Chapter 9 community goddess

Li Wanruo, the number one division chief in the United States, is really getting bigger and bigger.In the following months, at the invitation of the White House and the federal government, she went to various cities in the United States to investigate and give speeches, publicizing the significance of social welfare work for ethnic minorities with great fanfare. Not long after this, she was promoted from director of the Asian Affairs Department to director of the Planning Bureau of the Ministry of Social Welfare.Because of his excellent work again, he was promoted to the post of director of the Bureau of Planning and Resources, which is in charge of all social welfare and development and construction investment in Los Angeles City.In her own words: it was an important turning point for her entry into mainstream American society and politics.It was a first for Los Angeles County at the time that a minority, a person who was not the face of the country, was to lead the civic and governmental affairs of this country.Li Wanruo's scope of responsibility has expanded to cover the entire Los Angeles County, and her service targets are no longer limited to ethnic minorities. For her, this is a major breakthrough and challenge.

When competing for the position of director, Patricia Johnson, the deputy director, was Li Gui's strong competitor. She was no worse than the yellow-faced Li Wanruo in terms of academic qualifications and social work experience. Perhaps it was because of her sense of political participation when answering the examiner's questions. He was slightly inferior to Li Liruo in terms of expression and presentation skills, so he became a subordinate. During the promotion process from director to director, Ms. Johnson, the deputy director, always had a feeling of dissatisfaction with Li Wanruo, the director. To get the support of his subordinates well, Jonson's tangible and intangible performance played a key role.

This kind of test was also experienced when Li Wanruo was the director, but the competition among colleagues in the position of director was more prominent.Li Wanruo was distressed because of this, but soon she chose a solution to the problem.She feels that this is an important part of her doing social work well, so like dealing with all difficult problems, she first adopts humility, then relies on her own efforts and hard work, and then methods and methods.In front of the overall staff, she often discusses important decisions of the department with Johnson, and boldly lets him undertake the internal work that can make full use of Johnson's strengths.

And once the results are achieved, Jonson's work ability and contribution are always highlighted in front of the boss.When problems arise, Li Wanruo will take the initiative to take responsibility as the head of the department, and do everything possible to make up for the defects and loopholes. After a few back and forth, Jonson felt that this leader with an oriental cultural background was approachable, sincere and trustworthy.Especially when I saw that Li Wanruo went to the various districts to investigate and understand first-hand information, so that the Ministry of Social Welfare used to be in Yao (Mori), who considers herself experienced, admires the long-standing problem that cannot be well coordinated when arranging the budget.

As a result, Johnson soon became Li Wanruo's most capable assistant and close colleague, and the two often shared their heart and soul with each other, which made the department's work more and more prosperous. In 1978, their division won the National Association of County Governments' annual award.When receiving the award in Washington, Li Wanruo heard that there was a vacancy for the representative director of Los Angeles County in Washington, the capital. She immediately thought of Johnson, and actively won this important and wonderful job for him.Sure enough, Jonson did a good job after arriving in Washington, and was quickly promoted. Later, she got a very high position and became a social celebrity, and she and Li Wanruo have also become close friends who are still very close to each other.This is something.

Besides, when Li Wanruo took office as the director of the Los Angeles County Government, it was at a time when Los Angeles, the second largest county in the United States, was facing an important stage of social welfare transition from disorder to order.For Li Wanruo, a Chinese-American public official who entered mainstream American society, almost every time he was promoted, he started a new pioneering job. For example, the problem of juvenile delinquency in Los Angeles is well-known throughout the United States. How to prevent or suppress the younger age and growing trend of juvenile delinquency has always been a headache for the police, schools and government and other direct management departments and agencies.

During the investigation, Li Wanruo found that the root cause of juvenile delinquency in the United States is largely caused by the lack of implementation of social welfare work. Therefore, in order to suppress and reduce juvenile delinquency, it is necessary to improve and pay attention to the work of juvenile social welfare. Her point of view is novel and has grasped the root of the problem, and she has sought a solution from the federal government's social welfare policy. At the same time, she has reasonably adjusted and arranged a special fund for the prevention of juvenile delinquency. The Ministry of Social Welfare cooperates with administrators, teachers, janitor representatives, personnel and civil servants, hospitals and the police in various school districts to carry out various extracurricular activities and establishment of facilities suitable for young people, so that young people spend a lot of time outside of school and family. Here, get involved in meaningful community education and recreational activities.

After the implementation of Li Wanruo's plan, the effect has not only been widely praised by parents in the community, but also greatly improved the long-standing juvenile delinquency in the Los Angeles area. Then, on this basis, she advocated the improvement of many contradictions and defects such as vacuum management in the social service work of various agencies, and proposed the establishment of a system engineering management model that is uniformly sampled and controlled by computers, which was later widely promoted in the United States. community management database.Looking at these works twenty or thirty years later, these works seem to be nothing, but in the 1970s, these measures of Li Wanruo were not only pioneering in the construction of American community management, but also very beautiful in practical work. Effective, with far-reaching impact.

