Nora Chan was born in Hong Kong, where she met her husband Austen. Shortly after their marriage, the couple moved to Richland, Washington, where Austen Chan was employed as a physicist at the Hanford Site — a now-closed plutonium production complex that contributed significantly to the world’s first atomic weapons. Chan is a mother to four and grandmother of 13. She is also a longtime, active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Inspired by her husband’s second career as a chiropractor, Chan became known for her work in the Chinatown International District in her later years, particularly her efforts to improve public safety through installing security cameras and organizing anti-scam workshops for the area’s resident senior citizens. In a conversation with the International Examiner, she and friend Betty Lau discussed Chan’s advocacy for seniors, their concerns about the future of the CID, and the generational divide on community issues, such as Sound Transit’s proposed station locations.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
International Examiner: First off, could you share your memories or experience of growing up in Hong Kong?
Nora Chan: I was a kid without parents. I had two older sisters that died when they were very young. One at age 6 and one when she was born. When I was born — you know, my parents were Buddhist believers and they believed what the monks told them — they told her that she had an evil spirit in her hand and she should never have children, so they thought the best thing to do was to give me away when I was born. I never saw my mother, but I saw my grandmother all of the time. The lady that took care of me decided that she didn’t want to have young kids any more, so I was given back to my grandparents. They raised me, but I still have my father’s name. I did not see my mother, and I never knew she was my mother until my husband and I married.
IE: Why did you find out at that point?
NC: Because I told my father, I said, ‘Father, you need to find a wife because if you’re giving me away, I want to have a better mother than this lady.’ She was bad, and I know that’s no way to talk about a mother, but she was really mean to me the whole time when I was young. Later, I found out that she did that because she did not want to raise me the way she wanted to. The monk told her that she would have to be mean to me or else I would not grow up properly. I met my husband in a Mormon church, which I joined when I was 14, when they had just started the church. I remember a friend of mine coming to my household and saying, ‘Hey, do you want to learn how to speak English?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ She said, ‘Well, this is a Mormon church and the missionaries can teach you.’ Soon after that, I met my husband.
IE: Where did your passion for community service come from?
NC: When my husband was working for Hanford, they told him that it is something that he’s doing for the government so he should not tell people anything about that. It was classified. So, one year, he came home from work and told me he quit his job. I said, ‘You quit your job? Why? It’s such a good job. The other people are getting $3,000 a month and you’re getting $30,000 a month.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve killed enough people. Now I want to save people’s lives.’ So he quit his job and went to apply for medical school, and at that time, they would not accept him because he was older, much older. And also, you know, he already had a degree in nuclear physics. Why go back to medical school? They didn’t understand.
Finally, one of the doctors talked to him and said, ‘You don’t need anybody’s permission, it’s right from your heart.’ My husband said, ‘Well, right from my heart, I want to take care of people. Later on, when he passed away, we found these long and tall boxes. And then what he would do is — those were the people who could not pay their doctor bill. He went to see many of those people and did not charge them a penny, just get them well. To him, that was much more important. Because of that, you know, from a very young age — my husband is older than me — from that, I thought I should help him. So, that’s how I was willing to do a lot of things like put up the cameras for the seniors.
Betty Lau: She made it her mission as a younger woman to devote herself to helping seniors because they were the most vulnerable because of the language barrier, not understanding systems, especially living in this area where they don’t often see their family members as much as they want. So, the whole gamut is amazing. She brings food to them. Even last year, she organized food deliveries, especially during the pandemic when people were afraid to go out. She organized to teach [seniors] that they have power, that they are not helpless. She also organized voter registration drives, how to understand your ballot. For that, she contacted the City’s election office to impress upon them the need for bilingual ballots and help. Now, the City has made videos in various languages for people to watch.
Remember, you organized vaccination information because you saw how hard it was to get information in English, and so she did that for the seniors to get information. And then Chong Wa made packets that were translated by volunteers and hand delivered them to 300 businesses on COVID. This was before the City got organized to do something. We were waiting, but somehow this population here got overlooked. So, Nora took over informing the seniors on COVID, what it was, what they needed, and masking. I made 1,000 masks for her to distribute because there was a mask shortage, and then the call for ‘Make your own mask because masks have to go to the hospital.’ So, basically, that population. She makes sure they’re not overlooked when there’s a crisis. She’s right there.
IE: You’ve been a major influence in organizing the seniors around the Sound Transit controversy in the neighborhood. Would you like to speak to that?
NC: Sound Transit is another thing. I really think that we cannot move Sound Transit away, but people told me that it’s a done deal, you know. I feel bad because the seniors cannot get on the train easily.
BL: What she means by ‘away’ are the north and south options. There are people who are spreading lies, frankly, because that’s what I’ve been working on as a senior myself. That’s what she’s referring to.
NC: The seniors cannot get on the trail to go to the airport. My heart goes out to them because they want to go home to see their parents, or mother-in-law, or father-in-law or grandkids, but they cannot do it. If the station moves too far away, they cannot get there.
BL: Nor can they get to First Hill for their medical care. Nor can the grandkids come to visit because parents are not going to allow their kids to walk a mile north or three quarters of a mile south after dark in the winter. It’s going to kill the schools that are here, Sierra Summit, Bailey Gatzert, Puget Sound Community School, all the gung fu schools. That’s really sad.
IE: Nora, in your opinion, why do you believe that the senior demographic is overlooked on big decisions like Sound Transit?
NC: Some people think that lying to non-educated people is easier than to do the other jobs, right? They try to cheat us. Like me, I’ve lost a lot of memory so I have to call Betty. Luckily, I have somebody to fall back on to check and see what is the right way and what is the wrong way.
BL: She’s been to the Sound Transit meetings and the room is filled up with seniors holding up our red signs and wearing our red shirts to tell them, but they continuously take advantage of us. So it falls on those of us who have the English skills to fight back, to be the voice of the people who, as she said, are less educated and speak zero English.
IE: Some of your work, such as pushing for the installation of security cameras in doorways around the neighborhood, has dealt with public safety. Why is that topic important to you?
NC: Public safety is important because we need to have a clean area, an area that people feel safe and comfortable to come in to eat and to buy. Some of those [homeless people] don’t look so good. I always walk through the alley and they say, ‘Are you scared?’ Many of the seniors don’t want to report being physically attacked because they feel bad.
BL: The seniors asked her to do something and that’s when she thought of the camera project.
NC: I asked the seniors to help me raise money for the camera project. The first time I had Donnie Chin helping me. I said, ‘Every one of you will benefit from it so we may as well everybody chip in the money to put them up. They were very sweet to help out.
IE: What are your hopes for the future of the neighborhood?
NC: I want to see us work together more, that we love each other more, that we care for each other more. That’s very important. For the new generations, everybody has a mind of their own. You know, I think that the cameras are so important but to others the cameras are not important at all. So it depends on how you look at it.
This year’s Community Voice Awards benefit dinner will be at Ding Feng Restaurant on Sept. 27, 2024 at 6 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online: givebutter.com/fkO6ZI
