Your Yale-China Stories
Your stories and experiences reflect the depth and breadth of relationships we've built around the globe for 125 years. From classroom exchanges to medical collaborations, from cultural programs to lifelong friendships, these connections continue to strengthen ties between our people around the globe. You can read your fellow community members' stories here and see the remarkable ways Yale-China has shaped lives and careers across generations.
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Three Photographs, One Friendship
When I think of the Yale-China Association, I think of people. I think of the generations of Chinese and American colleagues who have worked together, learned from one another, and built friendships that have lasted far beyond their own lifetimes.
— Xuejun Li, Professor of Neurosurgery; Vice Dean of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University
In 1975, I attended New Asia College, Chinese University of Hong Kong to study Mandarin as a college junior. My experience was amazing. I roomed with three Chinese students who were my team mates on the University swim team. One was from Guangzhou and his brothers were members of the Red Guard. Another was the son of a Hong Kong Government civil servant. There I found my lifelong passion for studying the People's Liberation Army which I teach about today at Georgetown and Texas A&M.
— Dennis Wilder, Language Program Participant at CUHK
The experience [being on the Yale-China Board of Trustees] has been one of the best experiences of my academic life... From a personal perspective, it’s really all the friendships that I’ve been able to develop with faculty at Xiangya. Then also the trainees we’ve hosted here at Yale. The cultural experiences were also amazingly enriching.
— Dr. Robert Rohrbaugh, Former Trustee
For over a century, our family has treasured an old graduation photo of my maternal grandfather taken more than a hundred years ago. Captured in the monochrome frame of Yali College, the photo marks the very beginning of our family’s century-spanning connection with Yali and Yale, dating back to the summer of 1917 in Changsha. As a member of the first graduating class of Yali College, my grandfather Nantou Wen stood tall among eight promising young scholars, dressed in the academic gown identical to those worn at Yale University…
多少年来，我们家里一直珍藏着一张一百多年前外公在雅礼大学的毕业照。雅礼大学堂的黑白光影里，我们家与雅礼和耶鲁百年情缘的发轫，就定格在1917年长沙的盛夏。外公文南斗先生，作为雅礼大学首届毕业生，身着与耶鲁本部同源的学士服，玉树临风，站立在八位风华正茂的青年学子之中。。。
— Alfred CHE Wei 车巍
My hope is that initiatives like the Yale-China Association that have had such long roots in New Haven can play an increasingly important role in helping us understand one another, understand that we’re human beings, connect with one another, and set aside those small differences that we might have. My hope is in the many years to come we continue to foster those kind of relationships and more and more people can experience that connection with one another...
Happy 125th anniversary! It’s an exciting time for our city and we’re so grateful to the Yale-China Association for everything that you have done for our city.
非常感谢雅礼协会为NewHaven所做的一切！
— Justin Elicker, Mayor of New Haven
Photos courtesy of Ted Falk, grandson of Dr. Edward Hume, selected from the Hume family collection.
When I reflect on my Yali and Xiuning Middle School experiences, I'm deeply grateful for the transformation and growth I experienced. I can only hope that the impact I had on students and other teachers is a fraction of what I have received. It started with Coach Walter inviting me to practice with the Yali football (soccer) team. Their views of me as a role model on and off the field (华人 (ABC) who played at Yale) forced me to shed my own self-view as a 6-year-retired player who failed to go pro. Besides teaching English and organizing the musicals, I found an embodied purpose serving as their football coach with the responsibility of encouraging the students to strive for more.
