Obituaries

Annie Sun Fong Chang (nee Chiang) was born in Shanghai, China on 20 October 1929 to a large, wealthy real estate family. She lived in Shanghai through the Japanese occupation and the Communist takeover before escaping to Hong Kong and eventually arriving in Seattle, Washington in 1952 to live with her brother and attend Seattle University. There, she met her husband, Kuo-Liu Chang. The couple eventually settled in California. Ann was a loving, caring, energetic, and wise wife, mother, chef, preschool teacher, and real estate investor. Kuo Liu passed away in 2016. Ann is survived by her daughters, Ada and Tina, Ada’s husband, Randy, and their daughters, Jaclyn and Erika.

Her Life Story
Childhood in Shanghai
Annie Sun Fong Chiang was born in Shanghai, China on 20 October 1929, year of the snake. The youngest of thirteen siblings, seven of whom survived to adulthood, Sun Fong was the only child born in the villa at 796 Huai Hai Lu. Sun Fong cherished tender memories of her childhood home. She proudly and delightedly shared these memories with her extended family when they toured the meticulously renovated villa in 2012.

Sun Fong lived a carefree childhood in a multigenerational household. Her favorite pastime was raising crickets and watching them fight. She played tennis and basketball on the property. She adored her ducks and chickens and was crushed to learn, after finishing dinner one evening, that the duck on the table had been her pet. Sun Fong had a special affection for birds of all kinds.

She loved American movies, actors like John Payne and Clark Gable, and would watch the movies at the Cathay Theater wearing translation headphones. Gone with the Wind was one of her favorites. She loved ice cream, soft baguettes with peanuts sandwiched inside, and Russian soup (literal translation) from the White Russian restaurant DD’s just down posh Joffrey Lu (as Huai Hai Lu was called during Shanghai’s heyday) from her home.

Her strict father loved to have Sun Fong touch his feet, which she did not enjoy, and her gentle mother loved to sleep next to Sun Fong, while her young daughter made hong sau eggs in the bedroom. Her mother would order tailor-made outfits for Sun Fong, and they would often be in pink, her favorite color.

Sun Fong was an entrepreneur from the start and would purchase cold drinks to sell to her elder brothers for a profit. Her father would take her to see his investment property located close to where Pudong is today. Sun Fong didn’t like going to these poor and dirty districts, yet this early exposure to real estate investments had a lasting influence upon her.

Self-described as not studious, she preferred to make her classmates laugh by imitating her teachers when they’d stepped out of the room. When she was schooled at home, she would move the clocks forward to be dismissed early from classes, much to the displeasure of her father.

Her life in the 1940’s had a profound impact on Sun Fong’s character. Japan’s Shanghai occupation early in the decade required her to take classes in Japanese. Sun Fong’s talents in mimicry proved useful in learning Japanese, and she remembered some vocabulary her entire life.

She loved the dance parties her family hosted with American servicemen, handsome in their uniforms, where she could jitterbug. One of the American servicemen, Raymond, courted her and proposed. A union, however, was unthinkable. He was the first of many suitors charmed by Sun Fong. Sun Fong’s family celebrated the end of WWII with a grand ball in their villa. This is the earliest existing photograph of Sun Fong.

When the Communists came to power at the end of the decade, her 5’7.5” frame proved useful. Standing out in height, Sun Fong was selected to carry the flag in the parades. She deliberately worked at being a model comrade. At home, she was physically sickened by the Communist rule and knew she couldn’t live under their regime. Having earned their trust, she was permitted to leave the country to attend her sister’s wedding in Hong Kong. She bid tearful goodbyes to her parents at age 21 and never saw them again. She crossed the border into Hong Kong to the strains of “Three Coins in a Fountain.’’ Sun Fong would often sing the song around the house when she was in the United States and was excited to eventually see the Trevi fountain on a visit to Rome.

Sun Fong spent about a year in Hong Kong waiting for issuance of documents to allow entry into the U.S. She adopted the English name Annie and grew to prefer Ann when she later learned “Annie” was what servicemen used to call bar maids because it sounds like “ai ni,” meaning “love you” in Chinese.

Ann’s serious father, who exposed her to his real-estate investments, and her tender mother, who personified love, ingrained in Ann a business sense and a loving heart. Living under the Japanese occupation and Communist regime, she developed survivor instincts. This determination carried her through whatever she wanted to achieve. The combination was the bedrock of her nature.

Student in Seattle
Ann finally arrived in Seattle in 1952 where her elder brother, C.Y., lived. She attended Seattle University, studying psychology and intending to be a teacher. She didn’t know English very well and was deeply grateful to her American classmates who helped translate her studies. Ann was anxious to find American clothes as she felt self-conscious entering a class room, eyes pivoting toward her, with her slender 125-pound form in a qi pao.

