“Where the Winds of Dixie Softly Blow, O’er the . . . Streets of Shanghai”

If one were to imagine a slight alteration to the opening line, the NC State Alma Mater took on new meaning Saturday night. It wasn’t the hills of Caroline, and we were eight thousand miles from Raleigh. Still, Wolfpack pride was tangible as the Caldwell and China Fellows were joined for the evening by Shanghai area NC State alumni. Over dinner and the sharing of stories, common ground was found around favorite Raleigh hangouts, shared courses and professors, and a bit of Wolfpack sports.

Quint Reid, a junior in biochemistry discovered that he had professors in common with Tao Lin, who did his graduate work in Chemical Engineering and now works for Bayer Technology Services as Head of Redaction Technology . One name they had in common was Lisa Bullard, faculty in chemical engineering as well a Caldwell Fellow alumni .

Yipeng Yang completed both his Master’s in Financial Math as well as his PhD in Operations Research at NC State. That meant 27 graduate courses. Another product of the NC State math department was Jin Dai, now an Underwriter with Cologne Reinsurance Company Shanghai Branch. I was lost in the conversation when they both met Zach Clawson, a junior in Mathematics and they began chatting higher level math lingo but was amused with the chatter over how many professors they had shared. Yipeng spent five years in Raleigh, and he wistfully adds, "I have a lot of feelings there." He also has warm and wistful feelings for Raleigh weather and for North Carolina beaches. . .

The alumni dinner had been one of the much anticipated events of our trip; our group was enamored with the idea that we could travel this far and find NC State folks. With the exception of Jim Arnold, who received his undergraduate degree from NC State in statistics (class of 74) , others at the Alumni dinner had all attended NC State for graduate school. Each of these alumni is now in some significant leadership role in Shanghai.

Ping Liu who completed her PhD at NC State in atmospheric sciences is a faculty member at Jio Tong University. She works with a team designated to improve Shanghai air quality, specifically for the 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai.

Xinbing Wang is the spouse of Ping Liu and is an Associate Professor at Jio Tong in the Electrical Engineering Department, teaching about wireless communication. He earned his PhD in electrical Engineering at NCSU.

Miranda Yue Dai, an Associate Professor in the Department of Management Science at Fudan University is also the organizer for NCSU alumni activities in Shanghai. Miranda exudes pure enthusiasm when she talks about NC State. “We are very proud of NC State and hope NC State can be proud of us." she says. Miranda wrinkles her nose a bit when she admits her husband graduated from Duke, then her eyes twinkle as she adds, "The NC State Shanghai alumni are more connected than the Duke alumni!"

I get very emotional when people mention NC State, Miranda says. "That was the place where I changed a lot; I rebuilt myself."

“We hope you can visit us many more times in the future,” Miranda tells us several times. Then she enthusiastically adds: “When Is NCSU hosting the global reunion . . ?!”