At this point, the show's general theme begins, as he and his brother Wago Chang (Chi Muoi Lo), who also was involved with the protests, escape to the United States.
As a result of getting into an altercation with military guards, their father, Louyung Chang (Kay Tong Lim), tells them to flee or else risk being arrested or killed by the Secret Police.
After they are brought to a jail in San Bruno, Agent Estabrook uncovers photos of Jian-Wa and Wago in Time and releases them due to the asylum laws.
After they attempt to get a series of low-paying odd jobs in and around Los Angeles, Jian-Wa becomes a musician and falls in love with a cellist, Clair Rutledge (Rebecca Gayheart).
In Vanishing Son II, Jian-Wa goes on the road to evade being questioned by the authorities about criminal activities and murders committed by his brother, Wago.
The community consists of an elderly patriarch (Kim Chan), a quick-tempered young man named Hung (Dustin Nguyen), and his sister, Lanchi (Tamlyn Tomita), whom Jian-Wa is attracted to.
Tensions between the Ku Klux Klan and the Vietnamese community explode in Little Saigon when Hung kills a local white fisherman in self-defense.
Ku Klux Klan members storm the Vietnamese community, and just when Jian-Wa and Hung are about to lose the fight, Wago arrives on the scene and rescues them.
Jian-Wa bids farewell to Lanchi and the Vietnamese, once the National Guard and police units infiltrate the area, and goes to Washington, D.C., for a violin competition.
The final scene reunites Wago with the woman he loves, Lili (Vivian Wu), who was thought to have been killed by the Secret Police in China during the riots.
The two promptly rekindle their flame, yet it is short-lived once Jian-Wa returns to Los Angeles with her and is arrested by a federal task force bent on apprehending Wago and members of his gang.
He is forced to go undercover to infiltrate the gang for information on a man called The General, but Jian-Wa is intending to utilize his position to rescue his brother.
Jian-Wa visits Estabrook later and learns that The General is a high-level CIA operative, and Lili is working with him (and is also his lover), planning to set up Wago to take a fall.
In Vanishing Son IV, tormented by his brother's death, Jian-Wa is roaming around the countryside at night when he gets struck by a truck driven by two intoxicated teenagers, Adams (Mark Valley) and Dawson (Matthew Lillard).