Los Angeles is destined to be an eventful county-state, but this land is a place where Asian ethnic groups, mainly Chinese, yearn for and settle down.Beginning in the 1970s, under the special international background, the tide of immigrants from Southeast Asian countries to the United States surged.Nixon's visit to China opened the door between the two great powers, the East and the West, and caused a great psychological burden on the Taiwanese. As a result, the number of Taiwan compatriots immigrating to the United States increased sharply; after the opening of the mainland, a wave of new Chinese immigrants formed.

When Chinese immigrants were still entering Los Angeles in large numbers, the Japanese and Koreans who started to get rich also joined the tide of investment immigration with huge sums of money.After China and Britain signed a contract on the Hong Kong issue, Hong Kong people immigrated to the United States one after another because they were afraid of accidents after 1997. After the Vietnam War ended, a large number of southern Vietnamese residents who followed the United States feared that the leaders of the North would revolutionize them, and their families joined the movement. The American gold rush; at this time, the situation in Cambodia was in chaos again, and thousands of refugees chased after them and rushed into the wave of Asian immigration to the United States.California, especially Los Angeles, presents an era of large settlements of Asians that has never been seen in history.

Against this background, community service for Asians has become a prominent task of the Social Welfare Department where Li Hunruo works.Originally, the resettlement and entrepreneurship of immigrants were not under the jurisdiction of the social welfare department of the federal government, but the problem is not that simple. When a large number of new immigrants enter the community, they are more blind than predictable. This is because they are not familiar with and do not understand the United States. Many government policies and national conditions are the result.This result directly leads to a considerable number of new immigrants quickly bringing various adverse social problems to the local area due to one or another problem. In view of this, at the joint meeting of the county government, Li Wanruo advocated from the perspective of stability and prosperity of the local construction that the community livelihood issues concerned with new immigrants should be included in the ranks of the government's social welfare work, and through her multi-party coordination, she won the approval of high-level government officials. support.Perhaps because of his oriental cultural background, Li Liruo is very familiar with the mentality of new Asian immigrants, that is, most Asians hope to start a business after settling down in the United States, and to put it bluntly, to make money.The difference between the Asian immigrants in the 1960s and 1970s and the immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s is that they basically started their businesses by opening shops and running small businesses.And this is why Asians are different from other ethnic groups, showing that they are not afraid of hardship and hard work. The Japanese were famous for gardening in the early days, and many people made their careers in this field.Therefore, the Japanese communities are managed in an orderly manner, with a tidy environment, unique gardening, and elegant style.Small bright Japanese-style shops with blue glass tile roofs, coupled with small pavilions of the same style, make Little Tokyo look elegant and full of cultural atmosphere.Japanese businessmen seldom live in Little Tokyo, they just turn it into a commercial and cultural center for Japanese descendants.They have long asked the government for funds to build Little Tokyo and the Elderly Center. When she first arrived in Little Tokyo, representatives of the Japanese community were very indifferent to Li Wanruo. One of the reasons may be that she defeated Mr. Miyano, who was very popular in the Japanese community, when she was competing for the director of Asian affairs.Regarding this matter, they have always had a hard time balancing in their hearts.Under such circumstances, she specially invited a friend Kumamoto who was the leader of the "Japanese Alliance" to accompany Wanruo to visit the elderly center first.Their center for the elderly is well organized, where they play chess, listen to Japanese songs, read newspapers and books, etc., enjoying themselves.Before visiting the center for the elderly, Li Wanruo also received a reminder from her younger sister, Guijun.Wan Jun once studied at Ochanomizu Women's University in Tokyo. She told Wan Ruo that the Japanese are very polite, and they must bow deeply when they see old people.Li Guiruo also learned a few words of simple Japanese from her.When Wan Ruo was introduced to the old people at the old people's center, she bowed deeply to them first.Although most of them knew English, Wanruo still chatted with them in the ten-year-old Japanese that my younger sister taught her.Immediately, she got their initial recognition and intimacy.Then, he visited the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and received considerable courtesy.After visiting the elderly center and the Chamber of Commerce, I also visited their youth service center and found that the attitude of the young people there was quite bad.Fortunately, he was accompanied by Mr. Kumamoto. Kumamoto told them: Lily is different from ordinary government officials. She has always sympathized with and supported us Japanese people, and she is also a member of the rehabilitation movement. I have experience working with her.After he said this, their attitude eased down. During these visits, Li Wanruo understood why young people of Japanese origin had such a tough attitude towards government officials.They believe that in order to solve their problems as soon as possible, they must adopt a tough attitude like Latinos and African Americans.This is also the experience gained by Japanese descendants in years of struggle.Especially during World War II, they had a very painful experience in the United