Headlines about dangerous toys from China dominated the news for months last year, prompting congressional hearings and consumer questions about the Asian manufacturing giant's product safety.
But Walter and Shirley Wang, Bel-Air residents with three children, asked a different question: Where were the headlines pointing out that some of the problems were caused not by shoddy Chinese manufacturing practices but by American design flaws?
Concerned that China and ethnic Chinese are not always understood, the Wangs have stepped forward with a remedy.
On Friday, the Chinese American couple said that they would donate $1 million to UCLA to establish the nation's first endowed academic chair on U.S.-China relations and Chinese American studies.
The gift will also fund a media program to educate the public and policymakers. The program will establish a website, media and policy handbook, and a database of experts about Chinese American issues.
"We're not saying we want people to be biased for China," Shirley Wang said. "But in every situation there are different views. We just want more understanding."
The gift marks the latest effort by the Wangs, owners of one of the world's largest plastic piping firms, to promote understanding of Chinese Americans and U.S.-China relations.
In 2000, they donated $1.5 million to help finance the acclaimed PBS series "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience."
The couple's interest in public perceptions and media portrayals of Chinese Americans is in part a product of Shirley Wang's background: She is a 1990 UCLA graduate in communications, with an emphasis on business.
But their concerns were fanned by a 2001 survey of American attitudes toward China and Chinese Americans commissioned by the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans. That poll reported 68% of Americans surveyed viewed China as a future threat and nearly half believed that Chinese Americans were probably more loyal to China.
The survey also showed, however, majorities that viewed Chinese Americans as honest and as patriotic as other Americans, with strong family and educational values.
But the Wangs -- he a 42-year-old Taiwan native; she a 39-year-old New York native raised in Taiwan -- have also given beyond the Chinese American community. A $1.5-million donation established an endowed chair in pediatric surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
