Current Fellows in Arts, Health, and, Education

2021 Yale-China Arts Fellow

Kit Hung graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an MFA in the Department of Film, Video and New Media. He is currently a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University in the Academy of Film. His films have won numerous international awards and were screened at over 120 international film festivals. His debut feature "Soundless Wind Chime" was one of the 3 finalists nominated for the Teddy Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, released in more than 16 countries in 6 languages. His second feature "Stoma" was nominated for the Firebird Award in the 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival and is selected for the Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan, 2020). He is currently a practice-based-research student in the Department of Media and Communication at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. His research interest is in queer intimacy, queer kinship, hauntology, screen-based media studies, and media practices.

2021 HKETONY Arts Activator

Waillis Lee is an experienced arts and cultural project planner and researcher. In her current capacity at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong, Waillis is responsible for strategic planning and research, devising strategic models and frameworks for the performing arts division, including program evaluation models and audience engagement strategies. With a cross-disciplinary mindset, Waillis is aspired to draw meaningful connections between ideas, cultures and people, and to bring about cross-sectors arts innovation. Waillis had previously been a content editor and a contributing writer for publications on cultural issues and policy as she worked for the avant-garde theatre group Zuni Icosahedron in Hong Kong. She holds a master’s degree in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College, and a master’s in music from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

2021 HKETONY Arts Activator

Hollis Ngai is a bilingual actor, director and a Drama educator. Professionally trained at National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (B.F.A in Acting), Hollis also holds a B.A in English from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. As an interdisciplinary artist, he has performed, taught, and collaborated with international organizations. In 2013, Hollis was selected by KSF Foundation to perform a devised performance in New York based on the “Richards Rampage Program.” In 2016, he was invited by Back to Back Theatre (Geelong, Australia) as a visiting artist for an international residency after a fruitful collaboration on the project <Small Metal Objects> organized by West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. As an English Drama teacher for more than ten years, Hollis writes and designs educational curriculums for primary, secondary schools, and community centres. He has also studied at the Impulse Company (London), William Esper Studio (New York) and L’Ecole Phillippe Gaulier (Paris) before establishing his own theatre company to experiment devising theatre in relation to physical movement, multimedia, clowning, and acting. He is also provisionally certified as a Meisner Technique Teacher from the Meisner Institute (Los Angeles) and currently developing new work with Cinematic Theatre to be shown at the San Francisco International Arts Festival in 2021.

2020 Yale-China Arts Fellow

ZENG Hong is an academic, curator, and art critic based in Hong Kong. She received a M.A. in Cinema Studies and a Ph.D. in Visual Art Studies. Her research interests lie in contemporary art in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region in China, as well as gender politics in film. She is a part-time lecturer at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, and the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her publications include academic article in refereed journal Asian Cinema, and critiques in Art World Magazine, HK01 and Stand News. She is the curator and exhibition producer of Blown Away—Art, Science and Extreme Weather (Tai Kwun, 2019). She is involved as one of the art practitioners of Art Readers, as well as one of the selected emerging art professionals of Para Site in 2018.

2020 HKETONY Arts Activator

Jeremy Hung is a Chinese-American filmmaker and educator from Hong Kong. He has experience working in the American, German and Hong Kong film industries, and his work in film has been recognized by institutes such as the American Cinema Editors and the Asian Film Awards Academy. His goal as a filmmaker is to portray emerging international identities on screen by exploring the complex interactions between Eastern and Western culture in today’s globalized world. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Jeremy founded Babel Film Workshop in 2018 to advance and advocate visual literacy education in Hong Kong. His goal as an educator is to design innovative workshops that teach film as a language to students of all ages, backgrounds and interests. Jeremy is currently developing his first feature film, and actively exploring new ways to engage the wider community in film culture.

2020 HKETONY Arts Activator

Chi-yung Wong is a cross-disciplinary artist-curator whose work covers experiential installation, light installation, creative education, and cultural exchanges between the arts and sciences. Chi-yung’s specialization in light has led him to create and install exhibitions involving interdisciplinary collaborations across the fields of theatre lighting and architecture lighting. Chi-yung’s interest in cross-cultural partnerships and his desire to expand his leadership skills have led him in pursuit of various goals on his path to become an artist-curator, such as creating and leading projects between Europe and Hong Kong; fostering communication and collaboration between artists and scientists; developing artistic-initiatives for mental health awareness; and helping to implement creative education proposals for underprivileged teenagers.

