Current Fellows in Arts, Health, and, Education

2022 Yale-China Arts Fellow

Noah Fang is an ethnomusicologist who researches traditional Chinese musical forms and contemporary transnational music-making. As an artist-scholar, Noah is an experienced practitioner in the fields of music education and the contemporary global music industry. He has lectured at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Sichuan Conservatory of Music. As a music scholar, his research has been published in Art of Music (Journal of Shanghai Conservatory of Music), Ching Feng (A Journal on Christianity and Chinese Religion and Culture), Music, Individuals and Contexts: Dialectical Interactions, and Asian-European Music Research Journal. As a music critic, his critiques have been published in People’s Music, Opera Magazine of Shanghai Opera House, and International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), etc., and won several accolades for music criticism. Before his academic research career, Noah was a tenor and a singing coach. Noah is a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with an MA degree in Chinese Traditional Music. Noah is currently a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, from which he also holds his MPhil degree in the same field.

2022 HKETONY Arts Activator

Waillis is an experienced arts and cultural project planner and researcher. She is now working as a guest lecturer at The Education University of Hong Kong, teaching an undergraduate course on arts and cultural policy. Prior to that, she worked in the performing arts division of West Kowloon Cultural District for around 8 years, working on engagement strategy, including producing community engagement programs, devising audience engagement frameworks and program evaluation models for the performing arts division. With a cross-disciplinary mindset, Waillis aspires to draw meaningful connections between ideas, cultures, and people, and to bring about cross-sector arts innovation. Waillis was also a content editor and 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 two master’s degrees, the first in cultural studies from Goldsmiths College and the second in music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

2022 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.

2021-2022 Public Resources Fellow

Dora Guo (she/her/她) is passionate about building community and political consciousness within the Chinese Diaspora. She is an organizer with the Xīn Shēng | 心声 Project, a lover of art and dance, and the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Dora is a third year at Yale College majoring in Ethnicity, Race & Migration and part of the Education Studies Scholars Program.

2021-2022 Public Resources Fellow

Haorong Lee is a designer and aspiring architect, passionate about the relationship between nature, people and spaces. Her work centers around using design as tool to celebrate local culture, craftsmanship and create meaningful spaces for communities. Currently a first year Master of Architecture graduate student at Yale University, her work has led her on a range of projects, from working with communities in Chinatown to disaster relief proposals. Haorong’s interests also lie in biology, art and technology, where she hopes to continue to explore the interdisciplinary opportunities in design.

2022 Changsha Chia Fellow

Luxi Deng is a senior nurse in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. She has over ten years of experience in nursing practice and has published several research articles on delirium in critically ill patients. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Laura Kierol Andrews, Associate Professor of Nursing and Adult/Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Specialty Director at the Yale School of Nursing, with a joint clinical appointment at the Hospital of Central Connecticut at New Britain General. The topic of her Chia Fellowship project is “A study of the elderly with chronic pain in the rural areas of western Human Province: population and individual perspectives.”

2022 Changsha Chia Fellow

Yangfan Xiao is a deputy head nurse in the Department of Anesthesiology, the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University. She has ten years of experience in nursing practice and has published several academic articles with a particular focus on the perioperative period. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Mayur Desai, Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases) and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the 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 project is “A home psychosomatic rehabilitation exercise program based on WeChat platform for postoperative patients with breast cancer in western Hunan.”

2022 Kunming Chia Fellow

Na Zhao is a deputy head nurse in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of Yunnan Cancer Hospital. She has over ten years of experience in taking care of patients with malignant bone tumors and has published several research articles. She is interested in hospice care and had been in the Johns Hopkins Hospital to study hospice care for 22 days in 2017. Her research is about management of bone tumors in adolescent patients including psychological nursing and functional training. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. The topic of her Chia Fellowship project is “The role of family meetings in medical decision-making of ethnic minority osteosarcoma patients in Yunnan.”

2022 Kunming Chia Fellow

Nan Dai was born and raised in Kunming, China, and got her Ph.D. degree from the University of Western Australia in OZ. she has been a psychiatrist for more than ten years and works as Deputy Chief Physician at the Department of Psychiatry of the First Hospital Affiliated to Kunming Medical University. Her research focuses on mechanism and treatment of mental illnesses and some articles have been published in the field. She is also a lecturer in Kunming Medical University and teaches subjects of psychiatry and medical psychology. Her faculty mentor at Yale is Dr. Joan Monin, Associate Professor at the Yale School of Public Health. The topic of her Chia Fellowship project is “Preventing mental health problems in family caregivers of individuals with mental illness in Yunnan Province: a follow-up study in the community.” In her free time in New Haven, she enjoys exploring fantastic Yale libraries and art gallery, and different local foods.

NHPS Language Fellow at John C. Daniels

Born in Japan and raised in Shanghai, China, Chika is a senior international visiting student from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, currently studying at Yale College. A trilingual third-culture individual with an international background, Chika is thrilled to join the Yale-China fellowship where she will be a Chinese teaching fellow at John Daniels School. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Chinese food places in New Haven and trying out different boba menus at Loose Leaf (her current favorite is Matchacado Tea with honey boba and grass jelly toppings!)

