Season 6 Episode #3: “LifeChangers: Reconnecting with Your Roots”

Why does an American-born Chinese philanthropist want to help young Chinese in America reconnect with their roots? Why is that important? What seeded that passion? 

Tune into my conversation with Carolyn Hsu-Balcer in Episode #3 “Reconnecting with Your Roots.”

Carolyn Hsu-Balcer is a designer, philanthropist, and art collector based in Los Angeles and New York.  

Having lived in Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Philippines, she returned to America (her birthplace) obligingly for college. Her mother told her America is her future because they didn’t have a home in China anymore. 

How did Carolyn’s Chinese parents shape her love for country, history, art and culture?

Why was Carolyn so inspired by her great-granduncle Dr. Kuo Ping-Wen - the first Chinese to have earned a PhD in America??

Why does Carolyn believe young Chinese in America should become global-minded? 

Music used:

One In a Billion Theme Song by Brad McCarthy
Youk Ra Lom Ai Oh by Les Cartes Postales Sonores
Lullaby by the Ghost in Your Piano
A Yankees Southern Blues by HoliznaCC0
Mountain Monk C by Lobo Loco
Driving Through Tunnels by Daniel Birch
The Armys March by MMFFF
The Things That Connect Us by Independent Music Licensing Collective

Carolyn graduated from Wheaton College (Mass.) with a BA in  Economics and a minor in Chinese Language. After working as a  financial analyst on Wall Street and as a Retail Product Developer, Carolyn launched SnoPea Inc. in 1997, a baby clothes company based in  New York. SnoPea manufactures and markets infantwear for sale online  and in specialty stores across the US, Canada and Japan. 

Carolyn has worked to foster Sino-American understanding through  education and culture. She has organized seminars on Education in  China at major universities in the US and China. 

She supports  educational scholarships at universities in Shanghai, Nanjing and  Taiwan, and at rural schools in Yunnan Province in China. In 2008, she  received the Blue Cloud Award for outstanding achievement from the  China Institute in New York.

Carolyn has co-edited and co-published the historical biographies Kuo  Ping Wen Scholar, Reformer, Statesman (2016) and C.T. Wang: Looking  Back and Looking Forward (2008); the artbook A Token of Elegance (2015), a historical and photo survey of cigarette holders as objets de  vertu; and Chow! Secrets of Chinese Cooking (2020), an updated edition  of a timeless classic about Chinese cuisine and culture and winner of a  2021 Gourmand World Cookbook Award. 

Carolyn has organized ground-breaking exhibits of Chinese art including  Xu Bing Tobacco Project Virginia (2011 VMFA), Light Before Dawn (2013  Asia Society Hong Kong), Blooming in the Shadows (2011 China Institute NY), Ming Cho Lee: A Retrospective (2011 Ningbo Museum), and Oil and  Water: Re-Interpreting Ink (2014 MOCA NY).  

She has sponsored the publication of a 13-volume catalogue of the  works of the Wuming group of Chinese artists, and the publication of “Ai  Wei Wei: New York Photographs 1983-1993”.  

Carolyn has produced award-winning documentaries on China and  Chinese art, including “Above the Drowning Sea”, “The No Name Painting  Association” and “Xu Bing Tobacco Project Virginia”.  

Carolyn is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at the MFA  Boston, the Guggenheim Museum Asian Art Circle, the Board of  Directors of the Wolfsonian-FIU, the Arts Council of the Asia Society, the  Board of Friends of Channel 13, and honorary trustee of the Ningbo  Museum (China) where she has forged ties with American art & cultural  institutions to bring curatorial training to the Ningbo Museum. 

Carolyn and her husband have assembled important collections of  Chinese Contemporary art, Japanese Shin-Hanga, Inuit art and objets de  vertu, which have been the subjects of numerous publications and  exhibitions worldwide, including at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston,  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Louvre (Paris), Virginia  Museum of Fine Arts, Aldrich Museum, Wellin Museum, Cooper Hewitt,  Asia Society Hong Kong, Lenbachhaus Museum Munich, and the Taipei  Fine Arts Museum.