2019 Kunming Chia Fellow

Lu Jin is Deputy Chief Physician at the Department of Psychiatry of the First Hospital Affiliated to Kunming Medical University. She has over 10 years of experience practicing psychiatry and has published several research articles on psychiatric issues spanning from addiction to anxiety and depression. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Michael Bloch, Associate Professor in the Child Study Center; Associate Director of the Albert J. Solnit Integrated Training Program; and Associate Director of the Tic and OCD Program. The topic of her Chia fellowship research project is “The prognosis of early-onset schizophrenia — a prospective study.”

2019 Kunming Chia Fellow

Yang Jiao is a Nurse in the Thoracic Surgery Department of Yunnan Cancer Hospital. In 2018, she received First Prize in the 1st National Nursing Teaching Competition in China, and in 2015, was a recipient of the National Scholarship in China. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Mayur Desai, Associate Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology; Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Yale School of Public Health; Director of the Advanced Professional MPH Program; and a Core Faculty member of the National Clinician Scholars Program. The topic of her Chia fellowship research project is “Preferences on breaking bad news in cancer hospitals of Yunnan province.”

2019 Changsha Chia Fellow

Zheng Feng a Head Nurse and Associate Professor in the Department of Cardiology, Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. She has over 12 years of experience in nursing practice and has published several research articles with a special focus on patient medication literacy. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Soohyun Nam, Associate Professor of the Adult-Gerontological, Family, and Women’s Health nurse practitioner specialty and PhD program at the Yale School of Nursing. The topic of her Chia fellowship research project is “Health coaching intervention to improve self-management for people with hypertension in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.”

2019 Changsha Chia Fellow

Zhou Wei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Hunan University. She was formerly a post-doctoral Fellow at the Central South University School of Public Health and has over 7 years of experience in public health research. She has published several research articles, with a particular focus on mental health policy. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor of Microbial Disease Epidemiology and Program Director of the BA-BS/MPH Program in Public Health at Yale. The topic of her Chia fellowship research project is “Informed consent in inpatient psychiatric services in China: a qualitative study incorporating perspectives of patients, families and healthcare providers.”

Chinese Teaching Fellow at Worthington Hooker School

Zeen was born and brought up in Shaanxi Province of northern China. She attended The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2014 and graduated with a B. A. in Philosophy this summer. Though having gained valuable insights from her academic training, Zeen believes the wisdom of the worldly affairs to be more desirable. She worked as an intern in an NGO at her senior years with a focus on the left-behind children in rural Shaanxi. And she hopes to continue her service in this area after going back to China. Beyond that, Zeen loves literature and arts. She learned some traditional Chinese opera at college and has practiced Chinese calligraphy for over 7 years. She will try her best to be a good Chinese teacher and cultural ambassador in New Haven public schools.

Chinese Teaching Fellow at John C. Daniels School

Born and raised in Hunan province, China, Coco is excited to serve as a Yale-China Fellow for Chinese teaching. In Hunan, she obtained a B.A. in English teaching and worked as an English teacher for 6 years. Inside classroom, Coco was heavily involved in introducing cultural differences between English and Chinese. Outside of work, she spent time travelling abroad to experience different cultures and languages. Coco is eager to take her teaching experience and the ability to speak English to the next level by becoming a Chinese teaching fellow at John C Daniels in New Haven. Let the adventure begin!

Yale-China Fellow at Yali High School

Born in Shanghai, China, but raised in the United States since age 2, Wayne is eager to reconnect with his Chinese roots through Yale-China. As a political science major and Education Studies scholar, he studied the recruitment of teachers of color in the classroom, and the positive effects that it has on students. Outside the classroom, Wayne dove on the varsity Swimming and Diving Team, reported for the Yale Daily News, produced free-lance films for Yale academic departments and local non-profits, interned at Co-Op Arts and Humanities High School, and taught sex education, international relations, and education policy to New Haven students through other organizations.