— Allen Wang, Yale-China Fellow (Xiuning, Yali 2021-'22)
In July 2024, I boarded a plane to New Haven for the first time, carrying with me a deep passion for nursing informatics and elderly care. From the moment I arrived at Yale, language became my first real challenge. I started from the very basics — practicing daily greetings, learning how to craft an elevator speech, working through sentence structures and paragraph writing in class, and spending long hours in the library sharpening my listening and speaking skills. Slowly, English stopped feeling like a barrier and became something more — a window through which I could truly feel and understand this new world around me. Every conversation, every lecture, every debate quietly expanded the boundaries of who I was. And through it all, the Yale-China Association made sure I never felt alone. It was through the Association that I found myself hiking through hills blazing with autumn color alongside friends from across the globe, sitting in a chapel letting the resonance of a pipe organ wash over me, and laughing around a dinner table, telling stories of home in my still-imperfect English. These moments may have seemed small, but they were the quiet strength that carried me through my time far from home.
— LI Jing, Chia Health Fellow (Yale, 2024-’25)
In 1984, a young woman named Nina McPherson walked into a classroom at Central China Normal University in Wuhan.
At the time, none of us knew that she represented an organization with a history already stretching back more than eight decades. Nor did we understand that her presence in that classroom was part of a much larger story connecting New Haven and China, Yale and Yali, two cultures separated by oceans and political systems but joined by a quiet belief in the power of education.
To us, she was simply Nina.
— Tim Tang
My name is Wu Yujiao, from the People's Hospital of Huayuan County—a remote corner of western Hunan. When I was named a 2026 Western Hunan Chia Fellow, I left my hometown with a pounding heart. The truth is, I was terrified. On my first day at the Third Xiangya Hospital, my colleague Peng Qian and I walked into Professor Xie Jianfei's research group. We didn't know what to expect. Then we saw the cake. “Welcome to Sweety Town,” the theme read. In that small, warm ritual, I felt something I had not dared to hope for: You belong here.
— WU Yujiao, Chia Health Fellow (Xinagya, 2025-'26)
In 2019, I was fortunate to participate in a visiting program at Yale University sponsored by the Yale China Association. This precious journey left me with countless warm memories and profound inspiration. This photo perfectly captures a joyful moment from our gathering and certification ceremony. During my time at Yale, I immersed myself in an open and inclusive academic environment, exchanged ideas with outstanding scholars and kind-hearted friends from diverse backgrounds, and gained valuable insights far beyond textbooks…
— ZHENG Feng, Chia Health Fellow (Yale 2019-'20)
回望过去，作为雅礼协会的贾氏学者已经10年了。虽然因为个人原因，离开了原单位。但时至今日，我都能够很骄傲的说：我是一名贾氏学者。当初年仅25岁的我，有幸成为贾氏学者，开展的课题是《脑卒中患者的早期康复护理》，在湘雅学习阶段，我的导师陈华给了我很多帮助，她总是那么温柔体贴、Lucy杨老师也会经常关心我们，因为深知走出大山不容易、学习到新的知识不容易，所以我倍加珍惜，我学习了专业的知识，提升了专业的技能。当我带着所学知识回到原单位时，创建了康复专科，使更多的脑卒中患者能够回归社会，回归家庭，重拾自信，减轻家庭负担。那时候的我，连晚上做梦都会梦见这个病人手可以抬起来了、这个病人可以走路了等等。到目前为止，我一直以我是雅礼协会的贾氏学者为傲，当今年刚好面临换工作，面试官问我贾氏学者是什么？我依然可以很骄傲的说出贾氏学者的由来。我想，没有雅礼协会，就没有现在的自己，很感谢有这个机会，让我去学习本不可能接触的专业知识，愿雅礼。协会发展的越来越好，愿人类永远健康 。
— WANG Siwen, Chia Health Fellow (Xiangya 2014-'15)
In September of 1984, as a new student in Class 8403 in the English Department of Central China Normal Institute (now Central China Normal University) in Wuhan, Hubei, life was full of happy surprises and possibilities. We welcomed Ms. Nina McPherson as our first foreign teacher, who touched our lives, made huge influence on us during the two years she taught us English…
The way Nina committed to her teaching job and interacted with her students made her an unforgettable teacher for many of us and left a lasting mark on our lives in the years to come. I hope that young people from China and the US today can benefit from the open minds both countries demonstrated during that time and Yale-China could find people from both countries that are ready to open their minds and embrace a journey to understand people who speak different languages and learn from each other just like Ms. Nina McPherson.
