I would like to take a moment to add a few things to BKs description of his childhood. Perhaps it will give a better understanding of how far he has come and how closely he relates to poor people. I've known him for more than 8 years and I can tell you that he is without a question one of the least "elitist" people I have ever met. Here is his story.
His father was Chinese (Shanghainese) and living in Hong Kong and had had 7 sons.. with 5 wives (they kept dying in childbirth) and was wishing so hard for a girl that he gave BK a girls name. His father was born in 1895. He was 67 when BK was born. BKs mother was Japanese, but she abandoned him at birth at the hospital. He was raised in poverty by an old but educated Chinese man. And by poverty I mean being able to eat food with meat in it 3 or 4 times a year. At the time that his father passed away BK was sent to the US to live with his Japanese mother who had married had other children and told him at the age of 9 "I dont love you, I didn't want you and you should have never come here" at the age of 9 he ran away. He lived under a bridge between eagle rock and pasadena for a few weeks, stealing food and going to school trying to pretend everything was ok. Except he didn't really speak the language and god knows at age 9 he wasn't prepared for homelessness.
His fathers 4th wife heard about him and went searching for him, she found him, and raised him and that is who he considers to be his mother. All of them worked in a sweatshop in downtown LA making clothes for companies they couldn't afford to by clothes from.
He went to Belmont High School where he was as likely to have graduated with a 4 year prison sentence than a college prep education. He joined a gang to survive. It doesnt justify his choice but it was that or get beat up and shoved into a car trunk on a regular basis.
Fast forward to him graduating High School. He was accepted to Stanford but he didn't understand how expensive it was and so a few days after graduating high school he drove his crappy car there, and registered for summer school. In one summer he spent all the money he had saved for his education, so with no knowledge of scholarships or student loans he drove back to So Cal and started over.
To be clear, his new mother had stopped her education at the time that Japan invaded China and wandered at the age of 10, a long the silk road for years. She learned to make medicine for sick people, and thats how she earned money and traded for food. Most of her family was executed, and to this day she has a very difficult time discussing what she went through and saw then. That means her education was finished at the 6th grade. But she is bright and curious and god knows she loves her family.
All but 1 of BKs brothers were either murdered during the cultural revolution or died early unhappy deaths. His 1 remaining blood relative is older than his mother who is 86 this year.
BK cleaned toilets and worked as a janitor at the Harvey Mudd colleges, did a physics degree and lived mostly in his car. He then did an architecture degree at Cal Poly Pomona.
There has never been a time when he hasn't had to work and before anyone calls him elitist you should be well aware that he comes from poverty that most people in the US, much less OC can understand. OC is the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.. call him whatever you like but trust me when I tell you, your comments are inappropriate. He's a good person, with less anger or bitterness than anyone I have ever met.
I think its important to understand what he holds dear, and no our life isnt for everyone, but so far, his life has been one that is well lived and one that is lived with honestly, integrity and kindness.
Im not really sure that most people can say that.