Wayne spent one summer teaching for the Ulysses S. Grant Foundation, a non-profit summer program for gifted New Haven students, and another summer working in Hong Kong for EF Education First, the world’s largest private education company. This past year, Wayne was a Fulbright Scholar teaching English at a high school in Strasbourg, France—and is excited to bring the American and French culture he has lived into his classroom. He enjoys traveling, discussing politics, reading multicultural literature, practicing French and Chinese, and cooking. Wayne hopes to gain as much experience as possible teaching at Yale China in order to gain a more holistic picture of global education.

Yale-China Fellow at Yali High School

Jesús Yáñez is excited to join the Yale-China Fellowship at Yali High School. They were born in Coahuila, México, but immigrated to the U.S., where they settled in the Greater New Haven Area when they were three years old. Jesús completed a B.A. in Ethnicity, Race, & Migration (ER&M) while at Yale College. Their research for the year-long thesis in ER&M focused on developing a new knowledge of queer Latinx families that highlighted the voices of trans Latinx folk. They also participated in a range of activities throughout their time at Yale such as dancing with Yale’s Mexican Folkloric group, organizing the Latinx Ivy League Conference, and they were a First-Year Scholars at Yale counselor. Jesús is a lover of language learning and they are excited to begin learning Mandarin during their time in China as well as continuing to study Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Korean. Beyond that, Jesús is an avid skincare, makeup, and hair fan and is particularly interested in learning more about health and beauty in China. Jesús is also very excited to have the opportunity to meet and learn with the students at Yali as they explore their interests, both personal and academic, in Changsha!

Yale-China Fellow at Yali High School

Hailing from Lombard, Illinois, Daniel is champing at the bit to see more of the world after a Midwestern upbringing steeped in corn, soy, and then corn again. Daniel will be an English teaching fellow at Yali High School in Changsha, which he is very excited about, because it will finally give him an excuse to be linguistically prescriptivist. While he graduated with a double major in Linguistics and Computer Science, most of Daniel's time on campus was spent in the Stiles Buttery, where he worked for one year and did no schoolwork for four. He was a very active member of the Ezra Stiles College community, hosting weekly Game Nights, organizing a contra dance, and helping run all sorts of other college events. Also a FOOT Leader, he is looking forward to exploring a totally new landscape in China's mountainous terrain. Though he has no prior experience speaking Mandarin, Daniel is sure he'll be able to accomplish the most essential tasks, such as ordering food at a restaurant, apologizing profusely to passersby, and being able to tell when people are muttering about him behind his back in public.

More than anything, Daniel is looking forward to making connections with his students and fellow Fellows over his time with Yale-China. He trusts the Fellowship will provide him with invaluable experience as he tries to find his place in the world. Hope to see you soon, Changsha!

Yale-China Fellow at Yali High School

Born and raised in Albany, NY, Isaac graduated from Yale College in 2020 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies. He has taken foreign language courses (Mandarin and Spanish) every semester at Yale, and he is thrilled at the prospect of being a foreign language teacher for the first time. Isaac was heavily involved in music at Yale, participating in a cappella groups like Mixed Company and the Whiffenpoofs, as well as chamber choirs like Battell Chapel Choir and the Yale Repertory Chorus. He is excited to implement music as part of his pedagogy.

Yale-China Fellow at Yuanling No. 1 Middle School

Kate is excited to start her third year as a Yale-China Fellow, this time at Yuanling No. 1 Middle School. Originally from Chappaqua NY, she first came to Yale-China in 2018 after graduating with a B.A. in linguistics and absolutely no knowledge of Mandarin or China. At Yale, Kate was very involved with Ezra Stiles College, as a member of the college council, intramural teams, and as a First-Year Counselor. She also founded the ASL club at Yale, and volunteered as a Girl Scout leader, which she now misses both for the endless supply of cookies and for the relationships she has built with some amazing girls over four years. As she waits to return to China, she has been working as the Director of Delivery Fulfillment for Invisible Hands Delivers, a non-profit that connects volunteer grocery shoppers with elderly, sick, and other high-risk individuals who cannot shop for themselves in a pandemic.