States. The Japanese began to immigrate to the United States at the end of the 19th century, and most of them worked in California.After the United States declared war on Japan after the Pearl Harbor incident in 1941, Congress immediately passed the World War II Detention of Japanese Americans Act, authorizing the relevant authorities to detain without trial those activists who might undermine the security of the United States. At that time, FBI Director Hoover ordered that more than 120,000 Japanese people living in California and other places along the Pacific Ocean be sent to concentration camps in Colorado and other places, and 35,000 people were imprisoned in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles alone. .It was not until the end of World War II in August 1945 that these Japanese descendants were released and were imprisoned for as long as three years. Most of the detainees were Japanese descendants born and raised in the United States. In addition, he had to abandon his long-running family business and took only some belongings with him to the concentration camp. It is conceivable that this incident was a miserable experience for them.This made them realize that if they had strong political power at that time, the US government would not have bullied them like this.They thus gain experience and understand the importance of strengthening ethnic political unity.In World War II, Germany and Italy were also enemies of the United States, but the Germans and Italians in the United States were not imprisoned in concentration camps.This painful experience made Japanese people the earliest ethnic group to awaken politically among Asians, and they became the pioneers of Asians participating in politics. From 1970 to 1980, the political power of Japanese descent became stronger day by day.In Hawaii and California, two senators and three representatives of Japanese descent were elected to Congress.Members of Japanese descent asked Congress to set up a special committee to investigate the concentration camp. Under the leadership of organizations such as the "Japanese Citizens' Union", during the congressional hearings, the Japanese community launched a grassroots (grassroots organization) movement, which made many people unwilling to look back. The Japanese descendants of the past finally broke their silence and stated their painful experiences at the hearing.At that time, many Chinese people of insight saw the experience of Japanese people being humiliated in the United States, and felt deeply concerned.Both Chinese and Japanese are Asian faces. Once a war breaks out, the tragedy will repeat itself. If China and the United States turn against each other, the Chinese are likely to become the next target.Therefore, Chinese Americans also give Sun Yam a lot of support. At that time, Li Wanruo was one of the members of the rehabilitation committee and participated in the solidarity movement in Southern California.Li Wanruo remembers a meeting held in the Far East Building, a famous Chinese restaurant in Little Tokyo. The Far East Building was deeply remembered by Japanese immigrants. The situation is very pitiful, and the boss of the Far East Building let these impoverished Japanese eat at his restaurant for free. He said to them: Pay me when you have money.Later, the Far East Building was planned to be demolished due to the old houses, but the Japanese descendants of Little Tokyo insisted on keeping the original building of the Far East Building as a memorable historical relic. On June 9, 1973, the national organization of Chinese Americans named the American Chinese Association was finally formally established in Washington.More than 700 Chinese Americans across the United States were honored to participate in the grand inaugural meeting.The founding declaration of the American Chinese Association, as well as the list of contributors such as Wang Gongli, Chen Xiangmei, Zhang Zhixiang, Lin Jingzhong, and Li Wanruo, were included in the Congressional Records and became American historical documents. The first activity after the establishment of the American Chinese Association was to cooperate with the Japanese Citizens' Union and the Tongyuan Association to jointly support the Japanese Congressman Matsunaga's proposal to cancel the "World War II Detention of Japanese Americans Act".Later, under pressure from various aspects of the Asian community, Congress finally passed the Rehabilitation Act in 1988. About 60,000 Japanese Americans received compensation, each receiving US$20,000 in compensation, and formally apologized to them. In 1992, Japanese Americans established the Japanese-American National Museum in the United States. The exhibits in the museum are the historical facts of the Japanese being imprisoned in the United States during World War II.The museum not only distributed leaflets, but also sent letters everywhere to seek donations. Inoue, a member of the Japanese-American Congress, wrote an emotional letter, appealing to all walks of life to strongly support this fundraising action. The Japanese set up this museum to point out the mistakes made by the US government and remind future generations that this period of history must never be repeated.Inoue mentioned in the letter that during World War II, he had enlisted in the army to fight for the United States. When he received a letter from his family in the concentration camp, he couldn’t help asking himself: What did my Japanese compatriots and I go to the front for?At the end of the war, Inoue was awarded the Honorable Service Cross, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, but when he returned to the United States to go to a barber shop in San Francisco, he was refused service for the simple reason that he was yellow-skinned.Inoue thus declared that if the tragedy of this concentration camp had any positive impact, it would be that all Americans had learned an important lesson and finally understood the value of freedom and equality. For nearly half a century, the population of Japanese descent has remained at around 100,000, but the awareness and power of Japanese descent to participate in politics is the strongest. From the 1970s to 2000, Japanese representatives