When Addison Zhang NYU ’26 was choosing a study away site, there was really only one option: Shanghai. While other students are attracted to the city’s glittering skyline and futuristic technology, what brought Addison to Shanghai was the call of home and family.
Although he was born in the United States, Addison felt a strong sense of connection with his grandparents back in China, who he grew close to in his childhood. They would come to visit his family in Nebraska, staying for months at a time. His parents would bring him during summer vacations to spend time with them at their home in Shanghai.
The global pandemic prevented Addison from seeing his grandparents for years, and he missed seeing his grandfather before he died. Then, shortly after his first visit to Shanghai in five years, his aunt suddenly passed away. Addison said he knew he wanted to take advantage of studying in Shanghai to spend precious quality time with his 91 year old grandmother, Zhou Mulan.
“I realised there weren't too many more opportunities after graduating college to be able to see them,” he said. “So I wanted to take advantage of NYU study abroad, to come here, see my family for an extended period of time, and learn as much about them and of my culture as possible.”
The “baby” of the family, Addison is twelve years younger than his brother and decades younger than his cousins. His grandmother remembers taking care of him when he was a toddler before he was old enough to go to school. “Because my Mandarin has a Shanghainese accent, his Mandarin ended up sounding like mine too,” she said.
During his study away semester in Shanghai, Addison kept his priorities straight. Every Sunday morning he would take the subway to visit his grandmother in her fifth-floor walk-up apartment. She would tell him stories, feed him lunch, force him to take a rest, and then send him back to the dormitory.
She treasured his visits. “When I heard he would be studying in Shanghai for a year, I was so happy,” she said. “Every Sunday, he comes to see me. I look forward to it every week. I watch him eat the meals I prepare for him. If he can’t finish, I pack the rest and make him take it to share with his friends in the dorm.”
While at NYU Shanghai, Addison was inspired to sign up for Interactive Media and Business Associate Arts Professor Yuan Yanyue’s Experience Studio: Shaping the Future of Aging course. As part of the class, each student was tasked to create a “life album,” of a family elder. More than a scrapbook, the life album project captures an elder family member’s memories, habits, and life lessons, honoring their story while sparking new ways of imagining the future of aging. Addison decided to make an album documenting his grandmother’s life.
Professor Yuan said she enjoyed observing Addison’s project come into fruition. “Addison comes from a background where two different cultures both leave a strong imprint on him,” she said. “Through this process, I could see his view on aging becoming more specific and grounded—less abstract, and more connected to lived experiences, everyday routines, and intergenerational relationships.”
Addison used the class to connect the dots in his relationship with his grandmother and extended family. “Every time I come back to China, my brother and I would start shuffling through her stack of pictures and she would tell stories, always very memorable stories,” he said. “For the life album, I asked her to bring out those piles of photos. I picked out some and I interviewed her in Chinese and translated into English to write it on the album.”
“She’s always been very strong, very intense,” said Addison. “She grew up in World War II and had to live through that and then she's lived 90 years and she's still the head of the family. She's always taking care of everybody, wondering how everybody is, making sure everybody is full, [that] they’re sleeping [well]. She’s very much a Chinese grandmother.”
Addison’s album is a lovingly compiled tribute to a woman who he admires as well as a collection of advice he’s gotten from her through the years. “I wanted to show her how much I care, that, like all of the things she does for me, I wanted to show her that I also appreciate it,” he said.
Addison said he respects how his grandmother has stuck with her morning tai chi routine for years, even as the group of friends she practices with dwindles smaller and smaller over time. Her words have also stuck with him. When he asked her why she’s always so optimistic,” she responded, “I spent my childhood hiding from bombs just to stay alive [during the Japanese invasion in World War II]. Now life is so good—what reason do I have to be unhappy?”
After the class finished, he presented his grandmother with the photo album he had made. “I was stunned,” she said. “So many old pictures! I have no idea where he found them. He and I have looked through the album many times together, and every time, it feels like he’s helping me review my long life.”
“Whenever I see photos of me with him when he was little, I can’t help but sigh at how fast time flies,” she reminisced. “I was already a grandmother back then, but I was still strong and pretty young. Now I look at him—he’s a college student already. How could I not have gotten old?”
In the weeks before he returned to New York, both Addison and his grandmother felt how fleeting his time in Shanghai was. “I’m always counting how many weekends are left before he finishes his year in Shanghai and goes back to the US,” she said.
At the end of every weekly visit, Addison said, his uncle would drive him back to campus. “My grandma always tags along so she can spend the extra twenty minutes with me,” Addison recalled fondly. In those short, twenty minute rides back to campus though, he found the family and home he came for.
https://shanghai.nyu.edu/videos/sundays-grandma