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| C.C Yin -Goldern arches provided a golden opportunity, and so did politics |
By Leonard Novarro
The day after CC. Yin landed in America, after crossing the Pacific on a cargo ship, he went out looking for work. Unable to speak English – and, worse, unable to understand the language – he set out along Los Angeles’ La Cienega Boulevard, stopping at one restaurant after another.
By the end of the day, “I learned how to say my name and to say I was looking for a job,” he recalled. The day was about to end unsuccessfully when he met
the manager of one restaurant who spoke the language of Yin’s homeland, Taiwan. The manager asked for a reference.
A fellow passenger on the cargo ship had told Yin that if he were ever in New York City, to look up the owner of the Old Shanghai Restaurant, who was a friend.
Thinking quickly, Yin offered the restaurant as a reference and was hired to clean up. The next day, while carrying a tray of water, he tripped, spilling it over a table of customers. “So I was fired,” he said. Yin immediately went next door to ask for a job.
When he was asked for a reference, he gave two: the Old Shanghai Restaurant and the restaurant he was fired from. He was hired. “It took two years to promote myself from garbage man to waiter,” he says. “Serving became natural.”
Serving customers and the Asian community has been a natural for C.C. Yin, whose life has been garnished with one success after another – engineer, real estate entrepreneur and the owner of 28 McDonalds franchises. In fact, he and wife Regina for many years have been touted as the face of McDonalds. In addition, he, along with some friends, founded the Asian Pacific Islander American Public
Affairs Association, perhaps his proudest achievement.
When it began 10 years ago, there were no elected Asian officials in California. Now, through APAPA’s efforts, 126 Asian and Pacific Islander Americans hold political office.
“Asians are ready now. We are ready to be leaders,” he says.
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More than most, Yin relishes change; moreso, he revels in it.
After moving to Seattle, earning an engineering degree and embarking on a successful career as a structural engineer for several companies, including the Bechtel Corp., Yin returned with his staff to the site of his first job in
America. As they sat down to eat, he proudly declared: “I was fired from here.”
“The true America,” he says laughing.
When C.C. Yin talks about his adopted country, there’s a deep sense of admiration, pride and an almost hallowed reverence. With a youthful enthusiasm that belies his years, he enjoys talking about the steps he has taken to be part of a
dream that began so simply but became such an integral part of the fabric of America.
“People would ask me ‘Why do you want to come to America?’ I would say ‘because I don’t want to be hungry anymore and because I don’t want to be poor. I never said ‘I want to be rich.’ Richness is measured in the heart, not measured financially.”
By both measures, the life of Yin and wife Regina, coowner of the McDonalds franchises, is an unqualified success.
Yin was 12 years old when his parents and he and eight siblings fled mainland China after the Communist takeover and settled in Taiwan. At the time, Taiwan was not the country it is today, but an emerging nation with few opportunities.
So began Yin’s dream. At the age of 28 and beckoned by a sister who left before him to settle in Los Angeles, he set out for America with $100 he had borrowed from a family member. He spent $80 of that on books to
prepare him for college in the United States.
His arrival in the U.S. went rather unheralded. In fact, he was left stranded upon landing in L.A., but the next day met a Chinese student who offered him a temporary place to stay.
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Within a couple of years he had made enough to attend the University of Washington, where he earned an engineering degree and embarked on a successful 18-year career. He says the greatest success, however, during that time was
meeting his future wife at a party he crashed. “I asked her to dance and that was it,” said Yin. “She had boyfriends, but it was meant to be.”
To this day, he regards wife Regina as the main stabilizing force in his life – in his words, “educated, beautiful and having a great manner. She has kept me on track. I call her a great leader for my family and myself.”
By the time he had turned 48, however, the country was hit by a severe recession and he lost his engineering job.
Returning to California with his wife, Yin turned to real estate, upgrading properties and renting them. His entrepreneurial fervor, however, yearned for more. Like many immigrants, the fast food business, especially the McDonalds golden arches, symbolized the free enterprise system that Yin had grown to love.
“I was fascinated, as an engineer, by its efficiencies and its simplicity as a business,” he once told an interviewer.
When a friend suggested he buy one, he did. “To know that I, as an immigrant or naturalized citizen, can do that…Where I came from you stick with one career.”
The Yins’ first franchise was in one of the poorer parts of Oakland. Within a year, they turned it around, increasing sales by 50 percent and becoming the fastest growing franchise in the chain. In 1991, the Yins bought four more McDonalds. And that was only the beginning. Today, they own franchises in 11 cities in five counties, mostly in Northern California.
“Even during a crisis, people must live decently but not fancy. They have to eat,” Yin says. “When the economy is good, it works well. When the economy is bad, it works better.”
At the same time, both Yins have been involved in a wide range of community activities, including Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northern California and the NAACP. C.C. Yin is also a California State University trustee and was appointed by former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as the California State Lottery Commissioner. He also serves on the California Highway
Patrol’s Citizens Oversight Committee.
However, if you want to engage him in a non-stop conversation that can last for hours, mention his creation – APAPA, the non-profit organization he founded to provide education and support to Asian Pacific Islander Americans running for office and to engage younger people in the political process through workshops, seminars, scholarships and internships. In November, APAPA dedicated its new
$2.3 million national headquarters in Sacramento. APAPA holds annual community town hall meetings and local community civic meetings, an annual voter education and candidates forum (this year’s will be held Sunday, Sept. 25, at California State University in Sacramento), an annual governor’s luncheon and has formed a highly respected Governor Appointments Committee to help identify and recommend API Americans to fill judicial and political vacancies in California.
“If you give minority people the opportunity to be better, and that person can contribute 100 times more to America, when that contribution is done, who benefits?” he asks, rhetorically. “You benefit. America benefits most of all,” he
says. As Asian Americans participate in the political process, “we build a bigger platform.”
Yin is passionate about politics – in particular, Asian American participation. “Asians are sometimes selfish,” he says. “They don’t want to give back. The government says Come join us.’ I say to Asians ‘Don’t complain.’ It’s very
selfish not to get involved.” He continues: “I have strong feelings on that. Americans
need Asian Americans contributing. They are great lawabiding people, great workers and now ready to be great leaders.”
Yin explained how he started his first McDonalds amid fierce competition.” What set him apart was his participation in the government process, garnering support along the way. “I used that everywhere I went. I used that as a model,” he adds
“I am always told ‘How can you organize Asians with so many different languages and cultures. It’s true. But do you know that there are more different cultures, religions and countries in Europe. And Europe was always at war.
“When they ask how I organize differences…we work on common areas. Asians have a lot in common. Differences, yes, but I don’t look at differences.”
Whether it’s a highway or politics, he adds, “engineering taught me the importance of building bridges.”
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| Short history of Indonesia |
| Muay Thai: Art of Fighting |
| Thailand: A Global study |
| Desserts Around the World |
| Encyclopedia of Food and Culture |
| Cooking Thai way |
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