The Louvre Pyramid, CITIC, Minsheng Bank, Chinese Pinyin, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, former Presidents of Taiwan, former Vice President of China, breast cancer treatment pioneer. What links all these together?
Tucked away in western Shanghai’s Changning District is a former Anglican school called St. John’s University. It was once the most influential university in China, and educated the likes of I. M. Pei (architect behind the Louvre Pyramid, JFK Library in Boston, National Gallery of Art East Building in D.C., to my Cincinnati friends: Emery Hall at UC, and IU’s very own Art Musuem), Rong Yiren (founder of CITIC, China’s leading investment bank, and former Chinese Vice President), the inventor of Pinyin, Raymond Chow (Hong Kong director who introduced Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan to the West), the Taiwan elite (the Koo’s, the Soong’s, the Kung’s, etc.), and scores of politicians, doctors, businessmen, and lawyers through the early 1900s.
It was in such an environment that my grandparents were fortunate enough to gain a premier education. My grandfather, who was born to a poor bicycle mechanic in Cao Jia Du, would never have dreamed of going there until an opportunity presented itself when he was fourteen. St. John’s University was looking to expand eastward, and needed land to build on.
By some luck, the land that was necessary for construction was located on my family’s plot. So in exchange for the land, my great-grandfather negotiated some money and the full admission and full tuition of his youngest son (my grandfather) for high school and college at St. John’s.
My grandmother came to St. John’s under much different circumstances. She was born in a well-to-do Ningbo family to a purser of a shipping line. However after the Japanese biological attacks on Ningbo in 1940, her and her family were forced to move in with her eldest brother in Shanghai.
The eldest Zhang, then in his thirties, excelled in business and was promoted as one of the youngest executives at a Shanghai bank. As my grandmother was the closest in age to start college out of her eight siblings, her brother offered to pay the prohibitively hightuition afforded by few in China’s wealthiest city.
It is interesting how luck plays out in life. Had St. John’s looked to expand southward instead of eastward, or my grandmother been born a year earlier or later, they would not have had the prestigious education at St. John’s, perhaps not been recruited as the inaugural class of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gone on to ambassadorships, helped my dad come to the U.S., etc.
Certainly, I would not be born into the privilege of the North Shore of Long Island. For me, it was a privilege to walk along the same paths they once did over seventy years ago.
Tucked away in western Shanghai’s Changning District is a former Anglican school called St. John’s University. It was once the most influential university in China, and educated the likes of I. M. Pei (architect behind the Louvre Pyramid, JFK Library in Boston, National Gallery of Art East Building in D.C., to my Cincinnati friends: Emery Hall at UC, and IU’s very own Art Musuem), Rong Yiren (founder of CITIC, China’s leading investment bank, and former Chinese Vice President), the inventor of Pinyin, Raymond Chow (Hong Kong director who introduced Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan to the West), the Taiwan elite (the Koo’s, the Soong’s, the Kung’s, etc.), and scores of politicians, doctors, businessmen, and lawyers through the early 1900s.
It was in such an environment that my grandparents were fortunate enough to gain a premier education. My grandfather, who was born to a poor bicycle mechanic in Cao Jia Du, would never have dreamed of going there until an opportunity presented itself when he was fourteen. St. John’s University was looking to expand eastward, and needed land to build on.
By some luck, the land that was necessary for construction was located on my family’s plot. So in exchange for the land, my great-grandfather negotiated some money and the full admission and full tuition of his youngest son (my grandfather) for high school and college at St. John’s.
My grandmother came to St. John’s under much different circumstances. She was born in a well-to-do Ningbo family to a purser of a shipping line. However after the Japanese biological attacks on Ningbo in 1940, her and her family were forced to move in with her eldest brother in Shanghai.
The eldest Zhang, then in his thirties, excelled in business and was promoted as one of the youngest executives at a Shanghai bank. As my grandmother was the closest in age to start college out of her eight siblings, her brother offered to pay the prohibitively hightuition afforded by few in China’s wealthiest city.
It is interesting how luck plays out in life. Had St. John’s looked to expand southward instead of eastward, or my grandmother been born a year earlier or later, they would not have had the prestigious education at St. John’s, perhaps not been recruited as the inaugural class of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gone on to ambassadorships, helped my dad come to the U.S., etc.
Certainly, I would not be born into the privilege of the North Shore of Long Island. For me, it was a privilege to walk along the same paths they once did over seventy years ago.
Of course, luck without hard work is like a fertile field with poor seeds. A large part of their success is because of their ability to work hard under any conditions. That is why they were able to do so well amongst peers of noble birth and formidable wealth. You work hard so that when an opportunity presents itself, you are able to take full advantage of it.