The Business Journal
Date: 07/16/2015
By: Hannah Esqueda
A group of local entrepreneurs is moving forward with plans to raise the profile of the region’s
Stella Pan (left) jokes with Chef Jimmy Liu (center) and business associate Isaac Huang (right) at the Hunan Chinese Restaurant. The group has been working together with other local entrepreneurs to establish a higher profile for the Taiwanese community and hopes to establish a “Little Taiwan” in northeast Fresno.
Taiwanese population by opening businesses in what they hope will soon be known as the Central Valley’s “Little Taiwan.”
Similar cultural hubs exist for Taiwanese communities in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, said Stella Pan, co-owner of Hunan Chinese Restaurant, one of the group’s first businesses in the planned Little Taiwan.
Pan estimates the Central Valley’s Taiwanese population to be between 4,000-5,000 — not quite as large as other places.
“We’re a smaller community but we think we can build up a place [like that] in Fresno,” she said. “California is a big multi-cultural place and so we want to try and bring Taiwanese culture here so the next generation will know more about it.”
Since moving to Fresno with her family five years ago, she and her sister Jennifer Pan have teamed up with several other Taiwanese business owners, including husband and wife entrepreneurs Frank Su and Ally Tu, and business consultants Isaac Huang and Carl Wang. [FULL STORY]
