The Chinese Consulate General in New York hosted a special event on August 21 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the SUNY China 150 Program.

The program was a gesture of solidarity by the State University of New York (SUNY) in May 2008 after an earthquake devastated Sichuan Province in southwest China. SUNY offered a one-year scholarship to 150 students from the quake-hit region.

At the commemoration, Huang Ping, Chinese Consul General in New York, praised the collaboration as "a miracle and mission impossible," describing how all procedures, including selecting the students and getting their visa processed, were completed in just 40 days.

George Hu, then assistant to the Governor of New York for Asian affairs, recalled bringing a traditional chili sauce from New York's Chinatown for the newly arrived students since he knew the province's penchant for spicy food. He also took some of the students to the official residence of then Governor David Paterson, where they planted a tree together as a symbol of the friendship between the two countries.

Representatives of the SUNY China 150 students' group release their pay-it-forward plan at the program's 10th anniversary commemoration on August 21 (ZHAO WEI)

Hu said the bond between the students, who are now adults with careers of their own, and SUNY "represents the friendship between Chinese people and American people, and that friendship…is not going to vanish [due to] time and distance."

"The tree is growing pretty well, regardless of the political atmosphere," Hu said, half-jokingly, in a tacit reference to the trade tension triggered between the two countries after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a series of tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S.

Zheng Yupeng, one of the 150 students, said in reply: "We planted a tree with the governor. Now I want to say, we are the tree."

After the students returned to China, she said they tried to pay forward the assistance given to them. They visited the children orphaned by another earthquake in 2010. Zheng herself is participating in programs to help children in Sichuan's poverty-stricken, mountainous areas.

Panelists retell the SUNY China 150 Program story in New York on August 21 (ZHAO WEI)

The group said they would relaunch the China 150 Fund, which they had started in 2009 with donations from the Chinese American community. This time, the relaunched fund will help American students who want to study in Chinese universities.

In fact, after the SUNY China 150 program, the Chinese Government and universities in Sichuan offered scholarships to SUNY students to study in China. Lauren Bailey, an alumna from SUNY at Albany, was one of the U.S. students who went to Sichuan and discovered China, "I've called it one of the turning points in my life," she said.

"Higher education at its best really does have the opportunity to facilitate understanding and growth," said Tod Laursen, Senior Vice Chancellor and Provost of SUNY. "A positive relationship and really lifelong relationships developed… that will all benefit in the future as well as today. So I think in difficult times, such as we are in [today], these kinds of engagements are especially important."

Huang said from the exchange, the students leaned "how to appreciate and help people." It also showed "we can work together to make things happen, even make a miracle," he added.

(Reporting from New York City)

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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