— Julia Liu
— ZHANG Haiyan, Chia Health Fellow (Yale 2010)
For me, the two years I spent living and teaching at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1991-1993) transformed my world view… In Hong Kong I was exposed to an entirely new language, culture, and community. As I navigated the subway system and restaurants, I struggled to communicate. And in the New Territories, which had a much smaller international population than Hong Kong Island, I was a minority for the first time in my life. This experience was humbling and taught me to be curious and ask questions. I loved my students and my tenure launched me on a path as an educator.
— Sara Romeyn, Yale-China Fellow (Chinese University of Hong Kong 1991-’93)
于我而言，雅礼卫生项目带来的不仅是专业能力的提升，更有坚守基层的底气与信念。一批批湘西本土卫生工作者在项目赋能下成长起来，我们接续坚守、深耕乡土，把专业知识转化为惠民实效，持续完善乡村卫生服务，守护一方百姓健康。
从迷茫彷徨到坚定笃定，从被动履职到主动担当，我与雅礼协会卫生项目相伴同行，在山野间坚守初心、默默耕耘。未来，我也将带着这份馈赠继续前行，以微光护民生，以医者之力守护乡土安康。
— FENG Shengshi, Chia Health Fellow (Xiangya 2025-’26)
We truly appreciate the Yale-China Association for making my visit at Yale University so warm, welcoming, and enriching—both academically and personally. Thanks to their thoughtful support, we had wonderful opportunities to join in American holiday celebrations and connect more deeply with everyday life and culture in the U.S.
— QIU Tieying, Chia Health Fellow (Yale 2024-’25)
于我而言，雅礼卫生项目带来的不仅是专业能力的提升，更有坚守基层的底气与信念。一批批湘西本土卫生工作者在项目赋能下成长起来，我们接续坚守、深耕乡土，把专业知识转化为惠民实效，持续完善乡村卫生服务，守护一方百姓健康。
从迷茫彷徨到坚定笃定，从被动履职到主动担当，我与雅礼协会卫生项目相伴同行，在山野间坚守初心、默默耕耘。未来，我也将带着这份馈赠继续前行，以微光护民生，以医者之力守护乡土安康。
— LI Xian, Chia Health Fellow (Xiangya 2013-’14)
I got involved two decades ago, in 2006… China had expressed interest in medical education and exchange because there was no residency training program there. They only had the “barefoot doctor” as well as minimal training… We began to have exchanges of delegations coming from Changsha, China to here, as well as we were going there. Over the ensuing years we shared with them our United States model of training… In 2014 they established the Chinese Residency Training Program and that’s nationwide. Over the ensuing years, they have trained over one million residents. You have one million residents and they’re seeing thousands of patients a day. You can only imagine the impact of that.
— Barry Wu, Former Trustee
There are moments when history ceases to be a collection of dates and becomes something you feel in your bones. For me, that moment arrives every time I step off the plane in Changsha. The humid air, the surge of the Xiang River, and the modern skyline stand as testament to a city reborn. Yet beneath that modernity, I walk in the footsteps of giants. As great-grandson of Dr. Edward Hicks Hume, founder of what would become the Xiangya Hospital system, my life has been a series of bridges between a distant family past and the living, breathing Chinese present. As Yale-China celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2026, I find myself reflecting on the invisible ties that bind a Yale graduate from 1897 to the bustling Changsha of today.
