Speaker 1: There is no mandatory retirement age in America, so at
Speaker 1: a time when people are expected to slow down, some
Speaker 1: find that older age can become an opportunity to start
Speaker 1: over in a completely new career and even a new life.
Speaker 1: Ying Chang Song did just that when he landed in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles almost ten years ago. Nah yeah yo yer
Speaker 1: ah yo. I left China because there were some things
Speaker 1: I wanted to do in my life and didn't want
Speaker 1: to admit I was too old for that. It turns
Speaker 1: out he wasn't too old, but starting over in a
Speaker 1: foreign place and in a new culture without speaking the
Speaker 1: language or knowing a single person, turned out to be
Speaker 1: more liberating than he'd ever imagined. On this edition of
Speaker 1: On the Job, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals,
Speaker 1: we've got the story of a man who gave up
Speaker 1: a conventional life in China and found his artistic calling
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Later in life, we'll have that story
Speaker 1: in a moment. Beyond the Job podcast celebrates the journey
Speaker 1: of hard working men and women as they work toward
Speaker 1: making their dreams a reality. In season two of this
Speaker 1: podcast from Express Employment Professionals, we share the ups and downs,
Speaker 1: triumphs and challenges and the oftentimes winding roads that lead
Speaker 1: to satisfaction. In our work, we learn how people earn
Speaker 1: a living and watch them define who they are in
Speaker 1: their communities and beyond our long term goal to put
Speaker 1: a million people to work. Are you ready for a
Speaker 1: new job. Did you take your job search online only
Speaker 1: to spend hour after hours searching and applying, but rarely
Speaker 1: connecting with anyone. It's time to find your next job
Speaker 1: with the help of Express Employment professionals. Let Express be
Speaker 1: your connection to local jobs. Find the look Pitian nearest
Speaker 1: you at Express pros dot com. With Express, you'll benefit
Speaker 1: from thirty five years of experience and putting people to work,
Speaker 1: and job seekers are never charged defeat. More than half
Speaker 1: a million people already find jobs with Express each year.
Speaker 1: Contact your local Express office, go in and interview, and
Speaker 1: let the people at Express connect you with available jobs
Speaker 1: in your area. Don't go alone any longer in your
Speaker 1: job search. Find your local Express Employment professional's office by
Speaker 1: visiting Express pros dot com. Now and here's Independent producer
Speaker 1: Rooksandra Guidi with the story of Ying Chang Song. I
Speaker 1: first met Mr Song last spring on a warm Saturday
Speaker 1: morning in Chinatown near downtown Los Angeles. He sat in
Speaker 1: a plastic stool at the intersection of Broadway in College Street,
Speaker 1: where tons of tourists crossback and forth each day as
Speaker 1: they visit at shops and restaurants. Standing at barely five
Speaker 1: feet tall, Mr Song wore a panama hat in a
Speaker 1: red silk jacket, the kind with the mau collar in
Speaker 1: the dragon designs all over. In his left hand, he
Speaker 1: held a bow and in his right a traditional Chinese
Speaker 1: instrument with a long wooden handle and a small, round
Speaker 1: body the size of a grapefruit. That's his art who
Speaker 1: Our interpreter, Chi Shang, approached him while he played in
Speaker 1: earnest and within minutes the two of them realized they
Speaker 1: were from the same city in northern China, so they
Speaker 1: hit it off immediately. Not only did they both speak Mandarin,
Speaker 1: which made them a minority here in Chinatown, where Cantonese
Speaker 1: is more prevalent, but they knew the same folk songs.
Speaker 1: He was visibly thrilled to have met someone who could
Speaker 1: sing along with him. She's more than half his age.
Speaker 1: He's sixty eight a song from a popular folk song
Speaker 1: from a TV show. It turns out Mr Song has
Speaker 1: been playing the arho on the street for money at
Speaker 1: this corner for almost five years. It doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: much money I owned. I'm just happy coming here to play.
Speaker 1: He can make as much as two hundred dollars on
Speaker 1: a weekend, he says, but still he considers this a hobby.
Speaker 1: He first started playing the instrument when he was a
Speaker 1: teenager more than fifty years ago, and kept practicing at
Speaker 1: home whenever he got a chance. Playing music is really
Speaker 1: my passion, and I have a lot of time to
Speaker 1: devote to that now. There isn't much else I want
Speaker 1: in life other than play music. But I do have
Speaker 1: this wild dream of going all over the US. It
Speaker 1: would be going on tour solo, just he and his
Speaker 1: er who playing street corners all over the United States.
Speaker 1: He would get to visit new places while introducing the
Speaker 1: Chinese two string fiddle to people who have probably never
Speaker 1: heard the sound before. You could think of Mr Song
Speaker 1: as a cultural ambassador on the road without a worry
Speaker 1: in the world. This is his very own version of
Speaker 1: the American dream. We spent about an hour chatting on
Speaker 1: the corner of Broadway in college, but on that first visit,
Speaker 1: Mr Song didn't tell us much about his life before
Speaker 1: they are who and how it is that he had
Speaker 1: ended up in l A. So we made plans to
Speaker 1: catch him another time. On a weekday morning, we met
Speaker 1: up at his local library. That's where he often goes
Speaker 1: to keep up with the news back home through Chinese newspapers.
Speaker 1: She sat next to him at a table. He looked
Speaker 1: down at her smartphone, eyes wide open. So I was
Speaker 1: just him um online based map where you can seek
Speaker 1: and zoom out and see the entire China and where
Speaker 1: we are, which is what the blue da shows, and
Speaker 1: so we are where we're from as part of Shandong Province,
Speaker 1: and the city is called chin Dao. With his thumb
Speaker 1: and index fingers, Mr Song zoomed in and out of
Speaker 1: an online map for the very first time. He told
Speaker 1: us he had actually been raised in a rural community,
Speaker 1: but in the late nineteen fifties, alongside millions of other Chinese,
Speaker 1: his family resettled in a big city. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: born like somewhere around here, and when he was twenty,
Speaker 1: there was the Great Famine in China, so his family,
Speaker 1: entire family moved to Harden in the north. He went
Speaker 1: to college in ching Dao and became a dentist. Mr
Speaker 1: Song got married and had two sons. He started his
Speaker 1: own dentistry practice and was able to provide his family
Speaker 1: a good, middle class life. By every measure, he was
Speaker 1: a successful man. He had a good career and loved
Speaker 1: spending time with his family. But a decade ago, his
Speaker 1: wife suddenly passed away, and Mr Song struggled to find
Speaker 1: new meaning in his life to figure out what was next.
Speaker 1: He was fifty eight and ready for a big change.
Speaker 1: He struggled as he looked for answers for about a year,
Speaker 1: and then, seemingly on a whim, he decided to leave
Speaker 1: his dentistry practice to his sons, who had followed in
Speaker 1: his path. He packed a single suitcase and got a
Speaker 1: one way flight to America. Before I came, I thought
Speaker 1: the US was a very magical place, almost like Paradise
Speaker 1: in the West. But after coming here, I realized that
Speaker 1: I couldn't really read the road sides, I couldn't talk
Speaker 1: to people, so I felt like I was blind and
Speaker 1: death and felt isolated. When I came to Chinatown, I
Speaker 1: finally felt like I could get accustomed to life here.
Speaker 1: At first, Mr Song thought that even though he didn't
Speaker 1: speak in English, he would go back to doing what
Speaker 1: he knew, fixing people's teeth. He had the idea of
Speaker 1: opening a small clinic in Chinatown, where there weren't very many.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of Chinese speaking people in Chinatown,
Speaker 1: and in most places you can see Chinese. But even
Speaker 1: if he spoke his customers language, there was another big
Speaker 1: challenge up ahead getting certified to practice here. That recertification
Speaker 1: process was lengthy and expensive, and he needed to get
Speaker 1: to work right away to support himself. Before long, he
Speaker 1: gave up on that idea of trying to become a
Speaker 1: dentist in the US. That's when it occurred to him,
Speaker 1: why not play the arho for money. I've been playing
Speaker 1: several instruments since I was a teenager, like the flute
Speaker 1: and also the r Who. But the flute was really
Speaker 1: loud and several neighbors complained, so I primarily played the
Speaker 1: r Who. And when I started hearing complaints from the
Speaker 1: neighbors were playing the r who too. That's when I
Speaker 1: decided I'm playing it on the streets. He'd seen other
Speaker 1: street performers around downtown l A collecting change in their
Speaker 1: instrument cases, so he gave it a try. One day
Speaker 1: on a corner just a few blocks from his Chinatown
Speaker 1: one bedroom apartment. It worked at first. He headed out
Speaker 1: to play the are who almost every day. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: meet younger people who appreciate my music on the street
Speaker 1: and we have a good time together and they start dauncing.
Speaker 1: I don't really know how to play Western music. I
Speaker 1: just know Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday. A lot of
Speaker 1: the tourists would request that play Happy Birthday to someone
Speaker 1: for some change. But he had good days and bad days,
Speaker 1: and living in Los Angeles isn't cheap. His share of
Speaker 1: the rent is about a four dollars a month, so
Speaker 1: he had to figure out a new hustle on top
Speaker 1: of a street performance if he wanted to stay in
Speaker 1: the US. We're listening to independent producer Roxandra Guidi bringing
Speaker 1: us the story of Ying Chang Song, a Chinese dentist
Speaker 1: who has found another calling here in the United States.
