Stopping by: From the heart

Written by Starla Pointer of the News-Register. Originally published January 31, 2025. Reprinted with permission. 

Yu-Shan Chen is looking forward to Sunday’s Lunar New Year Celebration, both because she is a member of the sponsoring Asian Heritage Association and because she is eager to share her Taiwanese heritage with the community.

Asian food, art and demonstrations will be featured at the event, which will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, in the McMinnville Community Center.

Wearing a dress in the style of her homeland, Chen will help with children’s activities, checking in the vendors and greeting the crowd at the third annual event. She volunteered last year, as well, and was pleased to see so much interest.

“I helped at the welcome desk and saw so many people come together,” said Chen, who works in the president’s office at Linfield University and has a background in marketing and event planning.

In addition to sharing her culture, she wants to make sure other people realize they, too, can talk proudly about their heritage. “I want to empower them to speak up,” she said.

Chen grew up in Taiwan with her parents, five sisters and one brother. Her siblings and other members of her extended family still live near her family home, “within five minutes,” she said.

She misses the big family gatherings, but is glad she’s able to get together with relatives when she visits once a year. During her most recent trip, she said, she realized “how I truly embrace that.”

With everyone talking to everyone else, she said, the dinner table conversation is raucous. “But it’s heartfelt,” she said. “Everyone is really excited to see everyone else. It’s really great.”

Wanting a change in her life, she left Taiwan when she was 19. She moved to the U.S. to live with her aunt, who ran a Taiwanese restaurant in New Jersey.

“It was a very risky decision,” said Chen, who calls herself “very impulsive.”

“But one or two years later, I realized it was the best decision.”

At the time, two decades ago, immigration laws allowed people to enter the country on a green card if they were sponsored by a family member. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2010.

She worked in her aunt’s business while getting used to her new country. She also enrolled in Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, where she earned a degree in sports, entertainment and event management.

“I loved sports, but wasn’t sure what to do,” said Chen, who grew up participating in taekwondo, track and basketball.

After graduating, she decided she wanted to work for a sports team in Colorado. Without yet being hired, she moved to the new state. “Another impulsive decision,” she said.

She soon found an unpaid internship with the Denver Nuggets family of teams. She also worked for pay in a restaurant. It was a struggle for the new citizen to make ends meet, but she loved it.

“Denver opened my mind to how grand the U.S. is,” she said, still wondering at the vastness of the Midwest.

From there, she became a “ski bum” in Vail, Colorado. “I loved snowboarding,” she explained.

Next, she joined the hospitality business. It was a natural fit for someone who grew up in Taiwan, she said; Taiwanese people are welcoming and “do things from the heart.”

She spent nine years with the Four Seasons group, starting as a hostess and working her way up to general manager of multiple restaurants. The job took her to Hawaii, then to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She became used to working long, long hours with a great deal of responsibility.

Then COVID put a severe dent in the hospitality business. She took time off to work on her own mental health, she said, and that led her into studying wellness.

Chen said she realized that anxiety is treated with antidepressants. She wanted to find a better way that addressed not just the symptoms, but the root causes of feeling bad, such as low self-esteem and lack of self-knowledge.

“Boosting self-esteem can lead to a healthier life,” she realized.

Over the years, Chen said, she has learned to understand herself and be more confident.

She has a book coming out on that subject this spring or early summer. It will be available on Amazon, which also carries her earlier book, a guided journal about self-care routines and affirmations.

She also has led etiquette classes at Linfield, designed to prepare future graduates for the formal interactions they will face in the world of work.

Chen came to Oregon after a friend told her about an opening at the Allison Inn. She became front manager for the Newberg business.

She also did weight loss and wellness coaching — she is a certified personal trainer.

Then she joined The Ground and was the opening general manager for Humble Spirit restaurant in McMinnville. After meeting then-Linfield President Miles Davis there, she applied for a job at Linfield.

She expected to become an academic adviser, but was hired in January 2023 in the president’s office instead. The job gives her a chance to serve students and the community, she said.

“I have truly found my purpose,” she said.

She said she loves Linfield and McMinnville. She had made many friends over the years in her travels, but here she feels a real sense of community. “I call this place home,” she said. “This place feels comfortable and safe for me. My friends are really there for me.”

In an effort to engage more with the community, she has been taking part in activities, such as pickup basketball at Linfield and running around town with her dog, Jupiter, a Japanese breed called Shiba Inu.

In addition to becoming involved with the Asian Heritage Association and Lunar New Year Celebration, she took part in the Leadership McMinnville training with the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce and joined the city’s DEI Advisory Committee. She said she is pleased that “more and more variety of voices are being heard.”

Chen said she was naive when she came to the U.S. When her aunt warned her that she might encounter racism, she was skeptical. “If I don’t discriminate, others shouldn’t either,” she thought.

She since has learned that sometimes other people do. “It’s not all pretty,” she said.

But she’s also realized that she can play a role in reducing discrimination by educating people about her culture. “Now I’m even more glad I’m here. I can make a difference,” she said.

Chen said she isn’t bothered when people ask her questions about where she’s originally from. “They are trying to get to know me,” she said.

Sometimes she has to correct their perceptions. They may think she’s from a different Asian country, she said, or they may confuse Taiwan and Thailand.

“I’m Taiwanese, but I love Thai food,” she tells them.

She loves Taiwanese food, too; many of its traditional dishes are similar to those from China.. One of the most popular dishes has the unfortunate name “Stinky Tofu,” she said.

For her, the fermented dish “smells like home”; it may be odorous, but it tastes really good, she said.

For authentic Taiwanese food, she recommends a restaurant called Tasty Pot in Beaverton. It serves the hot pots — flavorful soup with meats, tofu and vegetables — that are common in Taiwan, along with other dishes.

In addition to taking part in McMinnville’s Lunar New Year Celebration, Chen also makes a tradition of hosting her own event for friends.

She makes dumplings and serves noodles, which represent long life.

“To bring people together,” she said. “I host because I miss home.”