Nancy Jiang Breaking stereotypes

I recently watched a youtube movie entitled, “Her Way” (check it out on the Adventure Website) which introduced a woman who had an overwhelming passion for running. The preface at the bottom of the clip, read as follows:

Chinese-born Nancy Jiang moved with her family from Ma'an Shan to Auckland, New Zealand when she was five. She studied structural engineering and today is the only female engineer in her firm. Small in stature and needing to prove herself in the workplace, she found her release through a love of trail running in the mountains above Queenstown, despite having been told as a kid that “Chinese people do not run.”

Inspired by not only her passion for running but also her determination to smash down stereotypes, we reached out to Nancy and this was her reply…

I immediately think back to my run into work this morning when I read your email. It was pissing down with rain, pitch black at 6am in the morning and probably around 3-4 degrees in Nelson (I have recently moved to Nelson) and I had planned this new route the night before which will take me to work via over the hills. And heck I was not going to let a bit of rain stop me.

So I set off in the dark, excited to run this route for the first time and also try out my new head torch. 5 mins in, my head torch starts flashing - damit new electronic gear always comes with almost empty batteries. Anyway I continue, I figured I will deal with my torch on dim mode and if it dies, I can use my phone and eventually the sun will come up. I begin the climb up the 4wd forestry road and suddenly I hear this great cracking crashing noise below me. A giant pine tree had just fallen over, probably due to the crazy amount of rain we have had. What are the chances of a tree falling on me...? Anyway, 2 and a half hours later I make it into work looking like a drowned rat but so stoked and satisfied that I did the run I had planned.