Speaker 1: We'll continue with his story in a moment. First, a
Speaker 1: word from Express Employment Professionals. One company is on a
Speaker 1: mission to put a million people to work each year.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a big number, doesn't it not To Express
Speaker 1: Employment Professionals, seeking a skilled labor position or administrative order
Speaker 1: and maybe you're an executive looking for a career that fits.
Speaker 1: We take pride in connecting the right people with the
Speaker 1: right company. Express Employment Professionals is on a mission to
Speaker 1: put a million people to work each year. Let us help.
Speaker 1: We'll open doors for you to go to express pros
Speaker 1: dot com to find a location near you. I'm Steve Mencher,
Speaker 1: your host for on the job Now back to our store.
Speaker 1: Early on a weekday morning, we met Mr Song outside
Speaker 1: an old, nondescript gray building in downtown Los Angeles. He's
Speaker 1: come on his bike hauling a small cart behind him,
Speaker 1: something that he's rigged himself with a sharpening wheel, stone
Speaker 1: and some tools. Where you can't w gradual chamber, you
Speaker 1: will truck over your y. I used to work in
Speaker 1: a common factory as a common worker myself, and I
Speaker 1: saw people coming around doing scissors opening, and I thought,
Speaker 1: I know how to shoppen scissors. So I got the
Speaker 1: idea that I can do that myself. I started doing
Speaker 1: it manually, but it was too hot on my hands,
Speaker 1: so I got a machine and I earned more money
Speaker 1: than I did when I worked as a common worker.
Speaker 1: With cart and toe. Mr Song walks into every warehouse
Speaker 1: inside the Gray Building, advertising his services to the garment
Speaker 1: workers there. I sharpened scissors. The workers, most of them
Speaker 1: Spanish speaking, know him already. They get their sisters sharpened
Speaker 1: with him every month, and some of them recognize him
Speaker 1: from his or who playing in Chinatown. He sharpens the
Speaker 1: gartment workers all sisters for a dollar, and also sells
Speaker 1: new sisters for two But I usually don't care about
Speaker 1: what they've dot. I just want to sell all the boxes.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, when he sold
Speaker 1: all the wholesale boxes of sisters he's been hauling, he
Speaker 1: usually ends up with a couple of hundred dollars in profits.
Speaker 1: I like sharping scissors. Let's speak at around and I
Speaker 1: see all the city that way. He takes the elevator
Speaker 1: down to the street level and it matches his sharpening
Speaker 1: cart to the back of his bike. It's almost noon
Speaker 1: and he's head at home, riding through l A's historic
Speaker 1: downtown and towards Chinatown, a good ten mile ride above
Speaker 1: main streets and freeway overpasses. He's in great physical shape
Speaker 1: for a sixty eight year old man, and no small
Speaker 1: part because of his daily bike rides and because he
Speaker 1: keeps busy and engaged when he's now playing the Arhu
Speaker 1: or sharpening sisters or riding his bike. Mr Song is
Speaker 1: back at the library studying for his US citizenship test.
Speaker 1: But because he must speak English in order to take
Speaker 1: the test, he's trying to learn English too, And that's
Speaker 1: perhaps the most daunting part of his new life in America,
Speaker 1: learning a new language. As an older person, it's really
Speaker 1: half of me to memorize anything, so learning a language
Speaker 1: is a real challenge. Most of the people in English
Speaker 1: class are elderly, just like me, but some of them
Speaker 1: have fatten memory than I do. It takes them wants
Speaker 1: to remember things. It takes me five times or ten times,
Speaker 1: so I really have to put in a lot more efforts. Abraham, Abraham.
Speaker 1: On this day, she is sitting next to him in class,
Speaker 1: helping him with his pronunciation. What paras all the George
Speaker 1: Washington is the father of our country, he says under
Speaker 1: his breath, and she corrects him, writing out with the
Speaker 1: sounds of those words in English would look like in
Speaker 1: standard Chinese. Little by little, over the many months I
Speaker 1: spent getting to know Mr. Song, his English skills seemed
Speaker 1: to improve. He was serious about practicing and going to class.
Speaker 1: His main goal at this stage in life was to
Speaker 1: be able to pass his citizenship test and fulfill his
Speaker 1: dream to travel across America on a Greyhound bus with
Speaker 1: his aur who. But the more I looked around at
Speaker 1: other people, even much younger people, the more unique Mr
Speaker 1: Song seemed. He had a drive to succeed in his
Speaker 1: own terms and no qualms about what that took. He
Speaker 1: was endlessly positive and hard working, and even despite the
Speaker 1: challenges of a new life in the US without his
Speaker 1: grown sons, he showed no desire to return to China.
