Passages: Tradition Meets Innovation
With installations, delegations, innovations, and more, annual traditions and new developments are coming together to make this spring an exciting one in the world of Yale-China.
Hunan Governor Visits Yale-China
Yale-China was pleased to host Hunan Governor MAO Weiming along with representatives from Xiangya Medical School and the Hunan government for a visit in April.
Read more about the visit below.
Students and Fellows Take the Stage
As the school year comes to a close, Fellows in China and the U.S. celebrated milestones with students and friends. With musicals in Anhui and Hunan and final presentations in New Haven, the end of the year comes with many huge accomplishments.
Read more about the year-end activities below.
Artist Residency Explores Memory and Community
Yale-China’s inaugural Artist Residency, led by Jennifer Yuqing Cao alongside a team of artists from Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama, will debut their experiential installation The Mailroom at New Haven’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas later this month.
Read more about Jennifer’s residency and installation below.
Yale-China Welcomes New Staff
Yale-China is excited to announce the arrival of two new staff members in the New Haven Office. In April, we welcomed Theresa McDonald, Yale-China’s new Administrative Assistant and Office Manager, followed in June by new Director of Health Programs WU Di.
Read more about Theresa and Di on the Yale-China website.
Yale-China Receives Three Generous Grants
Yale-China recently received three grants, including our first-ever cryptocurrency donation, to support our work promoting people-to-people exchanges and cross-cultural understanding.
Read more about the grants and their impact below.
Hunan Governor Visits Yale-China
Only a few short months after Hunan’s Lieutenant Governor QIN Guowen came to New Haven for the unveiling of the bust of Yan Fuqing, Governor MAO Weiming visited Yale-China to promote cross-cultural exchange and partnership. Accompanied by leadership from the Hunan Government, Central South University, and Xiangya Medical School and Hospital, he met with Yale-China’s president John Frisbie, Vice President Leslie Stone, and Health Committee members.
During the meeting and the ensuing lunch, Governor Mao and the entire delegation emphasized the importance of people-to-people cooperation in education and health care. Noting that Hunan seeks to stay competitive, cultivate talent, and support long-life and good health, he said that Hunan is lucky to have Yali High School and Xiangya as nationally respected institutions in education and healthcare. He was pleased to be making his third visit to New Haven, a sister city to Changsha.
President John Frisbie underscored Yale-China’s commitment to its programs and partnerships in Hunan. He described the impact of current programs in health and education, conveyed the hope to expand these programs in alignment with the Hunan government’s and partners' priorities, and asked for the governor’s support as Yale-China explores developing an arts exchange program. Governor Mao responded positively to the role and work of Yale-China.
Governor Mao separately met with Yale President Peter Salovey. The Xiangya delegation joined that meeting and also met with Yale School of Medicine Dean Nancy Brown and Associate Dean Robert Rohrbaugh, who is a member of the Yale-China Health Committee.
“When Presidents Biden and Xi met in California last year, they said they support people-to-people exchanges. That is exactly what Yale-China and our Hunan partners do. Yale-China is committed to people-to-people exchanges between Americans and Chinese.”
Students and Fellows Take the Stage
Each year the Yale-China Fellows teaching at high school sites in China cast, choreograph, and direct a selection of their students in an English language musical. This beloved tradition provides students with the opportunity to use English outside the classroom, perform, and learn more about a piece of American culture. This year, one performing art wasn’t enough for Xiuning Fellows Matthew Jordan, Tyler Hayward, Angelreana Choi, and Taylor Triplett: each of the two shows of High School Musical opened with a performance by a Fellow-led student dance troupe. At Yali, where students took to the stage as dragons, ogres, and talking gingerbread cookies in Shrek: The Musical, Fellows Anna Tran, Gulminay Lone, Isa Zou, and Julia Arancio saw the opportunity to continue their students' cultural education while also acknowledging their achievement. Realizing that the script was full of references to American delicacies their students had never heard of the Fellows hosted an after-party for the cast and crew, where they were able to both celebrate their successful performances and experience the magic of gingerbread men, s’mores, parfait, and more firsthand.
In New Haven, the Chinese Teaching Fellows were the ones in the spotlight as members of Yale-China’s staff, their schools, New Haven ambassador families, and friends came to wish them well at an end-of-year reception. Each Fellow presented on their time in New Haven, sharing the lessons they learned both in and out of the classroom, and how the experience will shape them in the future. Speaking on topics ranging from teaching different age groups and learning new classroom management skills to trying new foods and volunteering at the local soup kitchen, Fellows LI Yu (Leah), YAN Bo (Bob), and YIN Dalong (Victor) each made clear how much they had grown during their year in New Haven. While they will be sad to leave what Victor referred to as his “home away from home” they will take with them their accomplishments and friendships as they return to Changsha.
“As I prepare to leave, I know that the memories and lessons from New Haven will remain with me. The cultural richness, community spirit, educational opportunities, simple joys, and historical depth are aspects of New Haven that I will miss dearly, but they have also shaped me in ways that will resonate long after I have left.”
Artist Residency Explores Memory and Community
Yale-China Artist Resident Jennifer Yuqing Cao, a first year MFA student at the David Geffen School of Drama, believes in the power of storytelling and collaboration. The experiential installation The Mailroom, which will run from June 22-23rd at New Haven’s Off-Broadway Theatre as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, reimagines a mailroom as an ethereal space where information, objects, relationships, stories, and emotions converge, intertwine, and eventually disappear. Through this multi-sensory experience, the project delves into the intricacies of community formation and transformation, aiming to foster connections within our communities and inviting reflections on the enigmatic essence of collective memory.
This spirit of community connection runs deeply through this inaugural residency. Throughout the program, the team of students have worked in collaboration, first to put on a series of workshops for New Haven residents, ranging from high school students to senior citizens, to think about the power of memory and storytelling and then to create The Mailroom based on their collective childhood memories of Chinese mailrooms. A living example of the connection addressed in the installation, one of the collaborators, Joy Chen, has been a member of the Yale-China community since long before this project. A graduate of Yali High School, she was once taught by Yale-China Fellows; now, her Yale-China story has begun anew.
To learn more about the project and reserve free tickets, visit the Arts & Ideas website.
“We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to collaborate on this project. It offers us a rare and unique opportunity to work closely together while crafting something deeply meaningful. Though we have a challenging artistic vision to bring to life, we are enjoying the journey immensely, and we’re excited to continue the creative process leading up to the opening.”
Yale-China Receives Three Generous Grants
Yale-China recently received three grants to support our work promoting people-to-people exchanges and cross-cultural understanding. The grants include $25,000 from The Starr Foundation, $75,000 from the Li Foundation, and Yale-China’s first ever cryptocurrency donation, from the Mask Network Academy.
The cryptocurrency grant from the Mask Network Academy, the non-profit arm of Mask Network, provides $62,500 for each of the next three years in support of Yale-China’s Education and Artist Residency programs.
The $75,000 from the Li Foundation reflects a shared belief in the value of bilateral educational exchange: these funds will go to support one American Yale-China Fellow teaching at Yali High School in Changsha and one Chinese Teaching Fellow from Yali teaching in New Haven public schools.
The Starr Foundation awarded Yale-China a $25,000 grant for general operating support. The new grant continues the Starr Foundation’s generous support of Yale-China’s mission over several decades.
Yale-China is deeply grateful to the Mask Network Academy, the Starr Foundation, and the Li Foundation for their generous support.
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