2002-2003 Speaker Biographies

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Meena Alexander is Distinguished Professor of English and Women's Studies at Hunter College and the Graduate Centre, City University of New York. Her poems and prose works have been widely anthologised and translated into several languages including Arabic, Malayalam, Hindi, Japanese, Italian, French, German and Swedish. Her works include the memoir Fault Lines (1993), selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of that year; a volume of poems and prose pieces on the immigrant life, The Shock of Arrival (1996); the volume of poems River and Bridge (1996); the novels Nampally Road, (1991) and Manhattan Music (1997). Her new book of poems is Illiterate Heart (Triquarterly Books/ Northwestern University Press, 2002) .She is currently working on a commission from the Royal Festival Hall, London to compose a poem on New York for Poetry International 2002.

Melanie E. L. Bush received her doctoral degree at the City University of New York; her dissertation was entitled "Breaking the Code of Good Intentions: Everyday Forms of Whiteness." She has been employed at Brooklyn College over the last twelve years in administrative and teaching capacities.

For many years, she has been involved in community organizing, advocacy and activism around issues of social and racial justice locally, nationally and internationally. This includes recent collaboration on CUNY-wide projects to foster understanding of the role of students in inter-group relations in the new millennium. Working in the Division of Student Life at Brooklyn College she has engaged in projects to increase support for Asian students, as well as to foster understanding and build community in this diverse environment.

Wellington Chen is a member of the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York, and a Senior Vice President of TDC Development Corporation. A long-time community leader, he graduated from the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at City College. He was the first Chinese American in Queens to serve on a community planning board, where he chaired the cultural affairs, housing, landmarks and zoning committees and helped to bring about the revival of downtown Flushing. More recently, he was a commissioner of the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals which reviews zoning variances, special permits and other land use appeals.
 

Hsin Yuan Cheng  is the Editor-in-Chief of Sing Dao Daily, one of the largest Chinese newspaper network in America. He is the Public Relations Consultant for the Committee of 100, a national organization of eminent Chinese Americans and the former president of Sino Radio Broadcasts Network.

C. E. Nehru (Nehru E. Cherukupalli) is a Broeklundian Professor of Geology at Brooklyn College, CUNY. Nehru hails from India and had his schooling in Madras, India and earned a Ph.D. in geology from Madras University. He also has a Master’s degree from Columbia University, New York. He has been teaching at Brooklyn College, City University of New York for over three decades and has earned the “Outstanding Educator" Award given by AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) in 1995. He has field experience in many places in India and in the United States and Canada. He has worked in mining operations in copper and iron ore mines in India.  He has also worked on Moon rocks and he works on Meteorites and is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  He teaches at all levels at Brooklyn College and Ph.D. students at the Graduate Center of City University of New York. Prof. Nehru has authored more than a hundred research papers in geology. Prof. Nehru is also interested in environmental geology and teacher education.

Daryl Chin  is Associate Editor of PAJ: A Journal of Performance & Art.  He has contributed articles to M/E/A/N/I/N/G: An Anthology of Artists' Writings, Theory and Criticism (edited by Susan Bee and Mira Schor; Duke University Press, 2001), Asia in New York City: A Cultural Travel Guide (Asia Society & Avalon Travel Press, 2001), Tokens: The NYC Asian American Experience on Stage (edited by Alvin Eng; Asian American Writers Workshop & Temple University Press, 2001), among other anthologies. Currently, he is completing a monograph on the video artist  Shigeko Kubota.

Loretta Chin has worked for over 10 years at Brooklyn College and is currently employed as a Special Projects Coordinator for the Community Building Initiative in the Office of the Dean for Student Life.

Working closely with students and faculty, she has been an avid supporter of the Asian/Asian American community at BC and in CUNY. She has been co-advisor for the Asian Student Union, The Asian Outreach Committee, and the Chinese Language Culture Club . She has worked diligently to support Asian student leadership development and increase understanding of their challenges and achievements. Functioning in this way has helped to facilitate her role as liaison between the newly formed BC Asian/Asian American Faculty & Staff and AAARI.