Speaker 1: Is a very rare case, I asked Brandy Orton, at
Speaker 1: gerontologist who works for St. Barnabas Senior serve Is in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, serving a population of immigrant and low income
Speaker 1: seniors like Mr Song. When you become a street performer
Speaker 1: or as someone who sharpens knives, you are your own boss.
Speaker 1: There is no one to discriminate against you, quote unquote
Speaker 1: as an employer, and you determine who you're going to
Speaker 1: do business with and where you're going to go, and
Speaker 1: quite often you build a community around you of people
Speaker 1: who purchase your services. This is true for Mr Song.
Speaker 1: He has very loyal customers, whether they are the garment
Speaker 1: workers who get their sisters sharpened with him, or the
Speaker 1: tourists or locals who walk up to him and give
Speaker 1: him change when they hear him playing his r Who
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. Some of these people have helped him
Speaker 1: find new sources of income, or they have told him
Speaker 1: about the free English classes at the library. They are
Speaker 1: his network of friends and fans, the ones who make
Speaker 1: him want to keep playing his r Who for as
Speaker 1: long as he can. What really matters? What are the
Speaker 1: critical things that make their lives worth living? Dr William
Speaker 1: Vega is looking for an answer that would help explain
Speaker 1: Mr Song's resilience. He's executive director of the University of
Speaker 1: Southern California Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and what
Speaker 1: are the things that impinge upon their ability to achieve
Speaker 1: those things or not? That is the critical message that
Speaker 1: people want to know about, because in the end, it's
Speaker 1: an existential question. I've asked Mr Song those same existential questions,
Speaker 1: and time and time again he's told me the same thing.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want to feel like he's too old for anything,
Speaker 1: not riding his bike or learning a new language, and
Speaker 1: always above all. He loves playing the art Who. A
Speaker 1: few other things in life seem to make him as happy.
Speaker 1: One day last summer, she and I ran into Mr
Speaker 1: Song in Chinatown. Had been a while. She tells Mr
Speaker 1: Song that she's going to China soon to visit her parents,
Speaker 1: and he asks her to bring him a new art
Speaker 1: Who back. She stops to think about it, why do
Speaker 1: you need a new er who? Just the day before,
Speaker 1: he tells her he'd had a good gig playing as
Speaker 1: ur Who, and he imagines he'll get more of those
Speaker 1: in the future. Some TV or film producers approached me
Speaker 1: to play music on their set as part of that movie.
Speaker 1: So I've been to their studio. It paid like fifty
Speaker 1: or sixty dollars. It only took ten or twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: But they put makeup on me and they put me
Speaker 1: in costumes. From the sound of his voice, I could
Speaker 1: tell he loved it. I asked him if he wanted
Speaker 1: to be in the movies, if that was part of
Speaker 1: his dream too. No, not really. He just wants to
Speaker 1: keep playing, he says, keep getting better. He wants to
Speaker 1: prove to himself that he can be a great seventy
Speaker 1: year old or Who play or someday, what do you
Speaker 1: part of being a famous musician or singer would have
Speaker 1: been great, Brett don't think I'm playing quite at that
Speaker 1: level yet. So playing on the street is just the
Speaker 1: way for me to have fun and also a way
Speaker 1: to share Chinese culture. It doesn't matter how much money
Speaker 1: I earned, as long as it brings me joy. And
Speaker 1: with that, Mr Song jumped back on his bike. He
Speaker 1: asked she to think about bringing him back an er
Speaker 1: who he was wearing his Panama hat and his red
Speaker 1: silk jacket. His Urho case was slung across his back,
Speaker 1: and he was on his way to his corner at
Speaker 1: Broadway in College. You've been listening to the second act
Speaker 1: from retired Chinese dentist to l a musician producer Rook.
Speaker 1: Sandra Guidi first met Mr Song while working on a
Speaker 1: story for public radio station k CRW with support from
Speaker 1: the Eisner Foundation. And that's all for this edition of
Speaker 1: On the Job from Express Employment Professionals. Find out more
Speaker 1: at Express prose dot com, and you can listen to
Speaker 1: every podcast this season at Express prose dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 1: This podcast is produced by your host, Steve Mencher from
Speaker 1: Mensch Media. I Heart Radio and Red Seat Ventures. You
Speaker 1: can subscribe on I Heart Radio and iTunes, where we
Speaker 1: hope you will leave a nice review that helps other
Speaker 1: folks find us. And of course you can listen and
Speaker 1: subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time
Speaker 1: on the job.