Yale's friendship with China has extended beyond student exchange programs and faculty projects into a new field – alumni collaboration, said Linda Lorimer, vice president of Yale University. Lorimer is leading a delegation of about 250 Yale University alumni, family and friends on a visit to China.

"This is a landmark vocation for us," Lorimer said. "We are expanding our association to have university graduates engaged with graduates of the great universities in China."

Yale has a long tradition of engaging its alumni in a wide array of initiatives that build loyalty to the university as well as foster community spirit among the alumni itself.

"We can expand that – not just Yale graduates in alignment with other Yale graduates, but Yale graduates as part of a global community," Lorimer said.

At the World Alumni Leadership Conference in Beijing this week, Yale will share success stories about alumni relations with Chinese universities and explore opportunities for alumni collaboration with the leading universities of China.

"We see this country [China] as the most important partner for our country and also a major innovator for this century. We admire the build-up and growth of your great universities," Lorimer said. "President Jiang Zemin said in 1998 that you will have two world-class universities in the next 20 years. We believe that'll be the case. We have followed very closely the incredible, dynamic innovation from your universities and we hope to contribute a little as well."

Nowadays, Yale has been attracting more and more Chinese students. Lorimer indicated the importance of leadership for possible recruits.

"We look to recruiting those we believe would go on to a leadership position in all aspects of the society," she said. "Obviously, it's a little difficult for students at the age of only 17. But we look for evidence in their curiosity, in their real interests in making a contribution to the society."

The test scores are just the beginning, Lorimer said.

"The idea is to do a full portrait of an individual, to see what matters for the students and what they are doing outside the classroom," she said. "They come to Yale, and they all strive to really be destined for a position of leadership."

Beyond cultivating more and more outstanding Chinese students, Yale has also been seeking excellent institutions in China to partner up with and "match excellence from Yale with excellence from other institutions."

She speaks highly of Yale's collaboration with China International Publishing Group (CIPG), starting in the 1990s when the two began co-publishing the Culture and Civilization of China series.

"[The collaboration] started with a wonderful project, which is one of the major scholarly efforts, extended beyond Yale and beyond CIPG, to try to get scholars all around the world, to bring their expertise and focus on aspects of Chinese culture and civilization to create some mentor books," she said.

Lorimer expressed her great honor that Yale University President Richard C. Levin's own book was translated into Chinese and published by CIPG several years ago.

"We now have a very exciting new project which is called 'Encounters.' There is a growing interest all around the world in learning Chinese language, but there are not necessarily the best programs for that," she said.

CIPG and Yale have been working on the Chinese language program, which will include both books and a TV series, since 2009.

"It will be released this fall," Linda said. "And I will be back for the official launch."