After a brief dialog, Madeline Wong immediately comes across has a successful woman; her sincere and candid approach created a reassuring familiarity even with strangers. After several exchanges, it clear that she has drastically different priorities, and also a very different background to Mrs. Wong. She is a second generation immigrant, whose father moved to the US in the 30s. Having been involved in a family restaurant business since its founding, she is an enterprising women who does not take no for an answer. Her persistence has promoted her into many positions of leadership in an environment where female leaders are a rarity: from her being the president of the women's association, to overseeing the operation of the family business, she commands respect and radiates authority. After mentioning that I was interested in seeing how a traditional Chinese family business operated, she promptly invited me to her restaurant for dinner that night.

How naïve I was, the establishment was the exact opposite of the traditional family business I had imagined. Kowloon, named after the peninsula across the harbor from Hong Kong Island, is the largest Chinese restaurant in New England; on a busy night, the restaurant caters to over 1,200 customers. Madeline's father founded the business in 1950, a sizable restaurant at the time, which she helped grew to its maturity today. It wasn't just its size that was unconventional, its resemblance to an American bar/lounge was also quite striking: Keno games and large screen TVs at the lounge, the themed dinning rooms with extravagant interiors have names like Volcano Bay, Tiki Lagoon, Luau Room, and standup comedy at night. It almost seems like a casino who adopted Chinatown as its theme; in that respect, it is quite authentic.

I had experienced this sort of manipulation of Asian cultural stereotypes before, but never by a Chinese family. My distraught peaked when the tour led to the oversized function room, at which a standup comedy act was performing. The comedian cracked a mild racist joke, and the crowd roared. My appall was not towards the comedian or the crowd, but towards Madeline's stoic ignorance to what takes place in her establishment.

Such different attitudes towards patriotism between the first and second generation immigrants lend some insight into the effects of being raised away from home.