Making Connections

New England Chinese Information and Networking Association Goes From Dial-up to Age of A.I.

When the New England Chinese Information and Networking Association was founded, the internet as we know it today was still relatively young — and the dot-com bubble was just starting to inflate.

The year was 1996, and many people in the U.S. were still new to dial-up modems, the chime “You’ve Got Mail” was fresh, and homes were still starting to tap into the larger network that was the World Wide Web, which was just seven years old at the time.

In fact, as longtime NECINA member Ben Tao recalled recently to this reporter during the group’s 30th birthday bash earlier this summer, the word “networking” in the group’s name carried a double meaning. It referred to both the specific technical theme of telecommunications networks, and, as Tao puts it, to the idea of “bringing people together to form a community.”

Then, says Tao, “This meaning has run through the entire thirty years.”

30 Candles for NECINA

The LaCava Conference Center of Bentley University turned into a day-long party — and, yes, networking and educational conference — for NECINA on June 13. From a forum starting at 8:30 in the morning to the evening banquet and cultural performances, the venue was bustling with people.

As this reporter entered the conference center, a college student volunteer, Alex, guided her to the main hall. On stage, a roundtable forum on the promotion and application of artificial intelligence and robots was in progress, with industry experts taking turns sharing their judgments on the AI wave.

The group had lasted from one technology-shifting era — the early days of the Web — to another, artificial intelligence and saw a cumulative 25,000 members along the way. The group currently boasts 1,000 active members.

A Tea Room Poster, a Big Idea

NECINA was founded by a group of high-tech entrepreneurs, many of whom came from prominent companies such as Wang Lab, which experienced a major transformation at the time. Tao, who was previously the association’s president, joined the group in the late 1990s, when he was still working at Oracle. He had seen a poster in the company’s tea room advertising a local professional society that was hosting a technical seminar.

“I attended several events and found the topics very cutting-edge and interesting,” Tao recalls. “Being just a passive attendee was no longer enough for me, so I raised my hand to ask if I could become a volunteer.”

A member for nearly 27 years, Tao said this is his longest-lasting relationship with any organization.

In Tao’s view, NECINA’s mission is like a three-tier pyramid: the bottom layer is “building the community” — creating an inclusive, diverse, “informationally open,” and innovation-driven group; the middle layer is cultivating “leadership and entrepreneurial spirit,” providing a platform for people at all career stages to showcase their talents; and the most important top layer is “empowering” individuals and enterprises to accomplish things that are difficult to achieve on their own — faster networking, obtaining new ideas, securing financing, establishing connections, and advancing their careers to new heights.

Betting Physical, Biological AI

The theme of this 30th anniversary conference is set in a highly ambitious direction: The integration of physical AI and biological AI. Tao explains that this theme is deeply connected to the land of Boston.

“Think of Boston, the birthplace of iRobot and Kiva – Kiva later became Amazon Robotics,” points out Tao. The accumulated expertise in robotics technology and engineering talent is the foundation of “Physical AI.” At the same time, the area along the Charles River in the Greater Boston region is home to the world’s top pharmaceutical research and development centers. The innovation in biomedicine is increasingly dependent on AI to accelerate the entire process of new drug development, forming the fertile ground for “Biological AI!”

“It can be said that we have the best soil for developing physical AI and biological AI, especially for their integration,” Tao said. He believes that this theme “will not be outdated in the next thirty years… It will not be a fleeting moment, but will have enduring vitality – which is in line with Boston itself.”

The group’s 30th anniversary celebration attracted heavyweight sponsors and guests, with top venture capital firm IDG Capital being one of the sponsors and attendees. Ben Tao hopes that the participants can take away two gains: One is to truly experience the various opportunities brought by the integration of physical AI and biological AI, whether they are investors looking for the next startup project, or ordinary professionals concerned about their own career prospects and the future of the next generation; the other is to promote connections between different generations – to bring the senior generation and the younger generation closer together.

Passing the Torch

“In Chinese, this is called ‘Thirty years in the East, thirty years in the West,’ said Ru Zheng, who has served as president, general manager, and board member, and now chairs the mentor network. She joined NECINA in 2006 as a Dale Carnegie lecturer, and it was through a site visit that she became connected. Originally from Guangzhou, Zheng is a native speaker of Cantonese and started out as a public relations specialist, writing reports in both Chinese and English within 24 hours after each event and submitting them to newspapers.

“If we compare NECINA to a person, thirty years is the ‘age of thirty, standing firm,’” said Zheng, “we have grown up, and it’s time to think about the next generation, to pass the baton and empower the next generation.”

She is proud to have been able to bring her daughter Hannah into the volunteer team and looks forward to more talented young people joining.

“Our generation has laid the foundation, now it’s time to hand over the platform to you to show off and create an impact. It’s time to leave a legacy.”

This line deeply resonates with Ben Tao. He said he has done some research and found that less than 10% of non-profit organizations in the United States can reach their 30th anniversary, because most organizations do not have such “patience.”

“So I feel extremely proud!” But he also has another strong feeling: excitement about the future.

“Ru and I can’t carry this torch forever, there are physiological limits.”

He said that what is truly important is not only that the torch must be constantly it, but that “the torch of tomorrow cannot be the torch of yesterday.” The person carrying the torch must be the next generation, he said.