of the public opinion in California and the federal government (three federal senators , six federal representatives), and the White House to the federal ministries, the number of Japanese officials who occupy decision-making positions far exceeds that of other Asian ethnic groups. In 2001, President Bush appointed Toyota as federal transportation secretary.All three ministers in the state government in California are of Japanese descent. When Li Wanruo mentioned this point, he said with great emotion: the Chinese suffered injustice in the United States no less than the Japanese. Similar to the situation in all parts of the world, throughout California and the Los Angeles area, due to the gathering of different immigrants and different ethnic groups from various countries, there are often conflicts and conflicts between them.As the director of the Minority Affairs Office of the Los Angeles County Government and the director of social welfare for these ethnic groups, during those years, Li Wanruo was known as the Secretary-General of the Little United Nations of Los Angeles.Big and small matters that others don't care about or can't control can fall under her jurisdiction. Can you name any other business work that is broader than social welfare?vote has. Li Wan will always remember the events of this day in her mind, and it has flashed in front of her eyes from time to time for many years... One day, sitting in the office, she inadvertently raised her head and looked out the window, and suddenly saw a sky jumping in front of her. The fire dragon rose into the sky in the Korean community of Los Angeles City and quickly spread to other neighborhoods.Terrible!Black people are rioting again!At the same time, the horrific news spread through government buildings, through every office, across the United States and the world at the same time... Los Angeles has been known for only one thing since its inception as a city: the black riots. Don't blame the black brothers, every riot they have is persecuted.The same is true for this riot, but the circumstances are special. Things have to start with the sensational Rodney King En case.Black Rodney King En is an unemployed black man.One day he was beaten up by a group of white police officers because of a dispute with the police while driving drunk.There were about 20 policemen present, and it happened that the scene of the black man being beaten was filmed by a resident. As a result, newspapers and TV stations all over the world reported the scene of the beating, which led to a legal dispute.The case was tried in a California court, but the last four defendants were all released, and none of the 12 jurors participating in the case were of African descent.The black brothers quit, and there were huge demonstrations.Not long after, another black-related case occurred in Los Angeles, California.In a black community, the owner of a Korean-owned shop suspected that a 15-year-old black girl stole a bottle of juice from her. During the dispute, the Korean female shopkeeper shot the black girl to death. .The female shopkeeper was prosecuted for homicide, but at the end of the trial, the judge believed that the defendant was manslaughter and only sentenced to a fine and suspended sentence.This angered the black compatriots and planted the seeds of hatred.The blacks took advantage of this riot to vent their hatred. They united and burned, killed and looted the Korean bosses who opened in the black district. The situation got out of hand. The anger of the black brothers is certainly worthy of sympathy, but their indiscriminate burning, killing, looting and looting are extremely harmful.In order to defend the interests of the ethnic group, the Koreans had to take action to demonstrate and resist, and the Chinese, Japanese and other ethnic groups who are also Asians also took action to support the Koreans.Faced with the possible serious consequences of major conflicts among ethnic minorities, Li Wanruo was very anxious. She had to speak out, but she could not afford to offend either party. On one side were powerful blacks, and on the other were Asian compatriots.what to do?what to do? Li Wanruo stamped her feet in the office anxiously.Someone advised her that the best way was to leave it alone. It is our dereliction of duty to ignore it!Continuing to make trouble like this will ruin all the stability in the community that we have worked so hard to build!Li Wanruo said in a few words. But it's too dangerous to come forward now!Really, Lily, you have to think about your own safety. Li Wanruo knew that it was good intentions for everyone to worry about her, but the matter was imminent. As a public official in the community, she could not stand by and watch.And since you want to come forward, you must be clear in principle. So she took a resolute condemnation of violence—at a Korean rally, she bravely took the stage and called for an end to all brutal acts. Li Wanruo also mercilessly condemned the uncivilized and lack of friendliness of the ethnic groups in the community. The citizens of Los Angeles in the bloody storm, whether it is the black brothers who were humiliated or the Korean residents who were beaten and smashed, everyone gave a fair evaluation of Li Guiruo's words and deeds.What moved the African-American residents in the black community was that, as an Asian, Li Wanruo did not favor the same race. He pointed out and reminded Koreans not only to make money, but also to establish a good relationship with the residents in the black community. friendly relationship.She took the trouble and dared to risk her life and death to enter and exit the African-American Du area to help the Koreans and African-Americans coordinate their differences and resolve conflicts.That day, when Li Wanruo was cutting the ribbon for a newly opened Korean store, she held the Korean boss with one hand and the black leader of the African community with the other. When Li Wanruo and the other three appeared on the stage surrounded by flowers , the base field thundered with applause and firecrackers blared.At that moment, Li Wanruo smiled the happiest. At that moment, a real goddess of peace was born in the hearts of the community residents.