In addition, Ms. Chin has coordinates the BC Circles Dialogue series, involving many in discussions about peace, justice, democracy and world events to foster greater inter-group understanding on campus.

Margaret M. Chin is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York and her interests include the working poor and immigrants. She has an article, "High Stakes: Time Poverty, Testing and the Children of the Working Poor", co-authored with Katherine Newman, forthcoming in Qualitative Sociology. She is completing her manuscript, Sewing Woman, and is also working on two projects: The effects of the 9/11 tragedy on the Chinese garment workers and the Chinatown neighborhood and The barriers that prevent young men of color from entering elementary school teaching.

Irene Chung is a clinical social worker who has worked with Asian Americans for over twenty years. She is currently Asst. Professor at the Hunter College School of Social Work and maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

David Crook is University Dean for Institutional Research and Assessment at the CUNY central office. He directs the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis, which collects and analyzes CUNY student data for decision support and reporting. Dean Crook is also responsible for CUNY's Office of Assessment, which administers the University's testing program.

Dean Crook began his career at CUNY in 1989 as a Research Analyst in the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. Dean Crook received a B.A. in English from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Alvin Eng


Prof. Eng is currently working as an Adjunct Professor of Speech at the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Speech, Communication and Theater Department. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with an M.FA. in Musical Theater Writing. He has taught creative writing at many schools including Fordham University (Lincoln Center Campus) and the New School University (Parsons School of Design), as well as the art of playwriting to various middle and high school students. He has also edited and compiled a play anthology and oral history entitled, “Tokens? The NYC Asian American Experience On Stage,” (Temple University Press/Asian American Writers Workshop, 2000).

Deemed “A Realistic Playwright” in the Friday, April 28th, 2000 issue of New York Newsday, Prof. Eng is described as a “Flushing native [who] has a knack for finding himself in unusual situations. As a child in one of the first Chinese-American families to settle in the area in the early 1960’s, Eng walked a tenuous line between the Jewish and Italian Catholic cultures that dominated his neighborhood.” From his life experiences, Prof. Eng created his one-man autobiographical show, “The Flushing Cycle.” Excerpts from his memoir monologue, “The Flushing Cycle,” will be published in the Performing Arts Journal in the spring of 2003.

Miu Ying Fong is a personal Tai Chi instructor well versed in the art of Young Style Long and Short Form, and Young Style Tai Chi Sword. She studied privately for four years under Master Joe Huie, a Tai Chi master for over the past twenty years. An immigrant from Hong Kong, Ms. Fong has worked in the Medical Technology field at Cornell Medical Center.

Delgermaa Ganbaatar grew up in a small town named Hatgal with her parents and a younger sister and brother. The town is located in northern Mongolia (Huvsgul province) where she began her education, learning Russian in high school. After completing her high school studies she was accepted into the Institute of Foreign Service at the Mongolian National University in Ulaanbaatar. She concentrated on Russian and English, graduating in 1999 with a degree in Russian Studies.  

Immediately after graduation, she began teaching at one of the major universities in Mongolia, Mandakh University. While teaching at Mandakh University she enrolled in the Masters program at the National University of Mongolia and earned a degree in linguistics in December of 2000. Her diploma's thesis topic was “Borrowed Words from Mongolian into Russian."

Delgermaa Ganbaatar continues to teach both Russian and English courses at Mandakh University while beginning to study French. The courses she currently teaches are English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to the first year students, Russian (to the second year).

Sung Gwak is Associate Professor of  Nursing at Borough of Manhattan Community College. She received her nursing training in medical-surgical, and critical care at the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Yunah Hong is a New York based video/filmmaker.   Her latest documentary is “Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry” (2001) which received a CINE Golden Eagle Award in Education category in 2002.  Her documentary, “Becoming an Actress in New York” (2000) named a final nominee for aMedia’s 2001 Ammy Awards for Best Documentary.  Her other works include “Styles Section”, “Through the Milky Way”, which was awarded First Prize in Video Art at the 1992 Tam Tam International Video Festival in Italy, “Here Now”, winner of the Special Jury Award at the 2nd Seoul Short Film Festival in Korea in 1995, and a feature screenplay, “Monday”, which was an official selection of PPP 1998: Pusan International Film Festival Film Market in Korea.

She was born in Seoul, Korea, and moved to New York in 1985 to pursue her studies in video art.  She received a B.F.A. degree in applied arts from Seoul National University  and a M.A. degree in communication arts from New York Institute of Technology.

Her works are distributed by Women Make Movies in US.

Filmography

Between the Lines: Asian American Women’s Poetry (2001)

Video documentary, 60 minutes

Becoming an Actress in New York (2000)

MiniDV documentary. 40 minutes.

Styles Section (1999)

MiniDV short film, 3:23 minutes.

Here Now (1995) 

16 mm black and white film, drama,  32 minutes.

A Day on Earth            (1994) 

Video installation, videotape: 6:30 minutes.                     

Through the Milky Way           (1992) 

Video, Experimental narrative, 18:30 minutes.

Memory/all echo (1990) 

Video, Experimental narrative, 27:30 minutes.     

Renata Huang wished to become a documentary maker without ever having watched one. She was inspired by an article about the documentary, "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" produced by Christine Choy. She decided to acquire the "basics" by becoming a daily news reporter while living abroad in Taiwan. Gathering facts and producing stories at a fast speed gave her the skills and confidence to enter the documentary world in New York. Despite the field's lack of financial stability (she must pay for her own health insurance) she hopes to continue making documentaries believing that they are the best way to tell stories that matter. 
 

Ravi Kalia is Full Professor of History at City College of New York, CUNY. He received his B.A. with honors and M.A. degrees from Delhi University, India, and his Ph.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Kalia is author of two books on Indian urbanism and architecture. His third book is forthcoming.

Philippe Koutouzis has been Chargé de Mission for the Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet since 1997. His focus of expertise is in European and Asian, Modern and Contemporary Art. Mr. Koutouzis lived in China for 7 years (1991-1998), where he witnessed firsthand major trends of the Chinese modern art movement. He has represented museums; conceived, organized and curated exhibitions around the world. This summer, Koutouzis curated for Musée Guimet the modern part of the exhibition "China - a Arte Imperial, A Arte do Cotidiano, A Arte Contemporânea held at the FAAP’s Museum in São Paulo, Brazil, between August 18th, 2002 and November 03rd, 2002.

Mr. Koutouzis has contributed numerous articles to various Art publications; overseen, compiled and published monographs and catalogs on several artists. From 1994 to present, Philippe Koutouzis has been the administrator of the estate of the Chinese artist, T'ang Haywen, and is a member of the ADAGP in Paris. On this artist he wrote and edited three catalogs for museum exhibitions as well as one book published in 2002. He organized three museum retrospectives and two exhibitions in Monaco, Taiwan, France and Japan.

The retrospective, co-curated with Jean-Paul Desroches, general curator, was the first modern art exhibition at the Musée Guimet which will travel to Valencia (Spain) from 11/2003 to 01/2004. It is worth noting that the Guimet has decided to organize a "summer of modernity" every year, after the inauguration of this retrospective on T’ang Haywen.

H. Lan Thao Lam is an interdisciplinary artist/writer who has lived in Vietnam, Malaysia, Canada and the US. Lam’s current body of work involves investigative inquiries and analysis, language, installation, and object making. Her projects destabilize the notion of master narratives by questioning the construction of the past, its meaning and its historical legacies.

Recently relocated to New York, Lam was the Assistant Professor of Sculpture in the Art Department at Middle Tennessee State University. Her work has been exhibited and distributed in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Vietnam and the US.

James Lap is Associate Director of Evening and Summers Sessions Office and faculty in Computer Systems Technology department at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) – CUNY.

He graduated from New York University and Columbia University with computer software engineering degree. He has been member of the faculty at Pace University and at City Tech since 1980’s, at New York University since 1997 and at AAARI since Spring 2002. His hobby is Mathematics. He has been member of American Mathematical Society (AMS) and member of International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) since 1994.

In August 2002 he attended ICM conference in Beijing, China where the oldest Magic Squares were found over 4,800 years ago.

Corky Lee
Photo by: Jason Jem

A self-taught photographer, has been documenting the vibrant and fast-emerging Asian and Pacific American community for over 30 years. Known as the "undisputed unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate," the ubiquitous Corky has covered the day to day lives of Asian Pacific Americans as well as historical moments in American history.  

Mr. Lee was set on his photojournalistic course in junior high school by a famous photograph taken at Promontory Point, Utah, in 1869. The picture commemorated the completion of the transcontinental railroad and showed workers posing with two trains, one from the Central Pacific and one from the Union Pacific. But something was wrong with this picture. No Chinese workers. Since Mr. Lee first laid eyes on that photograph, he has devoted himself to making Asian Pacific Americans visible.

Bernadette Yu-Ning Li is Professor of Asian Studies and Asian American Studies at St. John’s University in Queens, New York City. She is a professional historian, with a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, the author of many books on Chinese history, the editor of Chinese Studies in History, the founding editor of Journal of Chinese American Studies, and the founding president of the Society for Chinese American Studies.

During the past decade, she has been advocating "Catching history in the making" by collecting materials on current developments likely to significantly extend into the future, such as the history of Chinese with an American education.

Lana Lin is currently Assistant Professor in Media and Communication Arts at the City College of New York. Her work engages with the ways experience is shaped by cultural contexts and the possibility/impossibility of translating that experience through representation. Lin’s films and videos have been shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, NY, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. She recently had a solo show at the China Taipei Film Archive, Taipei, Taiwan. 

Cheryl Littman is the Manager of Research in the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis where she oversees projects involving the analysis and reporting of CUNY student data. Before coming to CUNY in the spring of 2001, Dr. Littman worked as a research analyst for the Chicago Public Schools. In addition, she has worked as a program evaluator and has held a variety of teaching positions.

Dr. Littman earned a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University, an M.S. in biology education from Long Island University (C.W. Post), and a Ph.D. from the Department of Education at the University of Chicago.

Edward Ma is a certified psychotherapist who practiced at Coney Island Hospital Psychiatry Department over 27 years. He is the Asian Program Director at The Center for Marital and Family Therapy. Founder/President of the Asian American Community Consultation Association, he has served as a Human Rights Commissioner of New York City, as well as board members of Chinese American Planning Council and Community Board 2 in Manhattan.

Recently, he conducted a workshop on "Family Dialogues Can Prevent Violence" at the annual conference of National Association of Asian Pacific American Education in 2001.

William McClure is assistant professor in the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages at Queens College and the Program in Linguistics at the Graduate Center. He directs the Japanese language program at Queens College, and is the author of Using Japanese: A Guide to Contemporary Usage (Cambridge 2000). His work appears as well in journals such as Language Sciences and the Journal of East Asian Linguistics.

Dr McClure is currently organizing the 12th Japanese and Korean Linguistics Conference which will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center on November 1-3, 2002.

Vincenzo Milione is currently the Director for Research and Education at the Calandra Italian American Institute under the aegis of Queens College, The City University of New York.

Dr. Milione is responsible for the social science research on Italian Americans, as well as conducting institutional research on its faculty, administrative staff and students. His research at the Calandra Institute has included the educational and occupational achievements of the Italian American community for estimating the labor pool of post secondary faculty and administrators, and the graduation and high school drop out rates of Italian American youths.

Dr. Milione has conducted research on Italian language offerings at the elementary and secondary levels, negative portrayals of Italian Americans in the media, and Italy/U.S. student exchange programs. He has conducted employment research on Italian Americans in New York City and New York State governmental operations. He was a major participant in the federal Italian American civil rights case involving the City University of New York and its hiring and treatment of Italian Americans. Judge Constance Baker Motley designated Dr. Milione as a court technical expert on affirmative action, and was recently instrumental in establishing the Anthony and Eleanor De Francis multimillion-scholarship fund, that provides the largest scholarship for any Italian American student in the United States.

Dr. Milione is presently coordinating with the Italian American community and the  Secretary of Commerce’s Census Advisory Committee to make sure that Italian American ancestry data is collected in the year 2010 on the short form and to ensure the accuracy of the American Community Survey for enumerating Italian Americans.

Pyong Gap Min is Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. The areas of his research focus are immigration, ethnicity, ethnic business, women’s gender role, and immigrants’ religions, with a special focus on Asian Americans. He is the author of three books, including Caught in the Middle: Korean Communities in New York and Los Angeles (1996), the winner of two national book awards. He is the editor or co-editor of five books. They include The Second Generation: Ethnic Identity among Asian Americans (2002) and Mass Migration to the United States: Classical and Contemporary Periods (2002).

Gary Y. Okihiro is director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. He is author of several books in U.S. and African history, most recently of THE COLUMBIA GUIDE TO ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORY (2001), and COMMON GROUND: REIMAGINING AMERICAN HISTORY (2001). He is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the American Studies Association, and is a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

Parmatma Saran came to the United States from India in 1967 on a full scholarship to do graduate work at the City University of New York and received his PH.I. in Sociology in 1975.

He has been teaching at Baruch College of the City University of New York since 1969 and at the Graduate School beginning in 1987. He was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1989 and currently serves as chairman of the Sociology and Anthropology department, as well as heads the Asian and Asian American Studies program at Baruch College.

He teaches courses both at the Graduate and Undergraduate level focusing on race relations, ethnicity, minority groups, new immigrants, and India.His writing and research is on Asian communities in the United States and India. He is the author of four books and a large number of articles both in professional journals and magazines. Two of his books are on experiences of Asian Indians in the United States and are widely quoted in journals, magazines, and newspapers including the New York Times, Daily News, Time Magazine, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, India Today, India abroad, News India, India Monitor, and many others.

Saran is the recipient of grants and awards from many prestigious organizations which include the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for Humanities, the American Anthropological Association, the American Sociological Association, the International Congress of Sociology, Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Parmatma Saran has been active in many professional and community based organizations. He has served as president of the New York State Sociological Association, chairman of the Asian American Higher Education Council, vice-president of the National Association for Interdisciplinary and Ethnic Studies, and chairman of Columbia University's faculty seminars on India and cultural pluralism. He is a founding member of the India Festival Committee, the Bihar Association, GOPIO, and the Indian American Democratic Club of Long Island and has also been associated with FIA, AIA, the Tagore Society and Various other organizations. Currently, he serves as a trustee of the Taraknath Das Foundation at Columbia University.

Joseph V. Scelsa is the Director of the Italian American Institute of the City University of New York, which he renamed the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute after the late State Senator in 1987. In 1995, the Calandra Institute was afforded the status of a full university research institute through Queens College, CUNY. As of March 1, 1999, Dr. Scelsa was named Dean of the Calandra Italian American Institute and appointed full Professor. In October 2000, he was named acting Vice President for Institutional Development at Queens College, CUNY.

Dr. Scelsa received his doctorate in Sociology and Education from Columbia University, and in addition, holds three Maters’ degrees in Sociology, Social Studies and Counseling. He is also nationally certified as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor.

As a graduate student at the City University of New York, Dr. Scelsa held the position of Vice Chair of Legislative Affairs of the University Student Senate. Today, he is a Board Member of the Columbia Club, the Coalition of Italo-American Associations, Italian Heritage and Culture Month Committee, , and various other Italian-American organizations. He is also Chairman of the National Italian American Foundation’s Education Institute.

Dr. Scelsa is Executive Producer and Host of ITALICS: The Italian-American Magazine, which is co-produced by the Calandra Institute and CUNY-TV, and is now in its thirteenth season on cable stations throughout the United States.

The author and editor of several books, Dr. Scelsa has written various articles and reports on ethnicity, pluralism and education, notably the report on the Italian-American High School Drop-Out Rate in the New York City Schools (New York Times, May 1, 1990). He was the historical consultant for A&E’s documentary The Italians in America, which premiered worldwide on October 11, 1998.

Vicki Shu is currently the Special Projects Manager with the Asian American Federation of New York.  Prior to joining the Federation, Vicki worked in the restaurant business for 6 years, attending the Culinary Institute of American in Hyde Park, NY, and then worked as a cook and later as a manager at some of New York City’s most popular restaurants.  In addition to having worked in the restaurant industry, Vicki was the Special Projects and Legislative Coordinator for the Organization of Chinese Americans in Washington, DC.  Vicki received her BA in Political Science from the University of California in San Diego. 

Tom Tam is a long time movie maker in Chinatown and the Asian American community. Besides having worked briefly as a field cameraman in a television news department, Tam has also taught the art of movie-making at Montclair State College. He has made many short movies in super 8 and 16 mm, as well as lengtheir videotapes, which had been exhibited at various institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Musee Guimet of Oriental Art in Paris, France. Tam is also one of the founder of the Asian American Film Festival in 1977, which became Asian CineVision, an organization with international recognition for showcasing movies from Asian/Asian American artists. He was the Chairman of Asian Cine Vision from 1995 to 1996.

In addition to 23 shorts, and 4 longer videotapes, Tam has completed the following short movies: A Brief Summer in China (40m 1993), Westward Wind (30m 1994), Lazy Canyon (35m 1995), Delphi on My Mind (10m 1996), En Route to Lhasa (30m 2000).  Sunrise on Mulberry Street (102m 1999) was his first feature length undertaking. 

In the fall of 1997, Tam set up his own company, Oishi Movies Inc., which produced his first commercially available videocassette, "Reminiscences: A Collection of Movies by Tom Tam, 1969-1978"

JEFFREY WIESENFELD, B.A., was appointed by Governor Pataki in June 1999 as a member of the Board of Trustees of The City University of New York. Mr. Wiesenfeld was born in The Bronx in 1958, the son of two Holocaust survivors. He moved with his parents to Rego Park in 1971 and attended the Bronx High School of Science and Queens College, where he also pursued graduate studies. After serving for four years in the foreign counterintelligence division of the FBI, Mr. Wiesenfeld served as an assistant to Congressman Thomas Manton and Queens Borough President Claire Shulman. He was then appointed as Chief-of-Staff to Mayor Koch's Traffic Commissioner where he also served for four years. Following the conclusion of the Koch Administration, Mr. Wiesenfeld became the New York Metropolitan Area Executive Assistant to United States Senator Alfonse D'Amato. As a senior staff member in the New York office, he was responsible for many of the Senator's activities and his personal representation in the eight counties comprising the downstate region. In January 1995, Mr. Wiesenfeld became the Executive Assistant to New York State Governor George Pataki for the New York Metropolitan Region. His duties included directing the New York City office, coordinating the Governor's relations with all civic, ethnic, and geographic organizations, and other general responsibilities as a senior aide to the Governor. Mr. Wiesenfeld also became the New York City Regional Director of the Empire State Development Corporation in 1999, the State's economic development agency. By appointment of Governor Pataki, he is currently a member of the board of the United Nations Development Corporation and a Commissioner within the Long Island North Shore Heritage Area Planning Commission. Mr. Wiesenfeld is currently employed as Vice President with the firm of Bernstein Investment Research and Management. He has been active for many years in our community and is a strong voice for those causes in which he believes. Active with many local and national organizations, he possesses a high level of caring and involvement. Mr. Wiesenfeld holds membership on the Board's Committee on Faculty, Staff, and Administration, and the Committee on Facilities, Planning, and Management.

Gan Yu is Director and Chairman of eChinaArt.com, which exhibited works of more than a thousand Chinese artists, and received extensive media coverage. A recipient of many awards, he has had one man shows at galleries in Minnesota and San Francisco. His works have been shown internationally. 

He received his MFA from University of Minnesota, and has taught Chinese painting, calligraphy, and the history of Chinese art. He is a Chinese American born in Shanghai, China, in 1958.