— Nathan Shroyer, great-grandson of Dr. Edward Hicks Hume
In the winter of 2013, I arrived in New Haven as a Chia Fellow, hosted by Yale-China. There, Mr. Chia Peiyuan gathered four of us and shared the founding vision of the Chia Health Program—a vision, born years earlier, of planting seeds of health and hope across China. I still remember the cold outside, and the warmth inside that room. That seed grew into my first Chia project (2013-2014): systematically adapting behavioral activation for rural elders…
— XIE Jianfei, Chia Health Fellow (Yale 2013-’14)
The following incident stands unique among all my Yale-China experiences. It involves an interaction with a stranger. A stranger who did not approach me to practice speaking English. A stranger who did not stare at me, jaw hanging, because of my foreign face. A stranger who asked an everyday question, and taught me a lesson for a lifetime. One day in Changsha, I was going about my business on a city street. An older woman approached me, and asked if I knew where a certain street was… She reminded me not to take my good fortune for granted and to appreciate each individual for their own unique experiences. Though I never ran into this woman again, she lives forever in my memory. I am forever grateful to her.
— Jan Kleinman, Yale-China Fellow (Hunan Medical University 1983-'85)
Left: Me with young middle school English teachers who are studying at Huazhong Normal University in 1985.
Right: Me with my second-year English language students at Huazhong Normal University.
Photos submitted by Larry Grippo, Yale-China Fellow (Huazhong Normal University 1983-’85)
My parents attended Yale-in-China in the late 1930s, during the turmoil of the Japanese invasion of China. That both families chose to enroll their offspring to a missionary-founded middle school and then to Hua Chung amid ongoing conflict and economic hardship speaks to the vision of both sets of my grandparents… The years at Hua Chung had a profound and long-lasting positive influence on my parents. The classmates maintained life-long friendships—well into their elderly years—even after emigrating to the States and Europe.
— Florence Ling Myers
While I have many great memories from my time as a Yale-China Fellow in Xiuning, I am still especially moved when I think about our musical performances at the Haiyang Theater. Watching the students give their all on stage, surrounded by the joy of their family and friends, gave me a deep sense of pride in the mission of the fellowship and in the camaraderie among my co-fellows. Months of planning and rehearsal gave way to a few evenings each year when it felt as if the entire local community had come together, with parents filling the seats and isles to watch their children perform. I feel fortunate to have been a part of it. If I may say anything to future fellows, savor these moments and keep alive the tradition of the post-musical celebratory BBQ. And to my co-fellows, thank you for the memories.
— Tyler Hayward, Yale-China Fellow (Xiuning 2022-'24)
“Edmund (Ed) Henry Worthy, Jr. – educator, non-profit leader, and museum executive – died on March 27, 2021 from metastatic cancer.”
This is the beginning of the obituary written by Mr. Worthy himself.
In the fall of 1963, at New Asia College, (part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong), I met Mr. Edmund H. Worthy, who assisted me to overcome my language challenges as a Freshman in the English Department. My encounter with Mr. Worthy not only changed my dismal outlook on my future study in the Department, but also inspired me with the meanings of volunteerism in everyone’s life…
— Shiu-Fong (Ng, née) Tse
My story reflects on how Yale China has been a force for increasing American knowledge about China. As a Yale senior, I had a problem. I had developed an interest in Chinese history, and was thinking about graduate school. But I had never been to China. Yale China was the obvious solution. Not only did I get to China, I got to live there for 2 years, interact with many friends, students and colleagues, but I got a solid language foundation. To make a story short, I came back, went to graduate school, got a teaching position and, over the next 33 years taught about 5000 undergraduates, and about 15 Ph.D. students. I couldn't be more grateful to Yale China.
— R. Kent Guy, Yale-China Fellow (Chinese University of Hong Kong 1970-'72)
Experiencing education and teaching in a refugee college focused primarily on Chinese students in a British colonial outpost determined both that my future career would be in education and the basic principles that would guide my approach to that career. The purpose of education is universal: to develop the individual’s capacity to think clearly, critically, and creatively; to judge wisely and act humanely and ethically, and to communicate effectively…
— Gregory Prince, Yale-China Fellow (Chinese University of Hong Kong 1961-'63), Former Trustee
I studied at The Chinese University of Hong Kong during the 1980-81 school year under the Yale-China Program. This postgraduate year redirected me to a 40+ year career involving China. Through the Yale-China Program I also was fortunate to have a local student as my roommate. Yui Mei Mei and I (see photo) have now been friends for more than 45 years. We had a reunion at the Chinese University, visiting our dorm Bethlehem Hall, in March 2025. Thank you Yale-China for cultivating deep and long lasting people to people ties.
