100 years ago my grandfather emigrated from China. He never could have imagined a Mayor Wu
George Yee Soon Woo, the author's grandfather, in 1956 or 1957. (Courtesy Margaret Woo) When Michelle Wu was elected as the first Asian American wo...
George Yee Soon Woo, the author's grandfather, in 1956 or 1957. (Courtesy Margaret Woo) When Michelle Wu was elected as the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council in 2013, my family was thrilled. When she was elected mayor of Boston in 2021, we were ecstatic. To us, she represented the promise of rising Asian American political power. A promise that began — for our family anyway — with my grandfather. He was one of Boston's early Asian American sojourners whose political acumen would have earned him an elected office if America had been ready for him — if he had been born a few decades later.