Her chance to vote looms large

Owner of Fastframe in Brookline Hsiu-Lan Chang will be naturalized Wednesday during a large ceremony at Fenway Park. (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / September 14, 2008

Before Brookline voters overwhelmingly approved a $6.2 million property tax hike in May, almost all of Hsiu-Lan Chang's neighbors asked her to vote one way or the other.

Supporters on both sides of the issue were surprised to learn that the 12-year Brookline resident, community organizer, and business owner couldn't cast her vote with them because she isn't a US citizen. That will change on Wednesday, when Chang is naturalized along with 2,400 other immigrants at Fenway Park - the first time a naturalization ceremony will be held there.

Even with her quest for citizenship being hemmed by red tape, Chang, who owns a business called FastFrames in Washington Square, became increasingly involved in the community. A trustee of the Brookline Community Foundation, she is also a board member for Brookline High School's 21st Century Fund.

"I didn't need to have [citizenship] to give back," said Chang, 57, who obtained her green card in 2000 and was eligible for citizenship five years later. "When I lived in Japan, I did the same thing. If I can contribute, I do."

Chang arrived for her final interview for US citizenship in March to learn that her original visa was missing from her file. She couldn't be naturalized without it and was told it would take 45 to 60 days to locate. Chang said she cried as she rode home but didn't "freak out" until it still hadn't turned up 75 days later. Finally, Chang followed up on a suggestion to contact Congressman Barney Frank's office.

"I thought 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, call your congressman; he's not gonna care, I'm not a US citizen.' "

Karen Harraghy, the district representative for Frank's Taunton office, contacted the Boston Immigration Office, and Chang's visa was located three weeks later.

"Her story and what she's done over the period of time she's been here in the US is amazing," Harraghy said.

Chang said she was speechless when Harraghy called with the good news.

Chang's parents fled post-World War II Shanghai, and she lived in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, and Monte Carlo before coming to the United States. She said she can't wait to vote here, for the first time in any country.

"It's not 12 years and finally being able to vote," Chang says. "For me, its 57 years - and this is the first time I can vote. In Japan I was an alien. I had a British passport because I was born in Hong Kong. So I'm a British subject, not a British citizen."

In Tokyo, Chang learned English and French while attending a school loaded with children of diplomats. When she finished high school, Chang's father wanted her to marry, but she secretly took university entrance exams and attended college against her parents' wishes.

She graduated in 1972 and moved back to Hong Kong to work. After a stint back in Tokyo working for Sony, she moved to Paris.

"All the social pressures of Asian society were off my back," Chang recalled.

Chang, who speaks four languages, worked in Paris as a corporate translator. In 1979, she had her first son, David, and it was because of him that she eventually came to New England.

David suggested they visit Chang's mother and sister, who were living in New England - he wanted to see Boston's colleges.

With her mother's sponsorship and a job offer from a Boston-based financial management firm in hand, Chang applied for and got an H-1B visa and moved to Brookline with her two boys. David attended Tufts University after graduating from Brookline High, where Chang's second son, Leonardo, is now a senior.

By 2003, Chang had tired of her job, which required a lot of traveling, and opened the FastFrames franchise in Washington Square.

"I started this because it's a happy business," she says of the custom frame shop. "I wanted to have a normal life. I wanted to be able to help my sons' school and do community service, all the things I couldn't do because I lived out of a suitcase."

That included founding the JA Lynch Committee against Domestic Violence and becoming a Senior Vice President of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce.

Most recently, Chang is helping raise money to build a Brookline teen center and helped found The Friends of Madame White Snake, a grass-roots organization dedicated to building cultural bridges with China.

Still, Chang said, she will perform her greatest civic duty on Nov. 4.

"For 57 years I've been going from no man's land to no man's land without any rights," says Chang, who plans to register to vote the day after she is naturalized. "Finally I can say I have the right to grow my roots."

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.