Hannah Zhu is the representative of this “next generation.” She has been participating in association activities with her mother, Zheng, since she was a child, participating in the association’s youth entrepreneurship program (called the YES Program, or Youth Entrepreneurship Program) in high school, returned to serve as a mentor in college, and now is responsible for marketing promotion and event coordination for this celebration.

“Throughout my growth, there has always been someone to turn to for career advice, and this kind of support is very rare,” she said.

Thirty years ago, when the association started, it was during the dot-com bubble, and today it is in the midst of the AI wave. Some people now speculate another potential “bubble moment.” But the role of the association is to lead members to master new technologies, to hold onto the community in a time of great change, and to help Chinese American professionals in Boston, especially graduates like her, to stand firm, she said.

When talking about “reverse mentorship,” in which the younger generation teaches the older generation to use new technologies, Hannah humorously said it was a wonderful role reversal: “I was constantly learning when I was young, and now it's the other way around. But it feels good to be able to give back to everyone.” This is also the direction that Ru Zheng is pushing: “the younger generation teaches technology, and the older generation imparts workplace experience and the art of interpersonal skills, with the two generations complementing each other.”

Remembering Jackie Yang

The association holds up to 40 events a year, and it is a group of volunteers without titles who truly bring NECINA’s mission to fruition. This year, on the 30th anniversary gala, the association established a special award named after the late volunteer Jackie Yang in memory of her many years of dedication.

Jackie Yang was well-known in the Boston Chinese community and was active in various choirs and other groups. She served as the association’s general manager during Ben Tao's term as president, around 2013-2014; earlier, when Tao was the general manager, she was already actively involved; after Ben was promoted to president, Jackie Yang took over the general manager position to fully assist, and later passed the torch to the next female general manager. Even after stepping down, she remained actively engaged on the association’s front lines. She passed away in 2024 due to cancer, having served the association for over a decade.

“In the thirty to forty events each year, Jackie was responsible for handling a large amount of logistics and execution details,” the directors recalled, “her spreadsheets were dense with rows that could not be counted … behind each row was an event, a group of people, and heavy coordination work.” If any of these details were not implemented, the so-called community experience and events would be non-existent. She repeated these unpaid tasks year after year, under immense pressure as the events approached.

In the eyes of the directors, Jackie Yang represented countless volunteers who made the association's mission a reality. “NECINA has an interesting phenomenon: many people come to volunteer without caring about titles, but just work hard to get things done.”

This self-discipline and dedication set by example is regarded by them as “true leadership”— you do it for others, and others will naturally follow.

For this reason, the association has a clearly structured award system: there is the “New Star Award” for new volunteers who excel from the start; as contributions and qualifications accumulate, they are progressively awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award, President Award, Chairman Award, and so on. A special award was established in Jackie’s name.

Built on Passion and Hope

The venue remained lively in the afternoon. After two consecutive roundtable forums, there was an evening banquet and a cultural performance. Introduced by Zheng, this journalist met a group of senior members with extensive experience and active participation. The president of the Photography Association, Daryl Luk, had a positive outlook on the future of AI development and was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award by the association on the day. Another impressive figure was the evening’s artistic director, Joan Ni — she warmly greeted and took photos with every member present, inquired about their well-being, and introduced the program schedule of the evening. She also had a singing performance, investing a lot of effort in the rehearsal and planning, and her words were filled with concern and love for this organization.

Young faces were also present. Alex, a sophomore at Northeastern University with a double major in finance and computer science, came to the association through an internship at a law firm and came this time as a volunteer. He was particularly interested in how AI and large language models can be applied to work processes — he is currently involved in developing an AI system for the law firm to optimize business processes. He mentioned that just before this journalist arrived, a guest from Nvidia was on stage sharing how to deploy such technology and help businesses become stronger.

“This is a great networking opportunity,” he said, “to meet those who have clarified their direction in the later stages of their careers,” “It’s like painting a picture of the future for you.”

At noon, everyone entered the restaurant for lunch, with laughter and talk echoing. Many participants expressed that it was not easy to reach the 30th anniversary, feeling a sense of achievement, and for the future, everyone was full of hope.

Advice for the Next Generation

At the end of the interview, the journalist asked several directors to offer some advice to Chinese and Asian young professionals who are struggling to build careers and communities in the United States.

“Don’t be your own barrier, and don’t build the wall,” Zheng said. Having worked in the field of life sciences for many years, she is well aware of the solid professional reputation of Chinese people in scientific research and technical positions, “but we are sometimes too humble — humble is good, but too humble can set the barrier to ourselves in terms of communication and relationship building. So, we need to think positively about our heritage, as well as our strength.”

She hopes young people face their own cultural heritage and advantages: “You actually carry a lot of power inside you with the heritage of Chinese culture, as well as the knowledge you have learned over here. Although we are a minority group, we are very unique.”

Ben’s advice was simple and earnest: “Just come to NECINA!” He said that here you will meet many friendly faces, and you don’t have to worry about taking a long time to integrate into a new community; the association itself is also open, with sponsors and speakers coming from various industries. “We are not building an island to isolate ourselves, but a bridge—connecting the Asian community with the rest of the great state of Massachusetts, the great states of New England.”

He also added that the association is willing to give leadership opportunities to young people: “If you want to take the lead in doing something, just raise your hand. Tell us what you want the association to do, what new projects to launch, and we're in a listening mode.”