Elder Garret W. Gong is by almost no definition white. On the other hand, as an American of Chinese descent, he is excluded from most definitions of "underserved" and "underrepresented" minorities, and would be discrimanted against by most quota and affirmative action programs.
Elder Gong is clearly an American. Both of his parents were born in the US, so he is more American than David O. McKay and Joseph F. Smith and well as John Taylor, just to list presidents of the Church he exceeds in Americaness. If we look at apostles, his most recent immigrant ancestor may or may not have come more recently than David A. Bednar's. He is clearly more American than Dale E. Rendlund, both of whose parents were immigrants.
Also, President Eyring's father was born in Mexico, whith Mexican citizenship, and his great-grandfather, the one who met his Swiss great-grandmother in the company moving west when he was sick after a long mission in the realm of the Cherokee, was known as Enrique Eyring at the time of his death.
While Elder Gong's mother was not born in a state, that is because Hawaii was not yet a state at the time of her birth. His father was born in Merced where Elder Gong's grandparents, like many other Chinese-Americans, were small business owners, I can't remember for sure if it was a dry cleaners or restaurant they ran. On his father's side his ancestors came from China in the 19th-century. When his ancestors came to Hawaii on his mother's side is less clear.
Elder Gong's wife, Sister Susan Lindsay Gong, is the daughter of Richard P. Lindsay who was managing director of the Church's public affairs department for much of the 1980s and later a general authority sevcenty. Elder Lindsay has since died.
Elder Gong served his mission in Taiwan, was a Rhodes Schoolar after graduating from BYU, dated his wife while visiting Provo on a summer off from Oxford while his father, a professor at San Jose State University was a visiting professor at BYU. Walter Gong gave courses to faculty that influenced Stephen R. Covery enough that he quotes Walter Gong in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Elder Gong was on the factulty at Johns Hopkins, then worked for the US government both with an assignment to the embassy in Beijing and as an outside consultant with a think tank connected with George Washington University.
Elder Gong thus becomes the second apostle born in California, second only to Elder Bednar. Both were born in California, went to BYU, and spent their adult life first as a professor/government consultant in the US east of the Rocky mountains, and then came to the intermountain west with an assignment with a Church institution of higher education. Elder Bednar was a business professor and then president of Ricks. His career involves much more understandable roles.
Elder Gong was involved in foriegn policy development circles, and his Wikipedia article lists several papers he wrote. What he actually did is not always easy to understand, partly because of the sensitive nature of some foriegn policy discussion. If I understood what he said at a forum on the pros and cons of going to war in Iraq I went to in 2003 that he spoke at at BYU, he was involved with some government bodies that analized the appropriate response to the actions of North Korea.
Where Elder Bednar was president of Ricks College and then BYU-Idaho, Elder Gong was assistant to the President of BYU for planning and assessment. He served as such with both President Bateman and President Samuelson.
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