Jason Chow of Rockville, Maryland

All the art on these two pages is by Jason Chow (9). He can draw almost anything, and is very good at it—one of his pictures was chosen for the school calendar—but his favorite subject is his own invention: Cybernaters, space-age four fighters for justice. He draws exciting stories about them in booklets.

Photos by Andrew Chow and H. J. Noel

Jason was in a school play entitled “Wherever We Go.” While a poem was read, he acted out his part. He is at top, left in this cast picture, holding the piece of paper.

Jason has been taking piano lessons. He tried the flute, too, one year but decided he didn’t care for it. His sister, Nancy (5), took ballet lessons for a year, and she likes to practice while he does.

Taking out the garbage and helping with the dishes are two of Jason’s chores. Sometimes when he and Nancy and their brother, Andy (13), work together, they sing.

Frank Chow, Jason’s dad, wears many hats. He is a counselor in the Montgomery Branch presidency, a teacher in the Chinese school, and a free-lance structural engineer. In the first picture here, Jason and his dad are looking at the model of the Friendship Arch that marks the entrance to the Chinatown district of Washington, D.C. Brother Chow designed the arch, and Jason is standing near it in the second picture.

The whole family loves to go on outings together. Here they are at a park along the Potomac River, and Nancy and Jason are playing on a climbable sculpture. Although Andy is the athlete in the family, Jason would like to take karate lessons.

Jason’s mom, Li-Chun Chow, works at the post office at night so that she can be home with her children during the day. She is a wonderful cook and makes lots of Chinese specialties. Even so, Jason’s favorite food is pizza. He does like dim sum, a kind of Chinese smorgasbord, when they go to Chinatown. The different foods in the dim sum are brought on carts from time to time. Dad isn’t in this picture, but Mom (in the dark top, behind the cart) is helping Nancy, Andy, and Jason select some of their favorite dishes.

Sometimes they play a Cybernater version of a game together.

Both Brother and Sister Chow were born in mainland China. Each moved to Taiwan, or the Republic of China, when just a few months old. Later they met each other and were married there, then moved to the United States, where they live in Rockville, Maryland. Jason (and Andy and Nancy) goes to Chinese school one afternoon a week to learn about his Chinese heritage, including how to write using Chinese characters.