The Asian Federation of the United States and the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce held a community meeting for two Fujian children, Chen Yi and Lin Yu, who were running for city councillors. (Photo by Gao Shiyun) [Reported by Gao Shiyun, a reporter from Qiaobao] Chen Yi and Lin Yu,

American Asian Federation and the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce held a community meeting for two Fujian children, Chen Yi and Lin Yu, who were running for city councillors. (Photo by Gao Shiyun)

[Reported by Gao Shiyun, a reporter from Qiaobao] Chen Yi and Lin Yu, two young "Fuzhou children", will run for the city councillors of Emhurst, Queens and Brooklyn Sunset Park, respectively this year. In order to support the second generation of Fujian-born Chinese youth to run for public office, the Federation of Asian American Society Associations and the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce of the United States held a community meeting and fundraising event for them at the Golden Imperial Palace on January 23, hoping to encourage more Chinese people to actively participate in politics and make decisions, break prejudice and embrace the mainstream.

Young and promising Fujian Chinese youth Andy Chen will officially announce his official election to the 25th District Councilor of Emhurst, Queens and Jackson Heights. Chen Yi introduced that the 25th constituency is a diverse community, and in addition to Chinese, there are also a large number of immigrants in South Asian and Hispanics. About 40,000 of the total population of 130,000 are Chinese. Currently, there are 9 candidates in the city council seats. Chen Yi is the only Chinese and the first Chinese candidate in the local city council history.

Chen Yi described that he has been studying and working in the 25th constituency since he came to the United States with his parents in 2002. As a local, he actively participates in community affairs, volunteers in different councillors' offices, and is also a police assistant in the auxiliary police department of the 110 branch. He has served more than 600 hours a year for six years. He is also a member of the Asian Advisory Committee of the Queens Attorney's Office. He described himself as providing services to Fujian and Chinese, but also to everyone. Over the years, he has won the recognition of many residents of different ethnic groups through his actions. In this campaign, many people who donated money to him and are confident that he will win the support of non-Chinese voters.

Chen Yi pointed out that this year's campaign for city council is because the various communities split into different voices after the outbreak of the epidemic. The incompetence and inaction of government departments at all levels have hurt the interests of the Chinese community. Few politicians have come forward to speak out for the discrimination and insults that Chinese people have suffered. He said that the only , Flushing and two Chinese city councillors in Chinatown, are both due to their term of office. If there is no Chinese face on the table, the authorities will not really understand the needs of Chinese people, which makes him decide to run for election and believe that he has the responsibility to represent political views that are in line with the interests of Chinese people.

Jack Lin, who is also a second-generation immigrant from Fuzhou, is running for the 38th District Councillor of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. At the age of 29, he also lived in Sunset Park after immigrating to the United States with his parents when he was young, and now he has started a family and a career. There are a large number of Hispanic and Chinese voters in the Sunset Park constituency. With the announcement of another Chinese candidate, Whitney Hu, announced his withdrawal, Lin Yu has become the only Chinese candidate in the local area and the first Fujian Chinese descendant to run for Sunset Park City Councillor. In order to win the support of a large number of Hispanic voters, he also specially arranged Hispanic campaign assistants, hoping to go deeper and respect each other's community and become the first city council member to represent everyone's interests in Sunset Park for a long time.

Currently, even within Chinese, many people have prejudice against Fuzhou people participating in politics, thinking that Fuzhou people are engaged in hard work such as restaurants and nails, and are not good at English and do not care about the community. Lin Yu pointed out that he hopes to prove the excellence of Fujian children to the outside world through the power of his generation and to establish a positive image to speak out for Chinese people.

Chen Yi also said that the stereotypes against Fujian and Fuzhou people do exist, because most of the older generation of expatriates came to the United States without identity and were heavily in debt, and there was no way to work hard to make money to support their lives. And by their generation, there is already the conditions and time to embrace the mainstream and care about the community. He believes that the best change is to start with the second generation of immigrants who grew up in the United States, to make themselves a connection between the community and society, and to use their actions and achievements to change everyone's stereotypes about Fuzhou people. Chen Shanzhuang, president of the Asian Federation of

, introduced that Lin Yu and Chen Yi are both young members of the association and chamber of commerce in the past two years. After the outbreak of the epidemic last year, they actively worked for the community in the name of the chamber of commerce, and their actions are obvious to all. Therefore, the two meetings held this meeting for the two candidates on the 23rd, aiming to mobilize more Chinese descendants to participate in politics and make decisions. “No matter what the future results are, we must always take the first step."Chen Shanzhuang said: "It is not only the descendants of Fujian, but also the Asian and Chinese as a whole. They must come out to participate in government departments and speak out for themselves. ”

The community people attending the event on the same day also included: Pan Limin, Jiang Shudong, Zheng Siqi, Lin Cifei, Wei Qing, Chen Zaifu, Chen Yichang, Wu Shizhao, Wang Shiqin, Gao Jiashun, Wang Yibing, etc.