NHPS Language Fellow at Co-op High School and Metropolitan Business Academy

William will graduate from Yale College in Dec. 2022 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and Economics. He studied at the Harvard Beijing Academy as a Richard U. Light Fellow in 2019 and spent a summer in Xi’an through the U.S. State Department’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth in 2016. Originally from Boston, William conducted research for The Wire China, a digital subscription magazine, on a gap semester in spring 2021 and has also participated in Yale’s Fields Program for advanced language study. Outside of the classroom, he has been involved with the Yale Daily News as a beat reporter and Sports and Digital Editor and recently deepened his interest in climate change and energy by working for ADL Ventures. In his free time, William enjoys exploring cities, eating a good bagel or burrito, and playing pickup basketball.

NHPS Culture Fellow at John C. Daniels

Lynn Lee is a First-Year at Yale College interested in majoring in History or Urban Studies. Having grown up in Hong Kong and Seoul, Lynn is passionate about bridging cultures and understanding local history. Over the past two years, Lynn has been studying Japan’s transition from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji era, as well as challenges faced by the Qing dynasty in China. In her free time, Lynn enjoys running outdoors, exploring used bookstores, and listening to indie music.

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 Yali High School

Born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan, Gulminay graduated from Yale with a B.A. in History in 2022. She is thrilled about teaching for the first time in China, as she hopes to work in education policy going forward. At Yale, her focus was on South Asian history, but she now plans to delve deeper into Chinese history while in Changsha. She is eager to experience the intersection of China’s historical legacy and developing future. She is particularly excited to learn Mandarin and explore Chinese culture as she has never done so before and believes that such a rare opportunity will help her grow and learn greatly.

Gulminay is delighted to join the Yale-China community, to take on her first professional role, meet the students at Yali High School, and immerse herself in new hobbies in Changsha. She is grateful for the opportunity to study a new language and absorb a new culture and cannot wait to begin teaching!

Yale-China Fellow at Yali High School

Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Anna Tran Mei En 美恩 (she/they) is an aspiring public health educator with a particular interest in urban health care disparities. Graduating from Yale University in 2022 with a B.A. in History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health, their research tracks the histories of community-based health care, China's barefoot doctor ideology with the rise of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and redefines patient power in New York City communities of color during the 1970s. Anna has also worked with the Clinical and Translational Research Accelerator (CTRA) at the Yale School of Medicine as part of the Kidney Biobank project, with a 2022 publication on utilizing urine testing as a non-invasive procedure to differentiate glomerular from tubulointerstitial kidney diseases. Prior to research, Anna has also worked as a Public Health Educator for Peers (PHEP) and volunteered with Matriculate, a nonprofit organization helping low-income students apply for college. They are excited to cultivate new relationships with their students and learn what it means to be an educator.

Staying true to their Sino-Vietnamese roots, Anna is constantly trying to maintain their language skills in Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Vietnamese all at once, which helps them feel closer to home when they're far away. They are an avid fan of drumming, crocheting, listening to music, watching dramas, and cooking challenging recipes.

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

Allen was born in Michigan to parents that immigrated from China. He graduated from Yale in 2018 with a degree 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 educating through sports in the future. His other interests include psychology and neuroscience, sports as a cultural medium of understanding, exploring the natural world, and learning the teachings from different cultures.

Allen is excited to join the Yale-China and Yali 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.

Doug Murray Fellow at Xiuning Middle School

Tyler is from El Paso, Texas, and graduated from Yale University with an M.A. in East Asian Studies where he concentrated on China, political economy, and development economics. He graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Chinese Studies from the University of Houston in 2019 and attended Peking University in 2017 and 2018 as part of the Chinese Government Scholarship Program.

Tyler is excited to join the Yale-China and Xiuning family, and for the opportunity to teach students while exploring Huangshan and historic southern Anhui.

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

Kento was born in Japan and grew up in Honolulu, Hawai’i. He graduated from Yale in 2020 with a B.A. in Linguistics and East Asian Studies and studied remotely at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center with support from the Richard U. Light Fellowship. He wrote his Linguistics senior essay on the discourse functions and syntax of vocatives, elements which refer to and attract the attention of the addressee, in Fuyang Wu Chinese spoken near Hangzhou, China. His East Asian Studies senior essay examined ways in which the “tapioca boom” in Japan reflected and produced multilayered associations of tapioca, its consumers, and Taiwan with femininity, as well as the lingering impact of colonialism on transnational cultural flows between Japan and Taiwan. Outside of the classroom, Kento was active in the Japanese American Students Union, Chinese American Students Association, and Yale Undergraduate Science Olympiad. In his free time, he enjoys gardening and trying new foods. He is excited to explore the food scene in Hong Kong and grateful for the opportunity to engage with students and local communities for the next two years.

Yale-China Fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong

Born and raised in Maryland, Amy graduated from Yale in 2021 with a B.S. in Cognitive Science. Her senior thesis was conducted with the Affective Science and Culture Lab and examined shifts in individuals’ emotional domains after they moved to new cultural contexts. Amy enjoyed volunteering in New Haven, and she was also involved with the Asian American Cultural Center, the Yale Farm, and her residential college community. She is excited to teach and grow in Hong Kong for the next two years.