Highlight of China:
Progress and its Price
Trip Lecturer: June Mei '66
Leading our trip to China will be June Mei, Bryn Mawr Class
of 1966. A native of New York, June Mei attended elementary
and secondary schools in New York City and Hong Kong. She
completed her undergraduate work at Bryn Mawr College, and
received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University
in History and East Asian Languages.
After teaching History and Asian American Studies at U.C.L.A.
and working in the field of U.S.-China exchanges, she became
an independent consultant and high-level interpreter. Her
clients include Fortune 500 companies, U.S. government agencies,
major museums, foundations, universities and other non-profit
organizations.
June has worked with several Presidents, Vice Presidents
and Secretaries of State, as well as many other cabinet
members, governors and mayors on diplomatic, policy and
economic exchanges; in the area of business, she has arranged
visits to China for CEO's of major corporations, is an instructor
in executive education programs, and regularly briefs key
executives on current developments; in arts and culture,
she has dealt extensively with special exhibitions and archeological
site visits, and was responsible for taking care of the
Chinese team during its first post-1949 appearance at the
Olympic Games (1984, Los Angeles). She is special consultant
to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for projects in China,
and also China consultant to the American Museum of Natural
History.
June has interpreted for senior American and Chinese officials
both at formal meetings and for interviews broadcast on
all the national TV networks. In 1999, she was invited by
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to be his principal interpreter
for American TV interviews and for his visits to New York
and Boston -- the first time that any senior Chinese leader
has asked someone other than an official Chinese government
interpreter to do so. She has also been asked to serve as
principal interpreter for the annual meeting of the International
Business Leaders’ Advisory Council to the Mayor of
Shanghai since the founding of the Council in 1990. To date,
she has traveled to China over 100 times, and published
a number of essays on various aspects of Chinese history
and U.S.-China policy issues.