THE STREET CLIMBERS OF SAN FRANCISCO
In Memory of Sunny Chou (曹庚璇校友)
by Henry Lim
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Sunny Chou, born in 1949, excelled in Chinese at CACS. The textbook in his Chinese class was a piece of cake for Sunny. He read Chinese martial-art novels (武俠小說), while his classmates were struggling with their Chinese homework. Aung Kyaw (邱思強校友), who was one of his classmates, said that when he was stuck in his class assignments, he would turn to Sunny for help. Sunny was like a private tutor to Aung Kyaw.
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Disenchanted with Gen. Ne Win’s socialist government, Sunny left Burma for Macau by himself in 1965. When he arrived there, he enrolled in a high school. After completing high school, Sunny found work at a garment factory. The job required him to iron the clothes the factory manufactured, but he did not complain about his job. He saved as much money as he could. He married Polly Fong (馮寶玉女士) in 1974. After saving enough money, he quit the factory job and opened his own 4-in-1 taxi company. In this business, Sunny and his workers not only transported travelers, but also leased cars to businesses, repaired cars for customers, and provided driver training to customers. He once told me that he was so busy in those days that he just ate a pork or chicken bun every day as his lunch. The business was successful, but he was not complacent. He was aware that he needed to free up part of his time to figure out ways to grow his business. So, he started to train his trusted workers to take on more responsibilities.
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Sunny was passionate about cooking, so he and Polly opened their own restaurant that featured Burmese and Chinese foods. He split his hours between his taxi business and the restaurant. While Sunny and his helpers prepared Chinese dishes, Polly and her helpers cooked Burmese food for their customers. Their restaurant business took off in a relatively short time. Sunny then reduced his hours in his taxi business and put more hours in his restaurant business. He also made another important adjustment that would eventually let Polly stay home and take care of their children. He asked Polly to start training her helpers in Burmese cooking. As Sunny was a natural-born entrepreneur and engaged in light conversation with his customers, his restaurant business also grew exponentially.
Together they had two sons and two daughters. Sunny instilled the importance of education in his children. He sent their two daughters to universities in the United States soon after they completed high school in Macau. Polly said her husband enticed their eldest son Morris to major in medicine by offering the latter a new car. But Morris eventually chose accounting over medicine as his major in a university. When their two daughters got their citizenship in the States, Sunny and Polly retired, rented out their businesses and emigrated to the United States. Their eldest son stayed behind in Macau. Their elder daughter Lisa is an accountant and the younger daughter is a pharmacist. Their youngest son Kenneth graduated in finance, learned pearl tea making techniques (珍珠奶茶技術) in Taiwan with his wife, and is currently managing his own boba milk tea business (珍珠奶茶店) in San Francisco.
Sunny and Polly arrived in the U.S. as new immigrants in 2006. In that year, a fellow alumnus Alfred Chin introduced me to Sunny. Alfred told me that Sunny would like to meet with his childhood friends from CACS. So, I took him with me to countless WHAA meetings and potluck parties, picnics and Chinese New Year banquets. On Sunday mornings, Sunny and I would meet at a location near my house and climb the steepest streets in our neighborhood or walk leisurely to places, such as museums, parks, and ocean beaches.
When we were climbing a steep street, we did not talk with each other in order to preserve our energies. We just focused on climbing, making multiple stops here and there to catch our breaths and wipe away the sweat off our faces. Then we climbed some more. Our moment of joy came when we reached the top of a targeted hill. After a few minutes' rest at the hilltop, we would turn around and look way down at the magnificent views of San Francisco. Sunny and I found street climbing very rewarding. One Sunday morning, he asked me if we could increase the frequency of climbing hilly streets from once a week to twice a week, but I replied with a polite "No, thanks." because in those days I was busy on weekdays and Saturdays.
When we were on leisurely walks, besides seeing the neighborhoods and taking a tour of the interesting places at the destinations, Sunny and I would share with each other our views on geopolitics and other hot issues. Sunny was a very organized man. He would have in his pockets a few neatly-folded used but clean plastic bags and a 4”x4” notebook, which he had cut and made out of marketing handouts passed out by local real estate agents on weekends. Sunny would jot down on the notebook for later reading the English words, phrases or idioms I shared with him during the walks. At my request, he would correct my Cantonese that I practiced with him. In order to benefit me, he even encouraged me to speak more Cantonese than Mandarin with him, for which I am forever grateful to Sunny Chou. I was surprised to find that Sunny remembered the strokes of many difficult-to-write Chinese characters. From time to time, we would go out to eat lunch together at a buffet restaurant in Daly City. We also traveled together with a few other alumni friends to Mount Shasta in Northern California and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.
Sunny was well off, but not extravagant. He liked to write on recycled paper. He despised any kind of waste. No matter how large and crumpled a few used plastic bags were, he could smooth them out, fold and fit them snugly in his hip pocket. He always shared one of these plastic bags with me when we shopped together at Chinese grocery stores or supermarkets during our walking trips. A lower-quality plastic bag was sold 10 cents a piece. Sunny was a decent man and I enjoyed his company. To this day, when I walk up a steep street in my neighborhood, I remember Sunny as well as the times I spent climbing, walking and traveling together with him.
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| Grand View Park sitting on top of Turtle Hill | The west side of San Francisco and Pacific Ocean, as seen from Grand View Park | Burney Falls near Mount Shasta. (l to r): Eddie Shar, Sunny Chou, and Henry Lim |
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| The upward slope of Quintara Street, from 32nd Ave to 28th Ave | The upward slope of 14th Avenue, as seen from Rivera Street | The west side of San Francisco, as seen from 14th Avenue |
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| Sunset Reservoir at Ortega Street and 28th Ave | The downward slope of Quintara Street, from 28th Ave to Pacific Ocean | Sunny's favorite workout equipment at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Noriega Street |
(Epilogue: Sunny Chou (曹庚璇校友) passed away in San Francisco in 2018.)
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