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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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
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
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
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
“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
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
When Kim and Mike Rogers began hosting Yale-China Teaching Fellows in 2012, they expected to offer little more than a spare room and some home-cooked meals. Instead, they built lifelong bonds with dozens of Fellows, weaving them into family holidays, traditions, and trips to China. More than a decade later, the connections have grown so deep that one Fellow's daughter—born on Thanksgiving Day—calls Kim her 'American grandmother.'
— The Rogers Family