My Good Fortune

Orphaned as a child, Lu Chi Fa survived brutality and starvation in China during and after World War II. Once sold for two sacks of rice, in 1951 he fled to Hong Kong and Taiwan for a better life and immigrated to the United States in 1969. He and Becky White told that story in Double Luck: Memoirs of a Chinese Orphan; in 2001 it won the Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award.

This book adds details about Lu Chi Fa’s early life in China and Taiwan, and follows his quest to create good fortune in the U.S. Despite problems and the lingering effects of childhood abuse, he succeeded. His willingness to work hard and to set aside the negative past served him well.

An optimistic entrepreneur at heart, by the 1980s Lu Chi Fa owned three businesses in Southern California. Since 1990 he has owned The Coffee Pot restaurant in Morro Bay. In 2019 the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce named him a “Living Treasure.”

The central message of this memoir is that success is possible despite poverty, hardship and poor education. Setbacks will occur in our lives, but if we set aside negative excuses and work hard we can fulfill our dreams.