From Teaching to City Council: A Conversation with an Asian City Councilman | Dear Asian Community

Before reading, check out the video interview here!

Michael Kan is a first-generation Taiwanese American who was born in Connecticut and grew up on Long Island New York. He went to Ohio State for undergrad and has lived in the Cleveland area for the last seven years. He has served on Solon City Council for the last two years.

What inspired Mike to become a councilman?

Public service has always been a passion of his. Almost all of his jobs as an adult have been in the public sector; he’s currently a public defender for Cuyahoga County and he was a prosecutor in two jurisdictions before that. Before he went to law school he was a public school teacher, so a sense of service has always been in Mike, and deciding to run for city council was the next step in how he thought he could serve his community. Mike has been in Solon for over five years now and he’s had a lot of positive things to offer the community he feels proud about the work that I've been able to do so far while on Council.

How have your immigrant backgrounds influences your values or aspirations?

My background is similar to Mike’s; I'm the youngest of two daughters um of immigrant parents who are both from Taiwan and I moved to Solon when I was one year old, around 2008. I've grown up here my whole life. I think it's great that there's an Asian community and it's easy to find a network of people that I can identify with. Mike, growing up, didn't have too much of a strong sense of his heritage mainly because his parents are pretty Americanized. They both came here when they were younger so they spoke English in the household and he didn't do a lot of things that children who were born of immigrants traditionally would since, as he says, there are a lot of cultural things that parents have their children participate in that help imbue them with a sense of cultural awareness of their background. For him, it was in college that he began to explore his heritage a little bit more, like an evolving identity. The more he learns about Asian-American History and Asian-American culture, the more that Asian-American culture has come into the mainstream of American society, where we're seeing more Asian-American actors we're seeing more Asian-American athletes and participants in the public eye, the more he can understand and connect with his heritage.

How do you navigate and celebrate your cultural heritage and still fulfill your responsibilities?

I agreed with him on what he was saying about sports, as I'm on the volleyball team. Sometimes I’ve felt that it's difficult to connect with other people who may be my age from different racial backgrounds. Mike explained that there were a couple of things that may help with that. One, it’s helpful to be “mutually enriched,” meaning having other friends from diverse backgrounds and learning more about their culture culture. In turn, ideally, they would ask you about your culture too. This can also affect you; when you hear about other people's backgrounds and cultures, it encourages you to explore your own. He further expounded on this idea, saying that, for a long time, Asians as a minority group might have certain stereotypes tied to them. Most Asian Americans are familiar with the stereotypes that are attached to us, and it helps us to be enriched; it helps for our culture to be enriched by talking to other people of diverse backgrounds so, in that respect, hopefully, there's a mutual exchange of cultures and ideas.

How have you maintained resilience in achieving your goals?

Anytime someone suffers a disappointment, there's always questioning about whether I can make it, whether I'm in the right field, whether or not this is the right path to be pursuing, and sometimes your circumstances are telling you something to go one way, but Mike thinks setting small goals along the way and making benchmarks helps to get a sense of, rather than thinking of trying to climb this big mountain all at once, you have base camps or points along the way that you're trying to reach. Each stage is going to be a challenge, but ultimately if you're passionate about something and if it's something that you think is practical (in other words, as many Asian families think, is it going to make you money). Balancing that practicality with your passion are the things that need to be resolved in you…

Listen to the rest at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUSeAJAExAc&t=4s