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This year marks 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to Minnesota. MPR News will feature Hmong Minnesotans in a variety of careers through the month of May as part of our “

” series. This series highlights Minnesotans from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds who are making an impact. 

For 18 years, Terry Yang ran the Bubai Foods grocery in Walnut Grove with his brother. The grocery store provided both Asian and American food items for both the Hmong community and the town as a whole. 

Now retired, Yang spends his time helping to teach, spread and preserve Hmong traditions and cultural practices for the next generation. He also hopes to work with others and create a book documenting cultural traditions as an instructional guide for practices like marriages or funeral rites.

Yang said he sees the services and products that he provided as a form of service to both the Hmong community and everyone who walked through the store’s front door.

We have some family, and they moved from California to the city. Actually, in the city was tough for renting and housing, you know, too expensive, but still hard to find a place to live. 

So I said to my brother, we have to go along, to help those family. If you don’t go, nobody’s gonna go. So that’s why we decided to come here looking for the houses. 

Soon after, that was when you opened or went into business with, I believe, your brother for Bubai Foods?

Yes, after we moved in here, and since the people are kind of moving in and the population build, you know, larger and larger, so my brother and I, we thought they should need a Oriental store in here to fit, you know, for our people in here. And that’s why we decided to bring this space in town.

You also mentioned that when you moved here, you wanted to provide something that your community would want to have. Was that a challenge to also bring that into Walnut Grove?

Some type of food just Asian people, they like it. For other people, they like it too. And I don’t want them to travel three hours here and back to the city to get it, so I rather travel myself and get it for them. 

And a lot of white people in here, especially most teachers in this school. They love it. They come to buy our Asian products and engage some of our people to teach them how to cook, how to prepare. A lot of people now make egg rice or egg rolls and, you know, spring rolls or cook rice and cook noodle, which is a very nice experience for us, for them too. 

If they can reach or approach or something like this, you know, it can get out and get us very close in a relationship, and that’s why I like it the way we respected each other, and you kind of know each other well, and you know, and helping each other without asking. 

Is there you’d like to share in regards to your perspective as a local leader who has provided a resource for the community? 

This brings me a little concern, because for other part, like earning for their own life, of their own family, perfectly, but for the culture. The people never know culture. Right now, if they want to do the culture you’ll be harder to get it. But for me right now, if I’m still here, I can get the people from the city to help. 

For a long distance, like over 160 or 170 miles away and two, three hours away, you know, but if I’m still living in here alive, anytime we need something like that, I can ask those people in the city to come and help us anytime. 

Do worry about losing cultural traditions? 

Yeah for this small town like this, yeah, in the city, they have a lot of classes going on. But in here, we don’t have it. Actually, most of you in there working so hard, they didn’t really have enough time to search both then or to, you know, study those.

During my research I came across an interview where they asked you, when you were a child what you thought you wanted to be when you grow up. You mentioned you wanted to be a leader. I wanted to ask if you were to talk to your younger self, what would you tell yourself from your experience today?

When you’re young, you talk a bit, and you might say something like that, but you grow up now I taught my children you just want to be helper and serve, not to be leader. But if you can serve, you can help you be leader. But you plan to be leader and sitting around, you're not going anywhere after and then you just fail. 

And so now I taught my children to serve, to help kindly and timely. You never ask for your time. You never complain. I told many people, I’m doing things for people, not for favor. I’m happy with that, as long as I can do something to help you, that’s who I am.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity. 

Matt Mikus

Author

For 18 years, Terry Yang ran Bubai Foods in Walnut Grove with his brother. Yang said he sees the services and products that he provided as a form of service to both the Hmong community and everyone who walked through the store’s front door.

A longtime grocer, now retired, continues to build connections between Hmong immigrants

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