ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WILLIAM WONG
ONE OF THE biggest stories of this past election season was the questionable, and possibly illegal, fund raising for the Democratic Party from Asian and Asian American sources.
One could easily get the impression that wealthy Asians and Asian Americans gave money to the party for typically selfish reasons - to gain attention for the donors or their businesses, or simply to have a photo opportunity with President and Mrs. Clinton.
Like political donors of other racial and ethnic extractions, some Asian and Asian American contributors cared only about themselves. Then along comes Charles B. Wang, and a few others like him, to restore faith in an all-but-forgotten altruism in an age of greed.
Wang, head of a Long Island, N.Y., computer software company called Computer Associates International, made big news recently when he donated $25 million to the State University of New York at Stony Brook for a high-tech Asian American Culture Center.
Wang's story is quintessentially the American Dream: An 8-year-old immigrant fleeing with his parents in 1952 from a war-ravaged Shanghai; settling in Queens, N.Y., with not a whit of English; a precocious immersion experience in which he quickly learned a new language; hard work and hard studying through Queens College; a risk-taking adventure in 1976 into the high-tech entrepreneurial world; and 20 years later, a company with 9,000 employees in 40 countries with $3.5 billion in annual revenues.
Wang told NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw he never thought about becoming ``a very rich man in America.'' Wang added, ``I just wanted to survive in this country.''
Level-headed about what he has accomplished thus far in life, Wang said he felt his achievements were ``markers in the road . I enjoy the journey more than getting somewhere. I tell my people over and over again, enjoy the journey because when you get there, big deal . Push back the goal posts because you don't really want to say, I'm here now, and that's it. That's when we die.''
For a man who's made a fortune in high technology, Wang is surprisingly skeptical about the long-term value of technology. He advises us not to make technology an end in itself.
It is merely a tool, he suggests, to address real-world problems.
Wang sees his proposed Asian American Culture Center as a multicultural vehicle to explore ``ideas about East-West approaches to medicine, science, business, engineering and many other fields,'' including many forms of cultural arts.
Its ultimate goal, he indicated, was to break down cultural barriers that divide us.
``A central lesson I have learned from my parents is that mankind is well served when everyone does what he or she can to make the world a little bit better,'' Wang said.
William Wong is an independent journalist and San Francisco Examiner columnist.
New York Times News Service
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB