Born and raised in Taiwan, I spent the first twenty-three years of my life as a "campus brat" growing up on the campus of Tunghai University in Taichung. There my father worked for forty years as the Registrar and later the Assistant Dean until his retirement in the early 90's. Tunghai, then a small private university in the 60's and 70's supported by the United Board of Higher Education in Asia, enjoyed topnotch academic excellence, small-class instruction, liberal scholarship and a beautiful, un-manicured campus that occupied a 340 acre site near Taichung Harbor. The University provided most of its faculty and students housing and dorms. The traditional-style house, No. 7 Tunghai Road, where my family resided until my father's retirement, was a place filled with wonderful memories for me. The campus was a self-contained, closed community that included K-12 schools, stores and vendors, and later a diary farm. Much of my childhood and adolescent years were spent on the Tunghai campus, privileged to use the University's facilities and participate in its many academic and extracurricular activities. It is perhaps no coincidence that years later my sister, brother and I all pursued academic careers, teaching at different universities. Both of my parents came from Mainland China in 1949, and although my father's relatives all remained in China, my parents never made the trip back.

Coming to the States

In 1984, after I graduated as an English major from Tunghai University, I was accepted at the University of Washington for graduate studies in comparative literature. I studied classical Chinese poetry, American Southern literature and Taiwanese literature in Diaspora. Two years later, I received my MA and got married. That same year, in '86, the University of Puget Sound offered me a part-time position to start 1st-year Chinese language courses. My husband and I moved from Seattle to Tacoma, thinking that it would be a temporary arrangement. Twenty years later, the UPS Chinese curriculum has steadily grown and I have remained at UPS as a full-time instructor. I go back to Taiwan almost yearly to visit my mother and my sister's family; however, as a naturalized US citizen and a working Mom who has started a family here, I now call Tacoma my home.