Christianity, Columbia University, culture, racism, New York (N.Y.), Yale University, Canada, assimilation (sociology), intermarriage, Shanghai (China), Long Island (N.Y.)
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2015.048.003 The Family Journey of Brenda Grosbard and Roger Yee

Ms. Brenda Grosbard and Mr. Roger Yee are grandchildren of Reverend Yeung Kai Cheung, the second pastor of the first Chinese Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, New York City. In this interview, Ms. Grosbard and Mr. Yee provide a detailed description of their family tumultuous history and their grandfather journeys from Vancouver B.C., to Shanghai, before ending up in Chinatown, New York City, where he became a spiritual and cultural leader of the Chinese community in New York. They talk about their grandfather cultural struggles as a reverend of a Western religion, and his ultimate ability to gracefully incorporate Chinese philosophy and thinking with his Christian teachings. His eminence profoundly inspired and influenced Ms. Grosbard and Mr. Yee childhood and their own cultural experiences growing up Asian American in Long Island, New York. These stories of Brenda Grosbard and Roger Yee provide a moving glimpse into the grand figure that was Reverend Yeung Kai Cheung.