On July 10, Mrs. Elyn Gregg Cheney MacInnis was presented with the Friendship Envoy Award at the 2025 Orchid Awards Ceremony.
According to the Amity Foundation, Elyn Macinnis, convener of "Friends of Kuliang" in the United States and descendant of Lieutenant Donald MacInnis of the American Flying Tigers, has lived in China for over 30 years and speaks fluent Chinese. She was also the only foreigner among those named "Touching China 2023 Person of the Year."
In her remarks at the ceremony, Macinnis shared, "My joy and my passion is finding the small details in the stories of people from different cultures who've come to China over time and become deep, deep friends, some of whom have been friends for four and five generations. So there's joy in the details. There's a key to friendship, keys to friendship, all in those stories. And that's what I'm working on now."
Kuliang, located in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, is known for its unique blend of Chinese and Western cultures. In the mid-19th century, Fuzhou, one of China's earliest treaty ports, drew expatriates from over 20 countries. Due to its favorable climate, Kuliang emerged as a popular summer retreat, and by 1935, it had evolved into a well-established international community featuring numerous residences, churches, hospitals, and post offices.
Today, the "Friends of Kuliang" community serves as a bridge for fostering people-to-people exchanges between China and the wider world. Members such as Lee Gardner, Gordon Trimble, Keith Bradsher, and Gail Harris—descendants of missionaries and other former residents—remain actively involved in preserving and sharing Kuliang's rich legacy.
The "Friends of Kuliang" community serves as a platform for fostering people-to-people exchanges between China and the world. Members such as Lee Gardner, Gordon Trimble, Keith Bradsher, and Gail Harris, descendants of missionaries who once lived in Kuliang, remain actively engaged in preserving and sharing the legacy of Kuliang.
On the same day, at the opening ceremony of the Ministerial Meeting of the Global Civilizations Dialogue, a special session featured three international friends who had previously exchanged letters with President Xi Jinping. They were invited to share how they first connected with China and how they have helped put the Global Civilization Initiative into practice. Among them was Mrs. Macinnis, in her role as convener of Friends of Kuliang. "I will continue to write the Kuliang story and carry forward the special bonds so that the friendship between our two peoples can stay forever strong and robust like the thousand-year-old cedar trees in Kuliang," she said.
In addition to leading the Friends of Kuliang, Elyn is the wife of Peter Macinnis, the first general manager of Amity Printing Company in Nanjing. The couple had a close friendship with Bishop K.H. Ting, a prominent leader in China's Three-Self Patriotic Movement and a founding member of the Amity Foundation. Her father-in-law, Donald Macinnis, served in the Flying Tigers and supported China during World War II. Amid the chaos of war, he witnessed both the suffering and the resilience of the Chinese people.
