Former Honolulu council member Leigh Wai Doo has been a renowned Chinese American activist ever since the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he actively prompted the establishment of a sister city bond between Hawaii and China's southernmost province Hainan, followed by the sister city bond between Honolulu and Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province, where his family lived more than a century ago.

As the descendant of Yang Xianyi, one of China's aviation pioneers, Leigh Wai Doo isn't about to let that heritage slip away. It has been his life-long aim to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and China, deepen soft power exchanges, and foster friendly connections between the two countries and their peoples.