Chapter 1: Introduction: Re–seeking Dreams and the Lived Experience of Chinese Immigrant Faculty

The first flash of the idea that later led Yan to seriously think about this book came around the time when she packed up to leave the United States for Macau, China in 2007, a turning point in her life and career. By that time, she had studied and worked in the United States for ten years. This somehow paralleled her journey, albeit in a reverse direction, from China to the Unites States a decade ago, which opened a whole new page of life. It is probably just natural for one to take a retrospective look at the past during the conjuncture of a new phase in life. The ten years in the United States were so special and significant for her personally and professionally that she felt a growing urge to seek its meaning—to make sense of it—and to understand it, through writing her personal histories.