Attorney Hao Wang, age 33, of Beijing, China, raises a glass with Joe Skoda of rural Decorah. Skoda and his wife Melissa O’Rourke hosted Wang during a six-day holiday break from the Humphrey Fellowship Program in Washington, D.C. (Photo submitted)
A Decorah resident recently hosted a visitor from China — showing him a side of the United States he hadn’t seen until now.
Beijing attorney Hao Wang stayed with retired attorney and rural Decorah resident Melissa O’Rourke and her husband Joe Skoda for six days during Wang’s winter break from the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C.
“It’s very interesting here,” Wang said. “I knew this was an English-speaking country — a lot of Anglo-Saxons — but I never knew about all the immigrants of the Midwest. China is not an immigration country, so we don’t have cultural diversity.”
O’Rourke said Wang stayed “very busy” during his stay, touring the lock and dam system near Lansing, the Bily Clock Museum and St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Spillville, Vesterheim Museum, the Prairie’s Edge Nature Center south of Cresco and the Iowa Dairy Center at Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar.
“Never have I had this experience before,” Wang said. “I’ve seen it on television, but I’ve never watched someone milk a cow. This is very interesting.”
Through the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, professionals collaborate to address local and global challenges and foster change for the common good, according to information on the program’s website. The fellowship is sponsored by the United States State Department, according to the website, and the program uses academic study and professional development with U.S. counterparts as a method for sharing best practices and building expertise in critically-important fields “to advance societal and institutional capacity, promote human rights and freedoms, ensure sustainable environments and develop thriving communities.”
The program’s website referred to Wang as “a distinguished attorney and senior partner at a leading Beijing law firm, renowned for his commitment to public interest law, particularly in environmental protection, smoking control, and minority rights advocacy.”
During a previous trip to the U.S., Wang participated in a program in Minnesota, during which he stayed and worked with a public defender — O’Rourke’s niece — in Stillwater, Minnesota. O’Rourke and Wang met during that initial visit.
Wang returned to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 8 and will be interning with an international non-governmental organization for the second half of the year-long program. During the first half of the program, he studied American criminal law, legal institution and legal writing.
Wang will be returning to China in August, but he said he would enjoy living in the United States if the Chinese government allows it.
“Living in Minnesota or Iowa would be more suitable,” Wang said with a smile. “There’s more freedom here. More freedom of speech, religion and everything else.”
O’Rourke said Americans have vastly more rights than residents of China. For example, she noted Americans have the right to peacefully assemble and protest government policy or a piece of legislation, whereas residents of China have neither of those rights. O’Rourke said Wang might even be questioned by Chinese officials when he returns home in August, because the fellowship is sponsored by the U.S. State Department.
Despite the lack of freedom in China, Wang said people there don’t live in fear.
“It’s not fear,” he said. “It’s being cautious. You need to be cautious of what you talk about in public. At dinner with your family, it’s okay to talk. But, if you talk in public, you have to be very cautious about what you say. Talking about politics in public will make trouble for you.”
Touring the countryside while staying with O’Rourke has been Wang’s favorite part of his winter break, and the friendship he’s gained as well as the kindness he’s witnessed and experienced during his trip to the Midwest have left him feeling enthusiastic.
“How you treat friends and foreigners is a really important lesson for me to learn,” Wang said. “This has been the perfect experience — meeting new friends and new people — a fantastic experience for me.”
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