Kate spent a year and a half as an English Teaching Fellow at Xiuning Middle School in Anhui province. In that year and a half, she has been able to learn so much more about Chinese culture and Mandarin than she could have ever imagined, thanks to an incredible community of neighbors, teachers, friends, and students that welcomed her with open arms. While there, in addition to teaching Oral English classes, she had the opportunity to interact with students in informal conversation in the English Library, direct them in an English language musical, mentor a small group of students as they applied to an American summer program, and even lead a baking club. She loved watching her students grow over two years, not just in English ability, but in confidence. While her time at Xiuzhong was abruptly cut short due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Kate is grateful that she has been able to stay in touch with her friends and students through messages, video calls, and a Yale-China-wide student speech competition.

Kate is very excited to begin teaching at Yuanling No. 1 Middle School and to help build the foundation there for a thriving partnership like the one she was so lucky to experience in Xiuning.

Yale-China Fellow at Yuanling No. 1 Middle School

From El Paso, Texas, Tyler Hayward is currently a master’s student pursuing a degree in East Asian Studies at the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His primary research focus is the political economy of China, with a particular interest in the intersection between economic and institutional development. He graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Chinese Studies from the University of Houston in 2019, and attended Peking University for the 2017-2018 school year on a Chinese Government Scholarship. During the summer of 2020, Tyler served as a Lead Instructor for the Yale Young Global Scholars – Connect program, and is excited to continue both his academic and his teaching career with the Yale-China Association. Outside of school, Tyler enjoys walking, running, and hiking as it allows him to see the world at a slower pace than he would through the window of a plane, train, or automobile.

Yale-China Fellow at Xiuning Middle School

Ronald is a Yale graduate of the Class of 2018. While at Yale, he majored in Political Science with a concentration in Urban Studies, while also exploring international security and diplomacy. In the year since graduating Ronald has facilitated discussions on leadership in classrooms throughout the world. More recently he has worked in operations at Prep for Prep. As a Yale-China Fellow Ronald hopes to continue learning about the international community and its inhabitants, while also working towards personal and professional growth. Ronald was born and raised in New York City.

Yale-China Fellow at Xiuning Middle School

Born in South Africa but raised in London, Caderyn is excited to bridge his American experience with his English upbringing while teaching at Xiuning. Having graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Archaeology and Classics, he is now interested in exploring Chinese cultural heritage and archaeology while in the country. During previous summers, he was involved in an archaeological dig in central Anatolia as well as a digital archaeology project in the Balkans and hopes to carry this experience forward. As a Classicist, he has studied a few European languages (some of which are still spoken) and began learning Turkish his freshman year but has never studied Chinese. Nonetheless, he is eager to begin learning the language and making friends, as well as to begin formal teaching.

With respect to teaching, Caderyn spent his Yale career as a dedicated member of Bridges ESL, a student-run tutoring organization. He also worked as an undergraduate course development assistant, training future teachers in the Math department, and taught Business English to a Turkish start-up during a semester abroad in Istanbul. His favorite sports are badminton and ping-pong, and he hopes to have ample opportunities to play both while at Xiuning.

He is thrilled to be joining the Yale-China family, and looks forward to two years of teaching, reflection, and studies.

Yale-China Fellow at Xiuning Middle School

Victor Jose Padilla Castellanos joins the Yale-China Fellows at Xiuning Middle school having just graduated with a B.A in History. At Yale he spent much of his time exploring places where law, memory and language intersect. His senior essay, “Remembering for the Petitioner: Memory and Law in the Chinese Habeas Corpus Mill of the Federal District Court of California” examined the surprising success of Chinese litigants in contesting their exclusion through Habeas Corpus Proceedings in Federal Court between 1882 and 1892. Outside the classroom, he was heavily involved in New Haven’s immigration law environment, working as a researcher for the Immigrant Bail Fund and a language interpreter for New Haven Legal Assistance Association. Through his time in China, Victor hopes to learn a new language and create life long relationships with his students and community.

