Ladies and Gentalmen,

My name is Bonnie Liao (Liao Bing).

Standing here are the five girls who spent four years in college with Ellen 20 years ago when studying in the Physics Department of Peking University from 1980 to 1984. This is Wang Jinglin from Hong Kong. Zhang Jian, Li Xiaoling, Xia Zhiming, and I are from other parts of the United States. Today we are here with 9 fellow alumni to represent the Class 1980 of Physics Department.

20 years ago, the six of us crammed in a small dorm room (Room 408, Building 31) with three bunk-beds and two square desks leaving not much room for anything else. During the four years, that was our home. We ate together, studied together, and did a lot of activities together. We are the ones who have spent the longest time living with Ellen besides her family. We ARE a family. We are sisters for life.

Ellen was the second among the three girls in her family. She’s also the second eldest in our room. We used to call her “Er Lan” (the Second Orchid).

Er Lan, we are all here!!

The four-year college life was relatively short considering how many years ago that was. Since then we have all changed a lot while our relationships continued to grow from sisterhood to friendship.