Love My Way

She interviewed prominent politicians, heads of state, popular entertainers, and regular people who were newsmakers.But it wasn’t always an easy road for Chung.She ran into controversy on more than one occasion due to her interview style, which threatened to derail her career.But Chung always seemed to rise above any obstacles and find herself on top.She worked at all of the major networks, did cable news, and hosted several of her own shows.It Almost Didn’t HappenConnie Chung’s career in the media business almost didn’t happen because she almost didn’t happen.Chung was the tenth of ten children, born in 1946 in Maryland to parents who were from China.It was a very different China back then.Millions of Chinese people died in the fighting and the starvation and disease that happened as a result, including five of Connie’s older siblings.He eventually wound up in the United States where he started over.William Chung did well for himself and his family in the United States, but he remained traditionally Chinese in many ways until he died.Like all traditional Chinese people, he wanted desperately to have at least one son to carry on his family’s name and traditions, but unfortunately, his only sons had died in the Chinese Civil War.It would basically fall upon Connie to carry on the family’s name and honor.As she noted in an interview, it was a bit of a cultural taboo for a Chinese female to be an assertive reporter.Chung also had to deal with often being the only woman and always being the only person of Asian descent in the newsroom.So, I never knew when people were giving me a hard time or understood which reason it was, except when they would say, oh, this is yellow journalism or you slant the news, Chung noted.I fought it with a sense of humor.I wouldn’t let them get my goat by taking it seriously even if they meant it seriously.Chung’s easygoing attitude was a large part of what drove her success.She could joke around with dictators and criminals during interviews in order to produce some really good television, and she was also able to take anything thrown at her if need be.The diminutive Chinese woman, as she referred to herself, was not a shrinking violet and anyone who stepped into her world quickly learned as much.Chung’s first big interview, and the one that really served as her big break, took place a little over two years after she graduated from college.Although Chung wasn’t able to get Nixon to admit to anything major, she did score some points with the American people and news executives.Making the Big TimeChung’s success in the Washington market led to offers from all over the country.But Chung always wanted to do more.She wanted to reach the pinnacle of her profession, and she could only do that by moving back to the East Coast.I think I had always dreamed of it, Chung said about anchoring a major news show.I had (木) 03:04:36url=http://hackmd.io/@uk222/H1aZBmaUt always dreamt of being Walter Cronkite.You know, all that, you know, Walter, good evening, this is Walter Cronkite.I thought, boy if I could sit in his chair one day.But I always thought it was a dream.I never thought it would really happen.Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather had replaced Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid as America’s newsmen and anchors, but in the ‘80s, Connie Chung was well on her way to replacing those guys as America’s anchor.She was bright, warm, and attractive.Chung could also be quite funny when she wanted.In many ways, she was a breath of fresh air from the newsmen and anchors of the past.And by the late 1980s, all of the networks were after Chung’s services!She not only stood to gain a financially lucrative contract but also more freedom and exposure.By 1995, Chung was at the top of the world as her popularity was soaring.But as her star soared in late 1994 and early 1995, the diminutive Chinese American learned just how cutthroat the news business can be.Professional LandminesChung quickly found out that, as hard as it was to reach the top of the news business, staying there was an even more herculean task.The news business is highly competitive to the point of being cutthroat.In late 1994, Chung was one of those upstart talents who had her eye on the top, while Dan Rather was the grey veteran who’d seen it all.Dan Rather didn’t like Chung very much.Chung later admitted as much, stating that his problem with her stemmed from him having to share anchor duties on the nightly news.So, when I got to sit in half of his chair, it was a mighty big deal in my mind.In an interview that was prescient of events today, Chung pressed Bill Gates about the impact Microsoft was having on small businesses across the country.Chung survived the maelstrom of negative publicity after the interview, but the storm picked up again months later.Murrah Federal Building was bombed on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people, it was at the time the worst terrorist attack on American soil.Americans were clamoring to find out what happened even as they came together to clear out the wreckage and save as many people as they could.Chung arrived on the scene to interview the rescue workers, asking the Oklahoma City Fire Department spokesman, Can the Oklahoma City Fire Department handle this?Chung emphasized the final word in the question, apparently to stress the level of destruction that had come to Middle America, but most of the people listening at home in Middle America thought the tone was condescending and patronizing.Connie Chung’s career in the news business was dramatic, inspiring, and quite volatile at times, yet there’s no denying she blazed new trails for women and Americans of Asian ancestry as she became one of the most popular and trusted people in the media during the 