BIO
Y. Ping Sun was born in Shanghai, China in 1957. She was raised by her grandparents in Tianjin, China. For secondary school, Ping was selected to attend a special school for foreign languages, where she studied English. She went on to become a member of the first group of Chinese students after the Cultural Revolution to take the college entrance exam in 1977 and be accepted into a Chinese university. Before she graduated from the Beijing Languages and Culture University, however, Ping was accepted into Princeton University, where she attended the School of International and Public Affairs from 1981 to 1985. After an internship at a law firm during her junior year of college, she decided to become a lawyer and attended Columbia Law School from 1985 to 1988. Ping's first job after law school was at an international corporate law firm in New York called White & Case, LLP. After four years there, she moved to France for six months during her husband's sabbatical leave. When she returned to New York, Ping worked at Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, LLP, another international corporate firm. After working there for eleven years, she moved to Houston when her husband became the President of Rice University in 2004. Ping served as University Representative for Rice until 2022, when her husband stepped down from his role. Currently, Ping is of counsel at Yetter Coleman, LLP. She is also on the board of several nonprofit organizations, including Texas Children's Hospital, the Asia Society Texas Center, Hermann Park Conservancy, Barber Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. This interview was conducted as part of an independent project about ways in which Chinese American immigrant parents express love toward their children. Thus, it is not a standard full-length oral history interview. Rather, Ping generally discusses the similarities and differences between the expressions of love she shares with her grandparents, parents, and children. She also briefly discusses her experience immigrating to the United States and how American culture shifted the way she expresses love.