— Beth Keck, International Student Program in Hong Kong (1980-'81)
Photos submitted by Drew Nuland, Yale-China Fellow (Hunan Medical University 1986-’88), current Trustee
This meaningful experience at Yale-China broadened my horizons in education and inspired me to explore innovative teaching models. It laid a solid foundation for carrying out similar student-centered programs in my own school and has continued to shape my educational practice.
— XIE Jie (Janice), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2016-'17)
I was in my first year of the fellowship when COVID-19 started - and remember being stranded in Taiwan when the first quarantine in Wuhan happened. It was so challenging to do English pedagogy from abroad, but we were able to work together to do a virtual speech competition for the Yale-China kids. It was very cool and fun for everyone!
— Wayne Zhang, Yale-China Fellow (Yali 2019-'20)
Thanks to Yale-China, I know that home can be found and built wherever people choose to meet one another with openness, curiosity, and heart. I will forever treasure that rare and beautiful feeling of being held completely at ease, laughing until 2 a.m., never running out of things to say, finding comfort in people who, only weeks earlier, were strangers.
— Gillian Mui, Yale University-New Asia Exchange Program (2024-'25)
This is a second grade class I worked with. We always start our class with a simple 'ni hao' song so the kids as well as the classroom teacher were all very familiar with it. Luckily the class was taught in the music room so there were some simple instruments for the kids to work with. With the help of the music teacher, we combined Chinese class with music and it worked out great!
— LI Yu (Leah), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2023-'24)
Joining the basketball team was the best thing I did in New Haven! Everybody in the team is super nice and friendly. We praticed, fought in games and partied at each other's places. On the last game of the team, almost all my friends in New Haven came to support me! Thank you, all my friends! … Thanks to Yale-China Association, now I have good friends all over the world! …
— FAN Cuiyu (Jade), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2024-'25)
Thanks to Yale-China, the Judds, the Rogers and all the friends in New Haven which is always referred to as new heaven for me! Even during the Covid-19 pandemic all of them put me in the first place and sent me back to China earlier than planned for the sake of health. Even to the departure! What I have experienced in New Haven has turned me into a better person. All the thanks to Yale-China which made this wonder happen.
— XIE Yanran (Coco), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2019-'20)
This year marks the 10th year our family has been hosts/ambassadors for the Chinese teaching Fellows and the YUNA visitors in New Haven. We have so many favorite memories of holidays and conversations and time shared. Doing so many 'firsts' like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, sledding, skiing, skating, baking, hiking and so much more. Each of the Fellows has enriched our lives and we feel like we have 25 more 'family members.' We have travelled to China for a Fellow's wedding and visits, have celebrated the birth of new babies and watched (from here) the full lives of each Fellow. Thanks to Yale China for entrusting our family all these years and for expanding our family ties around the globe. All the best on this amazing milestone anniversary -- here's to another 125!
— The Judd Family
…We exchanged thoughtful gifts, the kind that make you feel seen. And somewhere between the dinner table and this photo, I stopped being a guest and started being family. This picture shows the year they held space for me in a foreign country, the way they turned 'staying' into belonging, and how two people can make you feel so loved, so seen, so at home, just by being exactly who they are…
— HOU Lidan (Helen), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2024-'25)
Going to the US with the help of Yale-China has been a dream coming true for me. So many good memories are shared and so many great friends made. Thanks!
— LI Xiaohong (Tina), Chinese Teaching Fellow in New Haven (2024-'25)