Thursday, November 15, 2018
Mandarin Oriental
80 Columbus Circle, NYC

The Legacy of General Wen Ying Hsing

As the first Asian graduate of West Point in 1909, Lieutenant General Ying Hsing Wen enriched the U.S.-China relationship at a critical time given what seemed to be irreparable damage caused by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Boxer Rebellion from 1899 – 1901. In the summer of 1905, West Point admitted Wen to the Class of 1909. Wen graduated second in his class for conduct of discipline and was given the nickname “George Washington Wen” by his classmates and instructors. After graduating, Wen returned to an Imperial China to serve as an officer in its military but joined the Republican forces to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Through increasingly important military and civilian positions in the Republican government he helped modernizing the army under his command to create a notable military unit. By the 1930s, Wen was an admired lieutenant general and steadfast ally to the United States. With his keen insight and understanding of both countries, General Wen was a trusted figure in U.S.-China relations by West Point classmates who, like him, had risen to leadership positions during the war. After Republican China was displaced by the Communist in 1949, General Wen left his 40 year career in China and moved to the U.S. He lived out the rest of his life in Washington D.C. modestly as a small business entrepreneur. His life in the U.S. began representing China as a cadet at West Point but his experience there undoubtedly shaped his outlook as he did his part to change China from a feudal to modern country. His gift for building U.S.-China relations at the grassroots level was memorialized in 2010 by his grandchildren, Harriet Tung and Margaret Chao, and celebrated by generations of other family members through the creation of the LTG Ying Hsing Wen Memorial Award and Travel Grant at West Point. Harriet Tung & Alfred Wen will receive the award on behalf of the family.

Legacy Awards

Thomas C. Ahn
Thomas Ahn is a civil engineer with over 30 years of experience in engineering, construction and real estate and has held leadership roles in a number of large institutional/corporate organizations. He is currently System Vice President of the Real Estate Division for The Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In this capacity, he is involved in all aspects of real estate management, including staff housing of approximately 3,000 apartments, 250 off-campus satellite medical offices, design and construction, property management and acquisitions, leasing of commercial and retail facilities, and the operation of all Mount Sinai’s real estate holdings. Tom has also been a key facilitator in the development of the American Cancer Society’s Manhattan Hope Lodge, Charles B. Wang Chinatown Health Clinic Headquarters and the construction of the Museum of Chinese in America. Mr. Ahn holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Temple University and a Certificate in Health Care Design from New York University. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Mr. Ahn was Director of Facilities Projects at NBC Broadcasting Company in New York. He is member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Chinese in America, a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society and a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and the Architectural Review Board for the Village of Plandome Heights, Manhasset, NY.

Maxine Hong Kingston
Maxine Hong Kingston is Senior Lecturer for Creative Writing at the University of California, Berkeley. For her memoirs and fiction, The Fifth Book of Peace, The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey, I Love a Broad Margin to My Life, and Hawai’i One Summer, she has earned numerous awards, among them the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the PEN West Award for Fiction, and a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the title of “Living Treasure of Hawai’i.” Ms. Kingston was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018. In July 2014, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama.

Nancy C. Lee, JP
Nancy C. Lee, JP is a well-respected philanthropist in Hong Kong who has been the Chairman of the Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art since 2005, a non-profit organization that supports the Museum through fundraising, members’ activities, and community outreach programs. She also helps oversee the Endowed Chair Professorship for the Education University of Hong Kong in honor of her late husband, Peter Lee Ting-chang, who was the Chairman of Hysan Development Co. Ltd. Lee currently serves on the Board of Hong Kong Palace Museum Limited, the Advisory Council of Princeton University Art Museum, is a trustee of the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and board member of the Freer-Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Lee received an MA in Art History from the NYU Institute of Fine Arts (1987), having studied History of Art at University College London. She also has an MA in Physical Chemistry from Johns Hopkins University (1981), and a BA in Chemistry from Lake Forest College (1977).

Breakout Artist of the Year
Katherine Ho

Katherine Ho is a 19-year-old Chinese-American singer from Thousand Oaks, California. She is known for her performance of Coldplay’s “Yellow” in Chinese for the 2018 hit movie, Crazy Rich Asians. She will perform this title song Yellow on the evening of the Gala.

At age nine, Katherine booked her first professional singing job as a children’s choir member in the Warner Brother’s feature film Valentine’s Day. At age sixteen, Katherine competed on season 10 of NBC’s The Voice on Team Adam Levine. At The Voice, she recorded two iTunes singles and worked with renowned professionals like Tori Kelly, Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine, and the world-class The Voice band.