Last month, 21-year-old college student Jennifer Le posted a video on TikTok of her dad, Vuong Le, sitting in his empty Vietnamese restaurant Lee's Noodle House in Santa Rosa, California. “It makes me so sad to see my parents just wait for customers to walk through the door to eat at their Vietnamese restaurant,” she captioned the short video. She asked people to come and support her parents, who she said were “stressed and dealing with financial issues,” and the response was overwhelming.
The video was viewed over a million times and received thousands of comments and over 145-thousand likes. Within a couple of days of posting the video, Lee’s Noodle House was getting so much business that they were having trouble keeping up with the demand. Jennifer says her parents have been working 12 hour shifts and have been running out of ingredients.
Comments of support from TikTokers all over the world have been pouring in too. "The comment section has brought my parents and I to tears," Jennifer says in a follow-up video. “We are so grateful for all the support, and for everyone who is coming out.” She then adds, “My dad is so happy, so grateful.”