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The Legacy of Candor

Roland Quan

Last week, the Asian American community saw the passing of Roland Quan at the age of 49, after a year-long fight with cancer. An accountant by trade, Quan was better known as a politico who gave the “straight talk.”

At his funeral, over 400 guests paid their condolences to his wife, Linda, and children Brian, Kevin and Serena. They included former commissioner Louis Hop Lee, former school board candidate Anthony Chow, Harold Yee, Douglas Chan, Michael Chan and Douglas Lam. Also present was former college board member Alan Wong, who read scripture. Judge Lillian Sing eulogized Quan, while pallbearers Henry Louie of the Democratic County Committee and Hayden Lee laid him to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma.

“Talking the straight talk — he was so famous for telling it just like it is,” Sing said of Quan.

At a Chinese American Democratic Club (CADC) dinner speech during the 1980s, Quan’s stinging criticism of progressive coalition politics triggered a walkout. Quan’s view of coalition politics was that it shouldn’t be a one-way relationship. Instead, he believed Chinese Americans had to be an equal partner in various coalitions, both left and right.

Bob Garrish of the Greenlining Institute captured Quan’s essence.

“What struck me about Roland was that he never raised his voice, but his determination was unwavered,” he said, describing the time Quan confronted the Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Pacific Telephone in seeking contracts and employment for minorities.

Quan is also remembered for asking elected officials point-blank what they had done for the Chinese American community and CADC. I recall his spirited 1991 debate with Mayor Art Agnos in his accounting office. And in 1992, there was the time he interrogated Senator Barbara Boxer with such questions.

“Sometimes, he could be the best of friends and then your worst nightmare,” remarked Supervisor Leland Yee, who, even when he was supported by Quan, endured Quan’s incessant criticism.

Quan fought the anti-Chinese American placement policies of the S.F. Unified School District. Despite criticisms that the challenge was politically incorrect and would cause the re-segregation of schools, he and Amy Chang, Lee Cheng and Louis Hop Lee prevailed through the Asian American Legal Foundation, and racial caps were deemed unconstitutional.

As an accountant, Quan also talked the “straight talk.”

“He filed a lawsuit against the ‘Big Eight’ accounting firms, challenging them for not hiring minority accountants. The ‘Big 8’ admitted the lack of minorities in the firms and gave a lame explanation that their big and powerful clients would not accept Asian Americans,” recalled Sing in her tribute.