Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player

Chinese in Wisconsin

Education at the Forefront

Tina Chan Image

By the time Tina Chan’s parents sold it in 2001, Hong Fat Grocery on 27th and State Streets had become an institution throughout Milwaukee for its authentic Chinese food products. All the area’s better Chinese restaurants used Hong Fat.

Yuk-Cheung (Sunny) Wong, originally from Hong Kong, was among the first Chinese investors to take advantage of the U.S. Immigration Service’s investor green card program. In 1992, he moved to the U.S. and invested in Hong Fat.

“My parents came here primarily for the educational opportunities,” says Chan. “My mother was a doctor in Santou Province, so she understood the importance of education.”

Yee-kit (Kitty) Li, Chan’s mother, had practiced as an obstetrician, but her degree was not recognized in the U.S. So Li became an acupuncturist, among the first licensed acupuncturists in Wisconsin.

After Wong sold Hong Fat to a national food distributor, he became a massage therapist. Together, he and Li treat a variety of maladies using traditional Chinese medical techniques.

“When my mother first came to Milwaukee, she went to a Chinese restaurant,” says Chan. “The first thing she asked was where the best schools were.”

After high school, Tina Chan and her older brother and sister all earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Tina also graduated from Marquette Law School and joined one of Milwaukee’s most-prestigious firms, Quarles & Brady, (www.quarles.com).

“Education was always at the forefront,” says Chan.