Charlie Zhang, who escaped Communist China 46 years ago, continues to show his appreciation for his adopted country, which has continued to honor him for his remarkable journey.<\/p>\n
The City of Hope Orange County last May honored\u00a0Charlie and his wife, Ling,\u00a0with the dedication of the \u201cLing and Charlie\u00a0Zhang\u00a0Art Gallery\u201d following their significant gift to the City of Hope Campus Transformation Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie Zhang has lived the American dream\u2014an against-the-odds journey that began in the hardship of a Chinese reeducation camp and has led to a life filled with family, purposeful days and the joy of giving back,\u201d the hospital said in a statement. \u201cThrough it all, he has followed a few guiding principles: fierce ambition, a love of the arts and resounding hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year ago, after Zhang accepted his Business Journal award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship, he told the crowd, \u201cGod bless America.\u201d It was a statement that combines two factors that Zhang believes helped him achieve success: the United States and God.<\/p>\n
Zhang grew up in Shanghai, where his family ran a coffee roasting business until the communists threw his father in prison. His mother was a natural entrepreneur, teaching him that \u201cif you screw it up, fix it.\u201d Zhang himself was sent to work for seven years in the countryside\u2019s rice paddies during the infamous Cultural Revolution.<\/p>\n
He was able to get a visa to the U.S. as a student exchange musician. At 24, he arrived in Southern California in 1980 with $20 in his pocket and a clarinet, full of dreams of becoming a professional musician. For 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, he worked in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant where a hand injury dashed his musical ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a dishwasher wasn\u2019t a waste of time\u2014I studied what people didn\u2019t eat because I had to throw it away,\u201d Zhang wrote in a 2019 Leader Board for the Business Journal.<\/p>\n
When he met his wife Ling, an immigrant from Taiwan, she insisted he go to church, or she wouldn\u2019t marry him. Zhang became a Christian in 1985, the year he married Ling. The couple has two sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecoming a Christian was the right choice of my life,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
From $20 to $50M<\/p>\n
Zhang says his faith gave him confidence that he would survive as an entrepreneur. He started his own restaurant that eventually became known as Pick Up Stix. Zhang grew the chain to 85 restaurants before selling it to TGI Fridays in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to America with $20, and they gave me $50 million!\u201d he wrote in his Leader Board.
In the past year, he continued to actively oversee his Zion Enterprises, which has a real estate portfolio that includes the Country Club Medical Plaza, Alcoa Storage, Centerpointe at Market and the Haven Airport Centre. He also owns the building that houses Bank Irvine, which he helped launch in 2022 and serves as its chairman, serving recent Chinese immigrants.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he founded Corona-based Gummy Maker, which provides a turnkey solution for making nutritional gummies, including white labels. Production has increased by 75%, Zhang said.<\/p>\n
His company also includes property dear to his heart, such as a church in San Juan Capistrano. The company purchased a building in Irvine that is the headquarters of the Pacific Symphony.<\/p>\n
They began OC Music & Dance to provide a \u201cworld-class facility\u201d where people of all ages, experiences and cultures can enjoy the arts. Since Richard Nixon did so much to open U.S.-China relations, Zhang decided to honor the former president by serving as treasurer of the Nixon Foundation\u2019s board of directors, which oversees the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.<\/p>\n
When asked about his achievements in the past year, Zhang said in an email that he and his wife Ling \u201ccelebrated the joyful arrival of their third grandchild\u2014an important personal milestone that underscores the family values that guide his professional philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to set an example and a pattern for the next generation,\u201d Zhang told City of Hope. \u201cMaybe someone will say, \u2018Charlie contributed to that,\u2019 and want to do the same. Everyone can give on some level\u2014this is what I\u2019ve taught my children and grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhang will be the keynote speaker at the Business Journal\u2019s Excellence in Entrepreneurship awards event, scheduled for March 26 at the Irvine Marriott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Zhang, who escaped Communist China 46 years ago, continues to show his appreciation for his adopted country,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-190145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}