1980s and ‘90s.Although Povich is best known for his somewhat raunchy Maury show, which focuses on paternity tests which reveals more than anything substantive, he was a former reporter and host of the news tabloid show, A Current Affair, in the late 1980s.Chung converted to Povich’s religion of Judaism after they married and has been an observant Jew since.The couple had an adopted son, Matthew.By 2000, media tastes had changed tremendously with the emergence of the Internet, conservative cable news network Fox News, and talk radio still holding in popularity.Unlike many reporters and even news anchors today, Chung never wore her politics on her sleeve, although her attitudes emerged from time to time.It wasn’t the fault of the athletes who competed in the ’92 games in Albertville, France, though.Their achievements were just overshadowed by some other events.The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the fall of communism in Europe generally, and the reunification of Germany were on everyone’s minds.Then there was the timing of the Olympics.This meant that the ’92 winter games in Albertville would be followed just two years later by the ’94 games in Lillehammer, Norway.Now, as much as people like watching the Olympics, it’s the type of sporting event that people only really like to watch every four years, so when it was announced that another Winter Olympics would take place in 1994, more than a few people tuned out.The death of Nicolas Bochtay didn’t help either.So, with all of that drama taking place around the world and at the Olympics, it’s no wonder that the ’92 Winter Olympics are among the most forgotten by most people.For many people, Yamaguchi is about all they remember from the Albertville games.Yamaguchi inspired a generation of girls of all backgrounds and is today one of America’s greatest sports heroines.Getting Her LegsLife for Kristi Yamaguchi began in 1971 in the San Francisco Bay area, and for her, it was a better beginning than what her parents had experienced decades earlier.For the Yamaguchi family academics came first, but extracurricular activities were also important.After talking to professionals, they learned that athletic training was probably the best thing for Kristi.So, the Yamaguchi’s brought Kristi to skating lessons as a therapy to strengthen her feet and ankles.Before too long, she began enjoying the sport.And she was a natural!Kristi’s combination of natural athletic talent, artistry and good looks made her a top child skater in the Bay area and soon her clubbed foot was history.Kristi also did ballet to help work past her malady, but by the time she was 12, her life was all about skating.Her rigorous training schedule meant that she had to be homeschooled, which a lot of kids find disappointing, but Yamaguchi didn’t mind as long as she got to skate!By the time she was a teenager, Yamaguchi was winning regional and national competitions and by the late 1980s, she was on the international stage in pairs and singles competition.It’s vastly different from doubles in tennis, where the team is working to score the very concrete and objective goal of points.Yamaguchi did well in the pairs competition, winning a bronze medal in the 1987 World Junior Championships and a gold medal in the 1988 World Junior Championships, which was in addition to the gold she won in the singles competition of the ’88 World Junior Championships.But Yamaguchi knew that she had to pick one or the other, so she decided to go on her own.She and partner Rudy Galindo had won Wars - tic tac too flash game. numerous national and international competitions, but the graceful Yamaguchi had to have a stage of her own.After winning gold at the 1990 Goodwill Games in singles competition, Yamaguchi knew she had made the right choice.But as much of a natural Yamaguchi was on the ice, there were still a few more bumps in the road she’d encounter.Before 1991, Yamaguchi may have looked and performed like an adult on the ice, but she was still very much a young girl off the ice.After wowing crowds with her performance to Madame Butterfly, the teen Yamaguchi had a difficult time dealing with reporters and fans.So, she and her family knew that things had to change a bit.Beginning in 1991, Yamaguchi decided to train in Canada with coach Christy Ness.Yamaguchi focused on her training, but Footer&af_web_dp=http://hackmd.io/@uk222/H1aZBmaUt she also took classes at the University of Alberta and matured into adulthood.She never lost the smile that won the hearts of so many of her fans, but she became more articulate and media savvy.She also made the difficult decision to end her partnership with Galindo and leave pairs skating in the past.I concentrated on singles at my competitions and put in all of my energy that went before into two practices a day.Yes, that Harding and Kerrigan.So, let’s talk a bit about it.They very well could have swept the medals as they had at the 1991 World Championships.You also probably know that Harding, or at least people associated with her, paid someone to injure Kerrigan before the 1994 competition.But in 1992, everything was cool between the three girls, at least according to a 2018 interview Yamaguchi gave.We all had a fairly good relationship, Yamaguchi noted about the three women.Winning the GoldYamaguchi may not have had thugs with clubs to deal with as Kerrigan did in 1994, she did face some pretty stiff competition on the ice.So, Yamaguchi fell back on her training as a ballerina and performed a routine that relied on choreography and being technically sound.After winning the gold in 1992, Yamaguchi returned back to the States as a sort of conquering hero.I was just one generation away from my family who lost everything and had to rebuild their entire lives and improve their loyalty to this