literally hung upside down in hopes of getting the job.

In 1970, there was a height requirement to join the police force and

the 5-foot-7 Lau was an inch short. He tried hanging upside down from a

bar to stretch his body. It didn't work.

What did work was pressure from civil rights activists. The city

dropped the height requirement in 1971 and Lau became the department's

Today, Lau is chief of police. His rise through the ranks is in many

ways a reflection of a century of change for Chinese Americans.

These days, Chinese Americans have among the highest median household

incomes and education levels of any ethnic group in the United States,

prompting some to call them the ``model minority.''

But the anti-Chinese sentiment in America that traces back to the

frontier days remains a constant friction, according to many Chinese

``People always make fun of my accent,'' said Kenny Su, 49, a Hong Kong

Recent high-profile scandals haven't helped. Some Chinese Americans

More than 40 percent of the students at the University of California

nobody would rent to the first Chinese American students at UC

mustached and slant-eyed stereotype from Sax Rohmer's novels.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Chinese Americans, San Francisco, Asian Americans, Silicon Valley, Chinese American, Shelby R-Ala, Gold Rush, Exclusion Act, Hong Kong, California Berkeley, chinese americans, san francisco, asian americans, civil rights, university california, chinese american, chief police, height requirement,
Approximate Word count = 716
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)