Anna Chao Pai 1957

When Anna Chao “Chips” Pai sat down to write her autobiography, she discovered that she had a lot of material.

After all, her grandfather was a warlord who controlled all of Manchuria in the 1920s and was assassinated by the Japanese seeking to control the region. Her uncle became a historic figure in China who once staged a coup against Chiang Kai-shek and was punished with an extraordinary 50 years of house arrest.

But, several chapters of her book, From Manchurian Princess to the American Dream, focus on Chips’ time at Sweet Briar and the impact the College had on her life and her career as a geneticist.

A 1957 graduate, Chips’ family came to the United States when she was 3 years old and moved frequently. Often she and her brothers were the only Chinese students in the classroom, leaving her with a feeling that she didn’t belong. This feeling disappeared when she came to Sweet Briar, making friends while excelling in academics and sports. She was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame for field hockey.

“Just in the freshman year, I felt that I was accepted as a person,” she recalls. “I was elected as a class officer and served as an officer every year. It made me feel some self-confidence when I had none. Being at Sweet Briar was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

After graduation, Chips earned a master’s degree in embryology from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in developmental genetics from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She spent nearly three decades as a professor and researcher at Montclair State University in New Jersey and wrote two books about genetics: a textbook and a science fiction novel.

Her autobiography took a different tack, beginning in China with her family’s history. Her uncle, Zhang Xueliang,” better known as “the Young Marshal” initially worked with Chiang Kai-shek but became disenchanted when the Chinese leader focused all his firepower on defeating the Communists rather than the Japanese troops flooding into Manchuria. This disenchantment led to a coup attempt and his house arrest, which lasted long after Chiang had lost power.

For the past few years, Chips has endowed a scholarship in hopes of supporting Chinese and other Asian students who wish to attend Sweet Briar. 

“Sweet Briar to me would be an ideal place for Chinese students, since I know something about how they were raised,” she says. “The safety of the College, the fact that there is no sexism here, and the strength of the science and technology areas of our curriculum are just ideal.”