An Immigrant “Success” Story? The Demise of the May May Chinese Gourmet Bakery

The N.Y. Times ran a wonderful story on immigrant “success.”  The May May Chinese Gourmet Bakery has attracted three generations of customers with its steamed red bean buns, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and packaged frozen dim sum. From a tiny two-table coffee shop opened in 1965 (when the family came to the United States from China), the family-owned business has radiated outward to include a factory in Long Island City that distributes across the eastern half of the United States and a catering side that supplies hundreds of delicate dumplings for stylish cocktail parties. But the doors to the original shop and its kitchen still open onto Pell Street, and the aromatic puffs of steam entice passers-by. But at the end of this month, after 42 years, the three Hung brothers who run May May will shutter the doors of both the shop and factory, sell the equipment for a small fraction of what it cost, and slowly let the inventory in the pipeline dry up until the May May brand is just a memory. The Hung brothers are closing the company because they are tired, and their five children — who include a lawyer, a pharmacist and a teacher — are unwilling to put in the 11-hour days in steaming kitchens and on the factory floor.

KJ