From Rags to Riches: The Story of Two American Immigrants

All throughout the history of America, immigrants have had it hard. In the late 1800s to the early 1900s, the U.S. was full of legislation against immigrants. In addition to governmental restrictions, they have braved a plethora of social, economic religious, and racial troubles. Imagine having to face injustices everyday simply because you were not born in the United States and in addition to all of that, the simple fear of being in a place where you barely know the language.

Throughout all of this, immigrants still come and confront countless hardships. This is why I regard my grandparents, Robert and Annie Lai, as survivors, heroes in their own right.

In 1982, Robert and Annie Lai moved from Taipei, Taiwan with their two children, Peter and Tony Lai to the United States. After skipping around Hawaii, Springfield, Dallas, and San Francisco for seven months, they settled in Stoutland, Missouri and opened their very first restaurant. With Annie knowing barely two words in English and exactly $100 to their names, Midway, a tiny highway establishment in rural Missouri, was barely alive.

“100 dollars was just enough to open a bank account,” Annie said. “We were so poor, we couldn’t afford underwear or mattresses. My cousin sold tights for a living, so we would cut them up once they were worn to use as underpants.”

Midway was open for 24 hours a day and they, along with another couple, worked for five years without taking a single day off. Annie, throughout the entire time, spoke minimal English and worked as a server. She says that she was often harassed by some of the more vicious patrons, who would deliberately place hairs in their food to demand refunds and say things like “Go back to your country!” and “You don’t know how to cook!”.

“He started yelling at me. I ran off to the bathroom and just started crying,” she said. “But for every mean person, there are a dozen nice ones, and an old lady helped me back. He seemed to really be sorry.”

After years of working, they raised enough money to start a new restaurant in Richland, called Richland Restaurant. After the first day, they arrived to find that none of their employees had shown up. They closed the restaurant for renovations for 45 days to do some scheming. Once they opened again with a brand-new facility, still no one came to the “foreigner’s” restaurant, instead going to the restaurant next door. In retaliation, they lowered the price of their buffet to $2.99 and bankrupted the neighboring establishment. Richland Restaurant became so popular, that along with their income from Midway, they were able to accomplish one of their dreams: sending their children to college.

“We came here for kids, you know, education. The good thing about American schools is that you choose what you want,” says Robert. “In Taiwan, before the education reforms, your major is chosen by test scores, not by interests.”

Although life as an immigrant is hard, it just goes to show that if you take risks and work hard, you might just get lucky. Robert and Annie say that they would never go back to Taiwan now, and that most Americans were very nice people.

“We worked hard, and had it hard for a long time,” says Robert. “But now it’s finally good.”