Editor's note: China Daily presents the series Friends Afar to tell the stories of people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. Through the vivid narration of the people in the stories, readers can get a better understanding of a country that is boosting openness.

For Kathryn Johnson, her connection to China started with a Chinese family in her local community in 1999, when a kid of Chinese heritage died in a swimming pool. At that time, she was a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing at a public school in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

"I wanted to help the family out in some way. So, we got white carnations and sold the carnations to help pay for the funeral," Johnson said.

That led to her students' curiosity about China. To make up for her lack of knowledge, Johnson joined a delegation that traveled to China in the summer of 2000. The trip was organized by Gallaudet University in Washington DC, a university primarily for deaf students.

"I was 35 years old at the time, mom of three young kids, but I went on a three-week abroad program with Gallaudet," Johnson said. During that trip, she participated in conferences and met with numerous universities and deaf communities in China.

"It was absolutely life-changing for me," Johnson said. She got hooked on China and decided to further her career. "I enrolled in a program at the University of Minnesota. It was a comparative international development education program, and my focus was on deaf education in China."

For her dissertation, Johnson interviewed about 50 people including leaders and students from the deaf community in China. Her dissertation concluded with policy recommendations for China's deaf education system.

For Johnson, completing her PhD was just the beginning of her involvement with China for two decades. "I've gone probably 75 times since then, but I love it. I just love going to China," she said.

She became a faculty member at St. Cloud State University in 2005. In 2006, Johnson helped organize a school trip to China.

Struck by the sight of three — and four-year-old Chinese children learning English in a bilingual school in Xi'an, the university president wanted US students to learn Chinese, and he tasked Johnson to develop such a program.

What resulted was a Chinese immersion program formed out of a partnership between the university and the St. Cloud school district.

"This was right at the same time that the governor of Minnesota had taken a delegation to China, had come back, and was encouraging schools to offer Chinese language programs in the school. So, it worked," Johnson said. "There were seven schools that all started Chinese immersion programs at that same time."

That was in 2007, and 19 years later, "Minnesota is probably one of the strongest for Chinese immersion programs", she said. "Our program models are full immersion. The kids don't start learning English until third grade."

Johnson devoted a lot of her time to the Chinese immersion program and often visited China. Beginning in 2015, she would lead three delegations made up of elementary school students and university students as well as school administrators and teachers. In addition, she started taking deaf leadership teams to China.

At the same time as she was running the Chinese immersion program, Johnson helped establish the Confucius Institute at the university in 2014 in partnership with Jilin Normal University. She became its director.

She brought her passion for deaf education into her leadership role at the Confucius Institute and included wheelchair users in delegations to China in the following years.

"The real exciting part of it was when Confucius Institute headquarters agreed to sponsor a deaf teacher to come and teach Chinese sign language in Minnesota," Johnson said. After searching, they invited a deaf professor from Beijing Normal University.

Her involvement expanded over the years, including participation in numerous conferences and university partnerships, Johnson said.

"We worked with the US Embassy in Beijing, and were able to host conferences and speaking events," she said. "I was also working with the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC."

Working with Hanban and the Harkin Institute in Iowa, Johnson helped bring Chinese interns and scholars to states such as Iowa, Delaware and Minnesota to teach Chinese sign language and culture.

When COVID-19 hit in early 2020, Johnson arranged for them to continue teaching online.

Johnson shared her work with her family. She invited her mother, daughter and two sons to visit China with her on separate occasions.

In the summer of 2011, she brought her two sons to her favorite place, Yangshuo in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, known for its scenic rivers and karst mountains. There, she met Angel, whose Chinese name was Zhao Chunli, a woman with brittle bone disease. She was working at the front desk of a boutique hotel run by an American.

It turned out that former US president Clinton and his family had visited her home during his 1998 trip to China. However, she didn't get to meet with the Clintons at that time due to her disability.

When Johnson met her in 2011, Angel was married, had an adopted daughter and spoke fluent English, a remarkable achievement given her circumstances.

Angel's resilience touched Johnson, and she wanted Angel to meet former president Bill Clinton to make up for her lost opportunity.

"I was able to arrange for Angel and her husband to come to the United States for an internship within our Chinese immersion programs to learn about disabilities in the United States, to strengthen her knowledge and understanding so she could become an advocate for people with disabilities in China."

She also introduced Angel to the former president Bill Clinton on April 1, 2012 at an event sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative.

"President Clinton got down on one knee and held her little hand, and just said, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you at your house, what can I do to help support you? And thankfully we stayed in touch and the Clintons helped fund some of the research and work for Angel," Johnson said. "Angel was invited to speak at national and international conferences as a keynote speaker."

Johnson remains friends with Angel. Last summer when she visited China, she went to Yangshuo.

"That's when I saw their daughter who's now 16," she said. "She and her husband have a little restaurant in their local community."

Exchanges continue

Johnson retired from St. Cloud State University in mid-March and now devotes all her time to Excellence for International Development, a nonprofit organization she founded. She's partnered with another deaf educator in China and hopes to continue exchanges between deaf communities in China and the US.

Passionate about her work, Johnson said she wants to help China's deaf community develop leadership and identity.

For that, she's working with Changchun University, which has about 400 deaf students and offers a master's degree to them. Changchun University is offering a master's degree in art, but she wants to help the program expand into leadership development to empower deaf leaders.

In addition, Johnson is working with members of China's disability community on a guidebook for the country's deaf community.

Like many other US nonprofit organizations, Johnson lost federal funding for her program when President Donald Trump took office last year.

"We are working to be creative on how to get the funding and hoping to expand to work with international companies that do business in China," she said.

Johnson believes in the power of people-to-people exchange.

"When you meet other people, it broadens your work," she said. "The more people understood each other's cultures, the better for our US-China relations. We'll continue because we know the value."

Johnson is now writing a book to capture the "different stories" and "amazing things" she has experienced during her journey with China, particularly through her work with people with disabilities.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com