Yale-China Fellow at Xiuning Middle School

Allen was born in Michigan to parents that immigrated from China. He graduated from Yale in 2018 with a B.S. in Computer Science. At Yale, he played on the varsity Soccer team for 2 years and also was an Intro to Computer Science (CS50) teaching assistant. Prior to that, he coached soccer at his local community’s Chinese school and hopes to revisit his interest in education through sports in the future. His other interests include psychology and neuroscience, sports as a cultural medium of understanding, discussing the ramifications of technological advancements in societies, and exploring the natural world.

Allen is excited to join the Yale China family and start formal teaching. Having worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as a software engineer for the past 2 years, he looks forward to developing as an educator while learning from the many new experiences to come.

Yale-China Fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Joe graduated from Yale with a B.A. in the History of Art in 2019. He’s interested in modern and contemporary art and art criticism, and his thesis examined the art of the early Russian avant-garde during World War I. He enjoyed sharing his interest in art with the broader Yale and New Haven communities by leading tours at Yale’s Art Gallery, and he also served as a GED tutor for incarcerated young men Manson Youth Institution through the Yale Prison Project.

Joe also served as the captain of Yale’s men’s rugby team. A first XV scrum half for three years, he racked up All-Ivy and Academic All-Ivy Awards. In 2018 he led the team on a competitive tour to Asia that included a week in Hong-Kong. He’s excited be back for next two years to teach and learn through the Yale-China Fellowship.

Yale-China Fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Robbie Short grew up near Sacramento, California, and joins the Yale-China Fellowship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong after completing a B.A. in history at Yale. In his undergraduate studies, he focused on the histories of immigrant groups in the U.S., particularly those of Asian American communities in the American West. His senior thesis explored the ideological construction of Japanese Americans’ use of the Japanese language as “anti-American” during the Second World War. Outside of the classroom, Robbie worked as a photojournalist for various campus and professional publications; taught English to recent arrivals in New Haven as the coordinator of Bridges ESL, a student-run tutoring organization; and mentored new students as a First-Year Counselor in Pauli Murray College, among other pursuits. Although he has spent some time in Asia—studying in South Korea for a summer and working in Singapore for another—Hong Kong, China, Mandarin, and Cantonese are all new to him. He’s excited to spend the next two years teaching, learning, reflecting, and blooming.

Yale-China Fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Sharyn is so excited to serve and grow as a Yale-China fellow at CUHK! She graduated from Yale in Dec 2019 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies. Her thesis focused on human trafficking from Vietnam into China, examining factors that included the historical commodification of women in China, Ruist ideology and the effects of China’s One-Child Policy, the use of social media as a tool for entrapment, the community and kinship networks that sustain trafficking, and on-going challenges in data collection. In her free time as an undergraduate, Sharyn did hip-hop and contemporary dance with Danceworks, sound-designed for the Yale theater scene, and worked part-time as a media tech/ graphic designer for the Student Tech Collaborative (STC). She is so grateful for the various Yale grants, fellowships, and financial aid awards that had allowed her to spend extended time abroad studying, researching, and interning in China and Vietnam. Sharyn has never been to Hong Kong before and eagerly awaits meeting her new students, becoming fluent in Cantonese, and getting herself into more activities than she probably has time for.

Prior to starting her Yale-China fellowship, Sharyn worked for the STC as an assistant manager.

Yale-China Fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Kelly was born and raised in New Haven County and also attended university there, so she is more than excited to spend the next two years in the completely different environment of Hong Kong. She graduated with a B.A. in Psychology, and wrote her thesis on the possible relationship between language of instruction and social orientation in Hong Kong. Outside of class, she was heavily involved in planning social events for her residential college as part of the Branford College Council, tutoring ESL students for Bridges ESL, and building the interfaith and Asian American communities at Yale. In her free time, Kelly enjoys exploring diverse international music genres and learning new languages (…although she may or may not be forgetting most of what she’s learned). Fun fact: she can also play some of the traditional Korean drums!

Although she has traveled briefly to Hong Kong in the past, Kelly is looking forward to engaging with the community at a much deeper level than she had previously. She is particularly excited to have thought-provoking cross-cultural discussions with her students, improve her native-but-nowhere-near-fluent Cantonese, and mature on both a personal and professional level.