My family is Chinese-American. Since my early 20s, I have immersed myself in the study of Chinese history, tradition, and culture. In 1994, I began travelling to China. Between 1996 and 2008, I was a consultant and a writer for The Amity Foundation, based in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1985, Amity is an independent Chinese non-profit organization with global recognition. I worked under the direction of Wu An An, the Administrator of Amity’s Social Welfare Programs. For a quarterly English-language newsletter, I wrote articles about Amity’s programs serving less-prosperous Chinese families. My writing primarily addressed the issues of women’s rights and gender equality. In China, I conducted site visits and interviewed individuals whom our programs served.  My articles raised awareness of Amity’s programs and were a catalyst to raising over one million US dollars. 

I studied art at Bard College. I have given Chinese drawing and painting workshops at the Pawling Free Library in Pawling NY and I have had private art students and group classes. 

I am a member of Northern Westchester Chinese School (NWCS), an accredited, independent language, arts, and culture school in New York, founded in 1969. I study Chinese language (reading, writing, and speaking) with S. L. Wang, Ph.D., and Chinese painting and calligraphy with Sheng-Shih Liu-Lin. At NWCS, I also studied Chinese dance, music, martial arts, and origami. Because of my skill and my rapport with children, I was invited to teach “Songs, Games, and Dances in Chinese” to our Pre-K and Kindergarten students. I contributed to NWCS’s annual Chinese New Year show and I was a cultural ambassador and outreach coordinator.

In the late 1990s and until recent Covid-19 restrictions, I was invited to speak about Chinese tradition and culture at Chinese Culture Day at Liberty State Park, NJ, at The Rubin Museum in Manhattan, The Hammond Museum in North Salem, NY, and at cultural events in Westchester, NY.  At the Pawling Free Library, I gave demonstrations and conducted workshops for children and adults in Chinese brush painting and calligraphy, and with a guzheng (Chinese zither) player, I visited classrooms at Pawling Elementary School to introduce children to Chinese music and culture. 

I have been a member of The Buddhist Association of the US and a member of the English-speaking Sangha at Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent, NY, since 1992. I study with Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. In 1998, I was interviewed by Belinda Chang, reporter for The World Journal. The World Journal is a Chinese-language newspaper for Chinese-speaking ex-patriates; it has a global distribution. Chang was reporting on the 14th Dalai Lama’s dedication of the Great Buddha Hall at the Monastery. I was present at the dedication and was among a group that had an audience with the Dalai Lama. I participate in the Monastery’s annual World Peace Day on January 1 (an annual event now suspended because of Covid-19). Dignitaries and guests of many faiths and philosophical viewpoints gather to meditate and share a meal. 

I have a vast library of books about China and Chinese history, culture, tradition, arts, recent and current events, socio-political movements, China's minority groups, China’s place in world affairs, Tibet, the Chinese diaspora, the Chinese immigrant experience, Chinese-Americans, anti-Asian racism and activist responses, race and gender issues, and more. I own many important out-of-print texts and many rare children’s books. My favorite historical source is Joseph Needham’s “Science and Civilization in China,” a multi-volume series of books about China, published by Cambridge University Press. This series is particularly renowned for its study of Chinese science and technology. 

My knowledge of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, China’s place on the world stage today, China’s minority groups, its working class and migrant work force, women’s and family issues, population control efforts and gender equality, and more, comes from authors including Jung Chang, Xinran, Yu Hua, Orville Schell, Peter Hessler, Leslie T.Chang, and Iris Chang. 

I have studied Chinese philosophy (the Tao Te Ching, particularly), poetry, the historical novel and the contemporary novel.

I have read the seminal texts on the Chinese immigrant experience in the US and elsewhere, notably Iris Chang’s “The Chinese in America” and the works of Amy Tan, Anchee Min, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Lisa See.  I am well-read in more-recent texts that address discrimination against and racism towards the Chinese and toward Chinese-Americans, and responses to injustices, including Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R Feagin and John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats.