Pioneer in Cross-Cultural Relationships

Statistician and activist Nancy Lo, Ph.D. was born in southwestern China, but escaped to Taiwan at age six. (See post one.) For most of her early days in Taiwan, she was sheltered with other Air Force families, only meeting the local children when she went to Middle/High School. (See post two.) Despite this foreign atmosphere, where she didn't always understand the language, she succeeded in going to the top university in Taipei.  And, while social pressure shunted her away from pure math, it also pushed her to attend Oregon State University (See post three). 

At Oregon State she entered the MBA program.  In her class, she was the only female, only Chinese, only non-native speaker. Despite the challenges, she earned straight A’s, and switched her emphasis to something even more to her liking: statistics. She got her Ph.D. in 1972 and began her career in fisheries.

But, to back up a bit, in one of her classes, she met the love of her life: John Ferguson. Oregon had repealed all legislation banning interracial marriage in 1951, and the Supreme Court finally jumped on board in 1966. So, I wondered how they fared.

“It was early for a cross-cultural relationship, especially in Oregon. I think American people are more open-minded, but not some of my Chinese friends. One classmate of mine told me, ’You better think twice, because I don’t think your parents will be very happy ’”

The classmate was correct. Although Nancy and John went ahead, marrying in Corvallis in 1967, her father (initially) was not happy. . He wrote to her from Taiwan…“'I have two sons-in-laws. One does not talk, and another one doesn’t speak Chinese.' My mother however was very open-minded…She ordered a cake, and invited her friends to celebrate.”

(To be continued. Next: China's Big Problem--Pretending to Be Communist.)