As we celebrate Chinese New Year, catch up on alumni activity in mainland China and Hong Kong, and what the alumni associations plan for the new year.

There are four alumni associations across mainland China and Hong Kong, with interest in forming a new group in Chengdu. To join your local group in China, visit the alumni web pages and catch up on the latest news from the College on the Imperial Weibo page.

Beijing

In July 2014, the Beijing group hosted the largest ever gathering of alumni in China at a farewell reception for President & Rector Sir Keith O’Nions.

Zhuohui Luo (MBA 2011) is the Secretary General of Imperial College Alumni of China (Beijing), and he says, “The Association normally organizes two or three events annually, including a spring outing, an autumn gathering and a new year's party. We're still finalising plans for those events, but this coming Saturday, some alumni will meet at a yearly gala to celebrate the Chinese spring festival in Beijing. It has been organised by the UK branch of the Western Returned Scholars Association and is open to all British returned scholars. Anyone interested in joining the group, or helping out with preparations, can contact me by email.”

Shanghai

The group in Shanghai have recently organised an event at which alumnus Johnny Kwan spoke to new alumni about his tips and tricks for achieving success, and the group have plans to run more joint events with other UK and US alumni networks. They are also planning on holding sporting events and organising a wine school over the coming year.

Jeff Yan is the main coordinator for the Imperial College Alumni Association of China (Shanghai). Alumni interested in getting involved are invited to contact him by email.

South China (Shenzhen)

Tiger Liu (MSc Computing 2012)

The Imperial College Alumni Association of South China recently held a reception in Shenzhen to revitalise the group’s activities in the area. They welcomed over 100 alumni and guests at the event, including Ma Yongzhi, Chairman of the Shenzhen Federation of Returned Overseas and Professor David Gann, Vice President (Development and Innovation), who hosted the reception.

The Association is full of inspiring young alumni like Tiger Liu (MSc Computing 2012) and Ning Chen (PhD Chemical Engineering 2012).

Ning Chen (PhD Chemical Engineering 2012)

Inspired by his time at Imperial, Tiger has started a company called EEE (experience, education, and English), which runs programmes to send Chinese children to the UK to gain experience at world leading educational institutions. Ning has built on the experience he gained at the Beijing Genomics Institute and built Promegene, a company which offers gene sequencing technology services to universities and schools. Read their stories here.

The group in Shenzhen have recently reformed their committee, and have planned a packed programme for 2015. This includes badminton, cycling and golf activities, summer and Christmas parties and a careers workshop. Get in touch with the President, Dr Yucheng Lin (PhD Earth Sciences and Engineering), by email here.

Chengdu  

Alumni in the Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, or Shaanxi provinces are invited to contact Yao Wang (MSc Centre for Environmental Policy 2012) by email. She is looking to set up a group based around Chengdu, and is interested in hearing from other alumni in the area.

Hong Kong 

The Imperial College Alumni Association of Hong Kong have continued to organise a packed programme of activities, including a special charity dinner for Chinese new year, a barbeque, golf and hiking events, a fresher reception, Christmas party, a scholarship award ceremony and a number of networking events. In addition, the mentoring programme goes from strength to strength, championed by Dr Paulina Chan. Their recent New Year's Mentoring Afternoon Tea at the Helena May was attended by over 40 mentors and mentees.

Paulina says, “We socialised and welcomed prospective mentors and mentees of STEM disciplines with great anticipation. Entering the third season of our programme which will start in the fall, we would explore cross-disciplinary matching of mentors and mentees. This is responding to the progress in personal growth and leading the trend in professional development and directions. Your ideas and comments are much appreciated. We look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you in our next event."

Sign up to be a mentor or mentee in the programme.

The Imperial College Alumni Association of Hong Kong's New Year Mentoring Afternoon Tea