Secretary of Transportation and former Congressman, Norman Mineta, said of Chu-Lin's decades-long career,

During his lifetime, Chu-Lin won various awards for his reporting and community service, and produced stories on the history of Asians in the U.S. for ABC and NBC.His television documentary, "Chu Lin Is an Old American Name," which told the story of the Chinese American experience through one family's experiences, won a National Headliner Award from the Press Club of Atlantic City in New Jersey.