She moved from C.Y.’s to rent a room in Bea’s home where she was first exposed to typical American life. Ann appreciated the formal meal settings. She tasted cottage cheese for the first time and developed her distaste for that, yogurt, cream cheese, and sour cream. She politely learned to swallow water melon pulp, which she was accustomed to spitting out in China.

Ann was a prime candidate for blind date introductions to all the Chinese students in town. She was introduced to Kuo Liu Chang on three occasions, and they married after nine months in an intimate ceremony catered by family.

Wife, Mother, and Real Estate Investor in California
Ada was born in Seattle in 1955 and 23 months later, Bertina was born in San Francisco in 1957 where Kuo Liu and Ann had moved for his job. Ann was a devoted and loving mother, once using up more than half of the bank account to pay for baby portraits. Priorities.

Ann and Kuo Liu moved to southern California in 1959. They bought their first home in 1960 in Whittier. They sent Ada and Tina to a private Christian school, even though they could scarcely afford the tuition, because they knew the school would provide a better education. Ann learned to drive in Whittier. At Ann’s urging, the family moved to Huntington Beach in 1966.

Ann managed the home while her husband provided a steady income as a mechanical engineer. She trimmed the plants, paste-waxed the floors late at night, drove her daughters to appointments, made breakfasts and lunches, and cooked three-course Western or Chinese family dinners every night. Ann took English classes to improve her language skills. She had difficulty saying “thousand;” it came out as “southand.” In the days when the only three salad dressing options were thousand island, French and bleu cheese, she liked thousand island. So how should she respond when the waiter asked what dressing she wanted? Her solution? Order, “French.”

Anticipating college tuition expenses as her daughters entered high school in the early 1970’s, Ann was determined to find a job, although she’d never been employed. She managed to find a part time job at a fabric store, familiar to her because she and her daughters used to make most of their own clothes. Later, she started working at a preschool and eventually became a preschool teacher. She loved children, and they loved Miss Ann, too.

In the late 1970’s she entered into a partnership with friends to purchase an apartment complex. This launched the real estate career in which she thrived. She purchased homes and managed the tenants and repairs. Ann even served as her own lawyer in a civil suit, which the judge ruled in her favor. So committed was she to a real estate deal, she braved the 40-mile drive to Los Angeles from Huntington Beach to sign documents and close the deal, staying on surface streets in order to avoid freeways which she dreaded.

Ann had financial intuition. She could guess the amount of her husband’s net paycheck, including overtime, accurately. She wanted her two daughters to pay lower taxes when they started their professional careers so she arranged for them to be limited partners in her Lamplighter apartment complex to benefit from K-1 tax deductions. She generously offered her expertise to her beloved niece in Hong Kong to purchase, manage for at least a decade, and sell a rental home so that her niece could also prosper from the booming California housing market.

Ann was renowned for recreating from memory the Shanghai dishes her cooks prepared for her family to enjoy when she was child. While Kuo Liu set up the dining, mahjong and poker tables for 24 of their friends, she prepared 12 dishes and xiao yeh (midnight snack), with Ada and Tina
as sous chefs to peel shrimp and wash dishes. Ann would serve the meal course-by-course. The Saturday evenings could end at 2am with midnight snack. The couple enjoyed socializing weekly, including couples from the Seattle days.

“Retirement”
After Kuo Liu retired, Ann continued her real estate career, although life was more relaxed. Her real estate profits enabled the couple to cruise to every continent in the world, at least once. He planned the excursions and she enjoyed the luxury and seeing animals, especially, of course, the birds. She acquired jewelry, both to wear and share with her daughters and granddaughters. Karaoke featured in her life. Ann sang while Kuo Liu sat at the counter nearby listening and reading the mail.

Ann and Kuo Liu moved to a senior independent living residence in Union City in April, 2015 to be closer to their daughters. Sadly, Kuo Liu passed in March, 2016. Now on her own, Ann made friends and played mahjong after dinner. She enthusiastically responded to volunteer with City Team Ministries in San Jose to chop vegetables and crack eggs in their kitchen to feed the hungry or to distribute socks and hats to the unhoused. She packed food for the Silicon Valley MobilePack (Feed My Starving Children) and competitively manned her bag sealing or labeling stations to be the fastest.

Ann adjusted well to life in Union City, although her outgoing self was rarely fully on display. She enjoyed family gatherings and seeing her dear granddaughters, always generously giving them a red-enveloped check to express her delight in spending time with them. When Ada and Tina both visited for a meal or to put away Christmas decorations, nothing brought her greater joy and contentment.

She always spoke of her deep attachment to her homes in Shanghai and Huntington Beach. Although she appreciated the comfort of her apartment in Union City, during her last few days, she said that she could not call it “home.” She said, “I don’t know what to call it.” For Ann, “home” was filled with her family whom she cradled in her heart and who loved her profoundly.