United States
Georgetown University
One of my daughters continues her education in Washington, D.C. Alongside her studies, she is developing her own connections to the wider world through photography, creative work, and collaboration.
Andrew Ji / A Family Story
Family
From a small village in Shandong to New York, our family’s journey has been shaped by education, migration, entrepreneurship, and globalization.
01
Our Global Journey
BeginningA village in Yantai, Shandong
Education & WorkBeijing
A New ChapterNew York
The Next GenerationWashington, D.C. & Cambridge
I grew up in a small village in Yantai, Shandong. Education took me to Beijing, where I studied, worked, started businesses, and built a family. In 2022, I came to the United States and began another chapter in New York.
This route—from a village to a capital city, and then across an ocean—was made possible by an era in which people, knowledge, capital, and opportunity could move across borders.
02
A Family Shaped by Globalization
I am a beneficiary of globalization.
Globalization is not an abstract idea to me. It gave me the opportunity to leave a small village in Shandong, build a career in Beijing, and begin a new life and new work in New York.
Today, as the world moves toward greater separation, I feel a responsibility to record what that era made possible—not only for me, but for one ordinary family. Our story is evidence that exchange across cultures and borders can expand the horizon of a life.
03
The Next Generation
United Kingdom
University of Cambridge
My younger daughter studies Linguistics at Lucy Cavendish College. Her love of reading, language, and theatre opens another path across cultures, ideas, and ways of understanding people.
Their lives connect China, America, and Europe. They are not simply living in different places; they are learning how to enter, understand, and contribute to a larger world.
04
What Family Means to Me
To build a family is to help each person find a path into the wider world.
Building a family is not about deciding another person’s road. It is about giving each person the security, confidence, and freedom to discover a road of their own.
This is part of what I Build. means to me. I build buildings, businesses, and teams—but I also try to build the conditions in which the people I love can move toward a wider world.