Fuquin was born in 1968. She lived in China for 34 years. She had 16 years of education in China which included 2 years of college. After college, she became an accountant and worked in her career for almost 10 years. FuQin came to the U.S. with her seven year-old daughter in 2002. Her husband was already living in Portland. After a year, started to work at a laundry. At the same time, she was enrolled into community college ESL courses. She studied English for 5 ten-week terms (January 2003-March, 2004), progressing through all four proficiency levels at the community college - from level A (beginning) to level D (upper intermediate). Her goal in taking ESL classes was to get a GED and then go to the university. With her English skills, Fuquin would like to communicate better with English speaking people and to converse with her daughter in both English and Cantonese.