Opportunities here create small but growing Asian communities

When pastor Young Lim searched in 2006 for a new home for the Salvation Army church that he and his wife lead, Kernersville seemed the ideal spot.

It was right in the middle of the Piedmont Triad and the Triad's growing Korean population — estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau at about 4,000 people in a 2005-2009 survey.

The Kernersville Korean Corps of the Salvation Army has 82 members. While most are Korean, the church has members who are Chinese and of other Asian backgrounds.

"There are nine Korean churches in the Triad," Lim said. They include churches of various denominations.

He and his wife, Heeran Lim, are captains of their church. Young Lim said the Triad's Korean pastors meet once a month and that sometimes a joint worship service is held.

The ministers have even talked about having a festival to celebrate their culture.

The 2010 Census found about 6,500 people of Asian descent in Forsyth County, making up 1.8 percent of the population.

That's about twice the number in the county in 2000.

The state's Asian population also nearly doubled.

The 2010 Census found nearly 207,000 Asians in North Carolina, making up 2.2 percent of the state's total population.

About 32,000 Asians live in Forsyth, Guilford and surrounding Triad counties.

Well more than half of the Asians of the Triad — about 19,000 — reside in Guilford.

Resettlement programs there brought in large numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and Montagnards — "mountain people" from the highlands of Vietnam.

Asians now number nearly 50,000 in Wake County, according to the 2010 Census, making up 5.4 percent of the population there. Almost as many Asians live in Mecklenburg County, where they comprise 4.6 percent of the county's total population.

The Census Bureau estimates that about 30 percent of Forsyth's Asian population is Chinese. More exact numbers from the 2010 Census should be available this summer.

Dr. Yun Sun, a doctor of internal medicine and a deacon at the Winston-Salem Chinese Christian Church in Ardmore, said the Chinese in Forsyth County tend to be either professionals or people running their own businesses. The presence of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is a big draw, Sun said.

"If you go to the medical center, you cannot walk around long and not see the Chinese community," Sun said. "Every lab will have Asian Chinese. Half or more of the people who work in the lab are of Chinese or a different cultural background. That is why our church is in Ardmore near the medical center."

Besides holding professional jobs, Sun said, Chinese in Winston-Salem are running such businesses as Chinese restaurants and dry-cleaning services, even a Chinese grocery store and a tailor's shop.

It's a lot easier to live the Chinese life in Forsyth County now than it was in 1995, Sun said, when he came here.

"In the past all you could do is shop at the Food Lion and the Kroger," Sun said. "At the Chinese food store, you have particular types of vegetables that don't attract Americans, so it is getting better."

It's still not like Atlanta, where an entire part of the city has Asian businesses, or even Raleigh, which has Chinese restaurants of different regional cuisines that cater exclusively to the tastes of Chinese people.

And there's no neighborhood here on its way to becoming a center of Chinese society, Sun said.

"I know for sure that people don't pick their houses because they have Chinese neighbors," Sun said.

At the Kernersville Korean Corps on Tuesday, three women were learning English in a class held there twice a week. Hyuksoon Kwon, Hyewon Nam and Heewon Chung worked on sentences with the English word win , trying to master its changing forms in the present and past tenses.

Nam, with Young Lim interpreting, said she likes American society because people "don't bother other people."

"In Korean culture, everything must be perfect, but in America, slippers and hot pants are OK," she said. The remark had everyone laughing.

All three women agreed that the biggest problem with living here is not knowing the language, especially when it comes time at school for a parent-teacher conference.

And children must undergo a cultural adjustment because in Korean society, it can be impolite for a child to look an adult directly in the eyes, Lim said.

Lim said the number of Koreans here is growing at a steady pace, but parents are finding it difficult to keep their children here after they grow up.

Young Korean adults say the area is boring and want to go to New York or Atlanta, Lim said.

And while parents want their children to marry Korean, the children have their own ideas.

Asian Indians may make up about 20 percent of Forsyth County's Asian population, according to the 2005-2009 American Community Survey by the Census Bureau. The same survey showed that Asian Indians were the single largest group of Asians in Wake and Mecklenburg counties.

Here, Asian Indians have an organization called the Indo-US Cultural Association that started with about eight families in the 1970s. In May 2006, the association held its first festival to celebrate Indian culture with the rest of Winston-Salem.

Most Asian Indians coming to Forsyth now are working in the medical field or in banking and insurance, said Manjunath Shamanna, the president of the association.

Shamanna came here 14 years ago, when the nearest grocery store specializing in Indian goods was in Raleigh.

"There was nothing here, but now there are two grocery shops in Winston-Salem," he said. "When I came here, I saw very few (Indian) faces. Today, we have easily 50 to 60 families at any event. Every month, I see a new family coming and becoming a member."

One of the newest groups to Forsyth County is the Karenni — a group with origins in Myanmar (Burma). Most live near South Fork Elementary School, where 66 Karenni children, plus three more who speak a similar language, go to school.

"We are a very multicultural school," said Ardel Meisinger, the assistant principal.

In addition to the Karenni, South Fork has students from India, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Asians make up about 15 percent of the students at the school.

The Kernersville Korean Corps has youth nights that help keep Korean kids aware of their culture.

Lim said he wants the children at his church to grow up with an appreciation of who they are as they navigate American society.

"I hope they keep their Korean culture and learn the American culture," he said. "I think that is very important."

wyoung@wsjournal.com

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