Daisy Ma 馬劉愛瓊

Daisy Ma: When I first got into CCBA compared to now? Not much has changed. Their meetings are held in Chinese. It is held in Cantonese. And once in a while some little English here and there, but majority, I say 99% is in Chinese. So it’s a loss for the American-born if they want to get more involved with CCBA because they can’t understand. So what I have done since I’ve been there is when I first became the secretary, there was not another ABC [American born Chinese] that spoke mainly English. …So, as we progress, more of the younger—the associations were sending more of the younger members to go out to CCBA. So I started to help translate and I would get a little group together, maybe I’ll have coffee with them, I’ll have dim sum, lunch, dinner, whatever. And I started to explain to them what CCBA is about. If you don’t understand anything, you can always call me. So I just started a little ABC group within CCBA, and to this day, I still have that group because there’s more younger ones now. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:12:45]

Daisy Ma: There were associations back then and still now, some that I’m aware of, all men in the leadership team. The women are in the kitchen and they’re good at cooking and they’ll serve tea. Nowadays, it’s a little improvement. And by improvement, I mean every association now has a women’s auxiliary group. So it’s a women’s, little women’s club within the organization. And they have their own chairperson.  But they also still are the main people that handle guests, let’s say during Chinese New Year. There’s out-of-towners that come. The women are the ones that make sure everybody gets fed. They get taken care of when they are enjoying their mahjong game or just sitting there talking. Just make sure their teacup is full, you know, all the time. That’s the women’s auxiliary club. And besides each association having one, CCBA has New Life [The Chinese Women’s New Life Movement Club], a women’s auxiliary. And so that’s what they do also for CCBA.

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:20:35]

Daisy Ma: My function as the English secretary is, when—if there’s any communications in writing or oral, emails, whatever, to this state. And they would ask me to help read it or translate it. And then now as we get more involved with the mainstream, we would have, sometimes, guest speakers come to CCBA—elected officials. And then I would help translate what they would say, even though a lot of the CCBA members nowadays understand English. But they would—they still want that because that’s my role. And when they have their functions, I’m the one to help to invite any VIP’s or elected officials to our events. And we invite them a lot. And some of the elected officials that are interested to learn more about CCBA somehow hear from other people that, yeah, you can always call Daisy Ma. And so, I’m kind of like a little name brand now, which I’m proud and flattered that people would recognize me for that.

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:26:56]

Daisy Ma: When Derek was president, he tried to be more involved with the mainstream. And I think during his tenure there were the riots, Rodney King riots. It was during that time. And they—a lot of the buildings were burned in that area and many of the owners, the landlords, were Chinese. And so some of them didn’t have insurance. And those that did have insurance had a hard time getting anything across to their insurance carriers. So what Derek did at that time, he partnered with, at that time, LA City Councilman Mike Woo. Derek partnered with him and brought the Small Business Association, FEMA, the LA City Planning Department, Small Business Department, and then all the essential agencies that was needed to help—brought them to CCBA and they advertised in the papers and a line came that whole day just to help, to assist the people, the landlords. And then it got word to the other communities. And we even had the Korean landlords came to CCBA that day for help, I recall. A huge mass, and we were able to help a lot of people. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:32:45]

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Daisy Ma: COVID-19—CCBA was very helpful in that. They were able to gather masks, hand sanitizers, and then they would unload them and, you know, to the—especially to the senior facilities, they would do that. And then, especially Cathay Manor, Grand Plaza, they would—out of their own pocket, everybody on the board or members of CCBA would donate money or buy food. And some of the elders, they can’t—they don’t come out to shop. And so we would give them bento boxes. And then, they would—they partner with Chinatown Service Center, at that time when the vaccinations came out. They would partner with them, and CSC, Chinatown Service Center, would—did a huge operation to give the vaccines, and they would go to Cathay Manor, with CCBA folks, and they’ll go to Grand Plaza, and just gave vaccinations to the seniors—especially to the seniors. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:35:29]

Daisy Ma: So, when I was English secretary, I remember CCBA was already reaching out to the local elected officials. So I was able to help them connect, and we would invite them to come to CCBA and speak to the membership on the services that they can help.

We feel if they are a viable representative that is willing to help our community, they—that’s when we support them…And when I say support, is we even have members that are able to go [and] help on their campaign phone banking, walking, knocking on doors, you know, and translating materials for them. That’s how—and it’s all pro bono. So that’s how we support them. It’s not only because they’re Chinese American. So anyone who can help the community—help us—we’re willing to support them. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:27:23]

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Daisy Ma: I say within the last ten years, CCBA has also become more involved with LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] because of what’s been going on in Chinatown. So lately we’ve had press conferences with the LAPD at CCBA….So we’re more in sync now, I say, with law enforcement. And CCBA, I know it’s mainly Chinatown, but, you know, most—a lot of the members live in San Gabriel Valley, so we’re also involved with the sheriffs down that way to help out with the communities there. And we also get involved with the local San Gabriel Valley local elected officials. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:41:38]

Daisy Ma: CCBA has three committees. So one is the Chinese Confucius Temple School Committee. One is the Cemetery Committee, and the other one is the Welfare Committee. So the Chinese Confucius School is—it started out—it started because CCBA is—CCBA’s ideology is based on Dr. Sun Yat-sen. And so that’s when they decided to have the Chinese Confucius School and to make sure that, at that time, the younger generation—hopefully the parents will have their kids go to the Chinese school to, first of all, learn the language, to speak Cantonese—it’s Cantonese at that time—and to know history and to learn also about the ideology of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. And so that’s how it started….And today it’s still there, it’s still surviving, just had a huge fundraiser—every year we run a fundraiser for the school. It’s been a little challenging, especially during COVID. I was told that it was kind of shut down for two years or so, but it’s starting to pick up again. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:49:27]

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Daisy Ma: The cemeteries, what I know is back then it was created because the Chinese were not allowed to be buried in any of the American cemeteries. So CCBA back then said—a couple of the leadership team got together and donated money and bought land, which is on Third Street. And it became the cemetery. And so at that time, the plots were sold to only CCBA membership. And the committee would buy the plots and at the cost at that time. But when the members would purchase it [sic, later], we give them a discount and it’s just to help those out that were not able. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 00:55:28]

Daisy Ma: I do have hope and I do see that it will become more Americanized. And I mean, for the last maybe 10-20 years it’s more of social gatherings. You know, social groups, they—when they do events, you know, they bring the young ones to the banquets, to the dinners. They do involve, you know, but they can’t come out to volunteer yet because they’re busy working. But I do see the ones that are maybe now in their 50’s, are—there are some that I see in the family associations that are coming out to help out. And they speak English. And I can see the road where it’s going to be start turning into English when—so it starts in a family associations first, right? And then it’ll evolve into the CCBA. I can foresee that in CCBA. I don’t know how soon, how long it’ll take, but it’s in, it’s in there. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 01:23:39]

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Daisy Ma: I feel that for me to be involved so long is a passion. It’s a lot of work and it’s a lot of times [it] is very frustrating because you try to change the old guard into ways of thinking. But if the person—and I see a lot of people have the passion to help out Chinatown and the Chinese community, no matter where you reside. I mean, most of us don’t live in Chinatown, but we come back. I’m here almost every weekend to be at Lung Kong. Or they help out at somewhere else that they would ask me to help. It’s just, it’s just a passion to keep what you have, I think it’s—we can’t let the tradition go. We’ve gotta keep it. 

Timestamp: [Recording 2, 01:24:45]