and effort into making sure their children achieve higher education and surpassed them.
At first, I was confused why the parents would want to close their restaurants if they were doing well, but once Anna explained how stressed her parents were, I understand why they wouldn't want that for their children. I definitely wouldn't want that for mine.
iN CONCLUSION
Over 20 years have passed since Zheng’s parents first came to the United States. Through their amazing work ethic and determination, they were able to raise three smart and driven children and start five to six successful restaurants.
With these three things in mind, one could say they truly achieved the American Dream.