country, Yamaguchi said in a 2018 interview.So, that’s when I realized, ‘Oh, wow.Yes, I’m able to live out the American dream because of the work and the sacrifices of the generations before me.’’Yamaguchi went professional after the 1992 season, but stayed active in the sport, skating with the Stars on Ice and in professional competitions for most of the 1990s.They had two daughters and live together in Northern California.Yamaguchi was actually introduced to Hedican by Nancy Kerrigan.I don’t think there’s a rivalry between us, or between Tonya and me.I believe it’s just the skating that matters.Yamaguchi skated with fellow American gold medalist, Scott Hamilton, in the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.It was a couple of decades before air travel became common and affordable, and Hawaii had yet to really become the tourist hotspot it is today.For most Americans, Hawaii was a very exotic place, full of exotic people who weren’t traditionally considered Americans.It was a place, in many Americans’ eyes, where Americans would only visit if they were somehow connected to the military.Hawaii’s grafting into the American union wasn’t always easy and it followed a different course than the rest of the country in many ways.Since Hawaii was so far away from the rest of the country, it remained relatively Hawaiian in its culture and most of the immigrants who settled there were from China and Japan.The majority of the generational Americans who moved to Hawaii were businesspeople or in the military, which is the case even today.Due to the Constitution requiring two senators from every state no matter the population, Hawaii sent two senators to Washington that year.Fong worked in the sugar fields of Oahu and eventually met and married Lum Shee, another Chinese immigrant.The Fong family was poor and illiterate, but proud.The Fongs had 11 children, the seventh of which was Ah Leong, who later changed his name to Hiram.Hiram grew up fast in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu.Since his parents were far from the Crazy Rich Asians of recent movie fame, young Hiram had to learn how to earn an honest living at a young age.Fong worked long hours and often missed school due to work or sleep, but he still did well in school.Although his parents didn’t have personal experience with formal education, and they didn’t speak English, they were generally supportive of his quest for an education.After Fong graduated from high school in 1924, he was accepted to the University of Hawaii, where he was transformed from just another poor Chinese kid into a genuine intellectual.Fong’s editing activities helped prepare him for his later legal and political careers, where regular writing was a mainstay.Fong also joined the university’s debate team, where he honed his speaking skills, made contact with a number of Hawaii’s future business and political leaders, and came out of his shell.But Fong’s true talents were his writing and speaking abilities and by the late 1920s, it was clear his future would probably be in law or politics, or both.Many in Hawaii’s political circles were impressed with the young Chinese American, especially since few Chinese people were involved in Hawaii’s political scene.As Fong worked with Wright, he continued with his education and eventually graduated with honors from Hawaii in 1930, but it was just the beginning of his journey.You Can’t Go Wrong with FongAfter Fong graduated from college, he had several options open to him.He had offers to go into business with some friends that he’d made, and he could’ve entered politics at that time.Instead, he chose to work for the Suburban Water System of Oahu for two years before going on to law school.Fong was accepted to the prestigious Harvard Law School, where he was subjected to a healthy dose of culture shock.With the Great Depression ravaging most of the world, Fong wanted nothing more than to go back to his home in Hawaii and be around his family and familiar territory, so he went back to Honolulu to practice law.When Fong moved back home, things moved fast.Fong, Miho, Choy, and Robinson.But while Fong worked in the legal profession, he longed to be in politics.Politics was his true calling, so in 1938, he ran for and won a seat in Hawaii’s territorial legislature.Fong was born an American citizen and believed that despite its cultural uniqueness, Hawaii had earned the right to become a state.Hawaii is today and always has been a strong Democrat state.Long before California was the liberal utopian’s dream, Hawaii was that place.So, for Fong to win a statewide election in liberal Hawaii, he needed to run a great campaign and build a strong base.As far as building a base, he had already done that beginning with his time in college and continuing through his service in the territorial legislature.Fong was able to build a coalition that crossed ethnic lines and included labor as well as some of the leading businessmen in Hawaii at the time.Running a great campaign, though, was easier said than done, especially since he had a tough opponent.Fong’s opponent was Frank Fasi, who was one of Hawaii’s territorial senators and who would later serve as the mayor of Honolulu for 22 years.Fasi was definitely a tough opponent and a Democrat, but Fong ran an energetic, positive, and modern campaign that pushed him through to victory.As Fong’s supporters said, You Can’t Go Wrong with Fong!Fong won the election and immediately became a popular, independent representative of Hawaii.Fong served as senator of Hawaii until he retired in 1976 after tiring from the hectic schedule and travel.He was also popular within the national Republican Party.In 1964, he even received five delegates for the party’s presidential nomination at the party’s convention in Daly City, California.