GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) – When Khailing Neoh, 30, graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio in 2017 with a Chemical Engineering degree, it was supposed to signal the coming of a new age for the Neoh family.

“My parents were very distraught over the idea of me, not only quitting my full-time job, but specifically opening a restaurant,” said Neoh, a Ohio native who moved to South Carolina in 2019 for her chemical engineering job.

That’s because Neoh’s mother and father were both Chinese immigrants who ran a Chinese restaurant. It’s also a business Neoh’s grandparents were in.

“You see a lot of first-generation Asian Americans try and pursue sciences, engineering, [medical careers]; STEM [fields],” said Neoh. It’s a path she followed for five years and one her parents didn’t intend for her to stray away from.

“The reason why they worked 80 hours a week in their restaurant was so I could go to college and do something off my feet, do something stable and create a better future,” said Neoh.

But her passion wasn’t in the STEM fields. It actually lay in the culinary arts.

“During the pandemic when I was craving culture and community and just being around people, I realized that the environment my parents and grandparents created in restaurants was such a beautiful, unique way to be involved in your community,” Neoh said. “My friend and I decided that we wanted to open a restaurant and specifically dim sum and with me just having moved to Greenville, I thought, ‘What a great, young city that’s excited to try new things’ and [it] felt like a good open arm to a diversification of the food and the people.”

However, to make herself happy and to follow the age-old adage of the American Dream, Neoh had to first confront her parents and find a way to knock down the cultural stereotypes that plague the Asian American community. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Being a child of immigrants, it can be fairly complex to pursue something that they deem valuable, lucrative or stable and that pressure almost feels like it’s not really a choice, [instead] it’s the only right path based on everything that my parents specifically had given up to be [in America],” explained Neoh. “They actually tried to convince me not to open [Sum Bar] by paying me to not open which just shows their dedication of how much they wanted to save me from the grueling hours that they had to endure themselves [in their own restaurants].”

It’s a feeling other AAPI-identifying South Carolinians know.

According to the South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs: Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs Division, over half of the state’s AAPI residents 25 years and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree. It’s the single highest percentage in that category among all of South Carolina’s racial and ethnic groups.

However, for Neoh to open a Dim Sum-focused business during a period when more than 8,000 AAPI-identifying residents left South Carolina in four years brought up another issue: the perception of Asian cuisine in the Deep South.

AAPI-identifying persons make up just 1.65% of the state’s population, meaning Neoh had to figure out how to create the types of dishes Neoh’s customers expected to find at a Chinese restaurant while also not perpetuating stereotypes.

“There were a lot of foods and decisions that my parents and grandparents had to make for their livelihood, for their survival, that were specifically crafted to make sure that they stay in business,” said Neoh. “For instance, in small-town Ohio, they’re going to be making the sweet and sour chicken, the fried and sugary types of foods that people are used to seeing.”

She didn’t want to fall into that trap.

“It’s almost like taking back ownership of what we want to serve as Chinese business owners serving our Chinese food in a very authentic and unapologetic way,” she said. So she created a Chinese menu she believed was unlike what most Upstate residents were accustomed to seeing at the time.

“We serve traditional Chinese dim sum,” Neoh explained. “It is a little bit different than [what] you might expect or what you’ve seen in the [rest of the] United states, but we do make everything in-house [and it’s] handmade.”

Dim Sum are snack-like foods traditionally served for breakfast and lunch in restaurants in Cantonese cuisine.

“All of our dumplings are wrapped and made hopefully to perfection for you. It is mostly dumplings, savory small bites, and some sweet fried items in there, as well,” said Neoh.

Opening day was February 2023 during the Lunar New Year Festival, a centuries-old Asian celebration that recognizes the coming of the new year based on the lunar calendar.

Neoh said close to 2,000 people showed up.

“I think a major part of what has made us successful as a restaurant is the people that work here,” explained Neoh. “So, all of my team members have such care for the guests, for the food and for the experience because I think they understand our mission. We are more than a restaurant. We’re trying to be a community place; a safe space.”

The idea of acceptance is something Neoh wants to convey with her food to customers.

“We have people of various backgrounds, races, sexes, genders and ages and the idea of acceptance is not only for Asian Americans during AAPI month [and] is not only for the queer community during Pride month,” said Neoh. “The idea of acceptance is holistic, it’s year round [and] it should be able to be felt when you walk in the door.”

Sum Bar is located at 307 East Washington Street in Greenville.

“Walking through a dim sum menu for someone who’s never had it before can be a tricky thing and a little bit nerve wracking, but our team does such a great job to make it such a pleasurable experience for anyone who’s been here 10 times, or anyone who’s been here for the first time,” said Neoh.