Linda Yu: My mother’s dream was for me to become a journalist

SHARE Linda Yu: My mother’s dream was for me to become a journalist
lindayu_012418_13_73926417_edit_web_e1525458084821.jpg

Linda Yu, long-time Chicago journalist and host of “Food We Love"| Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

My mother and I were sitting at the kitchen table. The first semester of college was almost over and I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. She tried to get me to list my talents. I ventured that I might be a decent writer.

Mom smiled, sighed, and said; “Then, would you do something for me?”

“Sure….what?”

“Take a journalism class.”

That request made no sense to me. Mom was born and raised in China, a daughter of royalty, in a time when women did not have careers. It was also a time when men in China could have more than one wife at the same time. Despite that, my grandfather was very supportive of all his daughters, making sure they were educated and encouraged their independence. So Mom had an older half sister, the daughter of wife number one. She had married, moved to Japan and became a journalist. Mom thought that was wonderful. She studied writing and dreamed she might someday have that career too.

But it wasn’t to be for my mother. Instead, she married, came to the United States, and became a home maker and mother.

Linda Yu with her mother and sister.

Linda Yu with her mother and sister.

Linda Yu early in her reporting career.

Linda Yu early in her reporting career.

I was the one of her six children who was most like her, so I was willing to try. Because I hadn’t worked on my high school newspaper and had never taken a single journalism class, my counselor started me in the college news bureau where I would work one-on-one with the journalism professor. He assigned me a story on campus and told me to try writing a news story and he’d critique it.

It was a simple story about a musical production on campus. I went to cover it, did interviews, tried to cover the who, what, where, when and how, wrote the story and turned it in. My professor was surprised. He thought my writing was good enough that my story was sent to the local newspaper and I got my very first by-line.

I was in love! For the next couple years, I wrote and learned from journalists on that daily paper, while also joining the campus newspaper.  I learned to cover news, features, investigative pieces.

Most important, I learned the value of newspapers. We let people know what was happening in the country, the state, their city, their politicians, their community, their neighborhood. We wrote stories that uncovered wrong doing, stories that introduced important programs, wrote stories about interesting people, wrote stories that made readers angry and stories that made them cry.

I carried those lessons into my long career in broadcasting. Now that I am part of the Chicago Sun-Times, I feel I’ve come back to the way I started in journalism. Plus, the skills I developed in broadcasting allow me to create the video series, “Food We Love,” for Sun-Times website.

Linda Yu with long-time Sun-Times newsroom employee Albert Dickens.

Linda Yu with long-time Sun-Times newsroom employee Albert Dickens.

Linda Yu at work in the Sun-Times kitchen studio.

Linda Yu at work in the Sun-Times kitchen studio.

These days, both the newspaper and the website are valuable to you. Since more and more people use the web, understand that you will get the peerless political coverage of Lynn Sweet and Fran Spielman and all our other political reporters at Chicago Sun-Times.com. The work of our investigative reporters is there, too.  Many people ask for some positive news once in awhile and we are working to provide that with stories by Ji Suk Yi and others.

I have not talked about this publicly before, but here it is: I put some of my own money into purchasing the Sun-Times because I believe in the people working here. I also believe in you and that you deserve a voice.

Subscribe and let us grow stronger for you.

How to subscribe

We’re asking you to support our work by subscribing to our website for $7.49 a month — less than 25 cents a day. That’s a small price to pay for journalism that is 100 percent honest and unflinchingly brave.

RELATED ARTICLES

WATCH: Imagine Chicago without the Sun-Times: An urgent appeal

STEINBERG: The world wouldn’t be a world without a newspaper, so subscribe.

MITCHELL: In a world of choices, here’s a good one to pass along

WATCH: Richard Roeper: The Sun-Times costs less than a big night at the movies – and lasts much longer

WATCH: Rick Telander on the unfiltered opinions, unwavering coverage of Sun-TimesSports

IHEJIRIKA: Working at this newspaper represents my ‘American Dream.’

WATCH: Ji Suk Yi on how the Sun-Times represents hope and freedom

WATCH: Evan Moore: The Chicago Sun-Times discovered the writer in me.

The Latest
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Cowboy hats, bell-bottoms and boots were on full display Thursday night as fans lined up for the first of his three sold-out shows.
The incident occurred about 3:40 p.m. near Minooka. The horse was successfully placed back into the trailer, and the highway reopened about 40 minutes later. No injuries were reported.
The Hawks conceded the game’s only two goals within the first seven minutes and were shut out for the 12th time this season in a 2-0 defeat Thursday.