For District 1 Councilmember Maria Tu, a significant difference between growing up in Taiwan and living in the United States is the way that people relate to the law. She recalls noticing that, in Taiwan, she’d never seen someone stop at a stop light if there were no cars coming, and her dad had to teach her that road rules were different here.
“The law is the culture in America, so that’s when I became really interested in [law as a career,]” she says.
Tu obtained a bachelor’s degree in political economy from The Evergreen State College in Washington State at just 19 years old. From there, she interned with Seattle HUD, the public defender’s office and was a correspondence supervisor for U.S. Sen. Dan Evans in Washington D.C.
She returned home later to obtain her juris doctorate, then had subsequent jobs working as a full-time law clerk for the Washington Education Association and the law clerk for the Kitsap County Superior Court.
“Perhaps I was fortunate that at age 20, I learned from Senator Dan that to be a true public servant, it really didn’t matter what political party one belonged to, as long as we always had the best interest of the people we served in our actions and in our hearts,” Tu once said.
Even in Washington State, a large part of Tu’s focus was on supporting others of Asian heritage, serving on boards and associations for the Seattle Asian Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Asian Women Association, Washington State Chinese Engineer Association, Washington State Cung Hua Association and as a member of the Hong Kong Ship Owners Association.
After graduating from law school with a concentration in Asian law studies, Tu worked for Wiliams, Kaster & Gibbs, who was trying to build their international presence in Asia.
“I was the rainmaker (person who attracts clients) in the law firm, a top six law firm in Washington State at that time and all I was doing was flying,” Tu says. “I was flying to Asia every three months and bringing clients over. There are a lot of rich people who are in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, which is why I hated my job. I couldn’t stand dealing with them.”
Tired of dealing with the constant travel and stress, Tu and her husband left their jobs, home and certainty behind and moved to Texas.
“We didn’t realize how great [Plano ISD] was until the night she started going to school. It was just like ‘wow’ and she was competing with the best,” Tu says. “So we just ended up staying, we never moved out.”
When the couple first came to DFW, Tu’s now-late husband was a sushi chef. The two owned a Chinese restaurant that served sushi on its buffet.
When Tu visited a nearby Whole Foods Market, she noticed that they didn’t have sushi, noting that most grocery stores in Washington had a plethora of sushi options. She pitched to the store for her husband’s restaurant, Yamamoto Sushi, to consign with the chain. After over a month of discussion that seemed to make no headway, Tu says, they finally said yes.
“We were exclusively doing [local] Whole Foods sushi for seven and a half years,” Tu says. “Of course, after WholeFoods came on board, every freaking grocery store in the whole DFW area was like, ‘Well, we want sushi in our store.’”
Yamamoto has been credited as the first company to sell sushi directly in grocery stores across North Texas, though the couple sold the company several years ago.
After her daughter was settled into school, Tu became a prosecutor at the Collin County District Attorney’s office, where she was the first Chinese prosecutor despite the still-growing Asian population in the county.
However, as her daughter got older, Tu left behind law temporarily and shifted to a different type of service – city council.
Since 2019, Tu has represented Place 1 (essentially everything east of Alma), when she beat Daniel Long for the place by 16%. She ran unopposed for reelection in 2023.
Running on the priorities of reducing traffic congestion, keeping property taxes low and maintaining quality of life in suburban areas, Tu is also proud to be the first Asian American City Council member.
Today, however, Tu says that Plano’s focus now needs to be on attracting young families and addressing the aging population.
“The main issue that Plano is facing is that we’re getting old,” Tu says. “Plano sort of grew up with me. When I came, I was in my 30s and Plano was probably in their 30s. So now that I am getting to the retirement age, Plano’s also getting to that point, so it has to revamp itself.”
Now a widow and an empty nester, Tu says that Plano has to focus on getting senior adults like her to downsize.
“In order for a young family to come in and get 2,800 square foot houses with three or four bedrooms, you’ve got to get senior citizens out of there so that families can move in,” Tu says. “We have to somehow get them to downsize to someplace that is attractive, not pushing them out of the city, but rather getting them to look at alternative housings. That’s what’s going to make sure that the younger family can move in and start this new life cycle.”
Tu says she plans to do just that after her term ends, keeping her current house to ensure that she stays in the district that she serves.
Maintaining her private practice since 2005, Tu still takes on cases, but only the ones that she feels need her services the most, like certain criminal, family and immigration law cases.
“It took 10 years for me to realize that the most important thing in my life is not the admiration and envy of others, but what makes me the happiest,” Tu says on her website. “In 2004, I finally had enough courage to come back to the practice of law. I fell in love with being in the courtroom fighting the difficult fights. In the courthouse, I have cried, laughed, screamed, yelled, shouted, hated and loved, and all could happen in one day. My colleagues have described me as ‘a lawyer with a passion.’ Whatever… I love being in the courtroom.”
She also has served on the Collin County Lawyers Association, Leadership Plano Class 36, the Plano Chamber of Commerce, Texas Bar Foundation, Texas Diversity Council and the NIHAO Food Bank Initiative.
“You don’t have to believe my words, just look at what I do,” Tu says. “The most important thing is the ability to use my talent and my strength to help those who don’t have it. That’s my passion.”
