We recently had the honor of sitting down and talking to Garry Guan, a translator, interpreter, archaeologist, rotarian, and now, a candidate for the 40th district of the Georgia State Senate. 

Guan grew up in Harbin, a city in Northeast China. His parents were working class citizens with little education and five children to support. His hardships were compounded by the fact that he was a member of an ethnic minority in China. He mentions, “A lot of these sensitive issues we talk about, such as unspoken discrimination, were issues I grew up experiencing all the time.” Despite this hardship, he came to the US as a doctoral student studying history and archaeology at the University of Pittsburgh and immediately fell in love with the American culture. In the late 90s, he finally got his chance to immigrate and make a life for himself here. He currently resides in North Atlanta, running his business, the Asian American Language Services, and volunteering at the Rotary Club as well as the National Language Service Corps. With decades of experience as an active member of his community, Guan has a lot to say about life here and how he hopes to make it better.

North Atlanta has a lot of potential with its fast-growing community, convenient highways, and good quality of living. However, there are still some issues that Mr. Guan would like to address if he gets elected. 

1. There is a lack of public transportation in his district. Guan explains, “Some form of release in transportation will be needed. This directly impacts people’s quality of living and also economic development. If people can’t get anywhere conveniently, this restricts and limits their opportunities and jobs.” The implementation of additional public transportation in his district can provide major benefits for all of his constituents.

2. Education is also another key issue that Guan wants to reform. He believes that raising teacher’s pay is important as a catalyst to keep good teachers in the state and to maintain the quality of education. He also wants to implement a new facet of education, character and citizenship education. Guan states: “We do want to educate [our students] to prepare them to have good jobs, but it is more important for us to prepare them to be good citizens.”

3. Guan recognizes the importance of criminal justice reform, and he wants to start by finding ways to reintegrate convicts into society. One possible solution is the deprivatization of prisons. Guan explains, “I am a Republican. I emphasize small business and private solutions, but prison isn’t for private companies to handle.” If he is elected, he will try to get this issue resolved.

Mr. Guan also provided some insight into how he would like to move forward after the pandemic. He optimistically explains, “With this type of recession, if the conditions are [favorable], we can easily recover quickly.” For example, Georgia’s movie industry already has 40,000 newly hired employees, so the road to recovery is looking very optimistic. He promises, “With safety still the first thing in mind, we can get back on track.”

Garry Guan hasn’t just been running to bring change, but he is also running to be a role model for his fellow Asian Americans: “This is our own country. We have the duty and obligation to contribute our talent, our wisdom, and our ability. I encourage all of the people in Georgia, especially all the Asian Americans, to get actively involved. It doesn’t matter which party you are, but [everyone needs to] get seriously involved. Find a cause that you can run on, but make your voice heard.”