Basic Yao Facts
This university, a liberal arts college whose mascot is the Desert Falcons, is where Yao completed her undergraduate degree.
What is NYU Abu Dhabi?
Holding this for the first time sent Yao into a slight existential panic, but that subsided quickly into excitement.
Who is Miha?
Yao does not like this spice, which is commonly found in autumnal-coded food/drink like pumpkin pie and chai, which she also does not like.
What is cinnamon?
Yao considers her secret superpower to be the ability to estimate if the weight of this item is over a certain limit without using a scale.
What is checked luggage?
Miha is this breed of hamster, although she came from the Mountain View Petco, not the Damascus Petco.
What is Syrian?
This animal is Yao's Chinese Zodiac sign (double points if you can also name the animal from the Chinese Zodiac that Yao's mom's last name means)
What is tiger? (double points answer: horse / 马 / Ma)
Yao ate her first of this food last year on her birthday.
What is a corn dog?
Yao's top artist on Spotify for 2024 was this person, and she listened to this artist for more minutes than Kristy did!
Who is Taylor Swift?
You might know of Yao as a talented social scientist and lacrosse player, but the first activity she pursued at a high level was actually this; a video of her leading this activity was distributed throughout China, but Yao so far has not allowed Kristy to see it.
What is Chinese dance?
This is how Yao and Kristy describe the sound that Miha makes, which Kristy thought was their own cute thing but turns out is just the onomatopoeia in Mandarin Chinese for "squeak".
What is 吱吱 (zhi zhi)?
In college, Yao studied abroad in both Florence, Italy and this city, which is funny because she had previously lived in this city for several years.
What is New York City?
Yao ate 1kg of this food just to prove that she could.
What is a tomato?
Yao does not like this ice cream flavor, which according to the International Dairy Foods Association was America's 7th most popular ice cream flavor in 2024.
What is mint chocolate chip?
Yao was the first player from Team China to receive one of these at the Women's Lacrosse World Cup.
What is a yellow card?
The farthest that Yao and Kristy have recorded Miha running in a night is approximately this distance, which is how long the annual Bay to Breakers race in SF is.
What is 12km / 7.5mi? (real distance: 12.4km / 7.7mi)
Although Yao lived and went to school in Beijing, she was born in and spent significant time in this city, which is also called the Blue City.
What is Huhhot, Inner Mongolia?
Here, Yao is hugging a Costco-sized version of this item that she loves to snack on.
What is popcorn?
While adamant about boycotting Starbucks, Yao loves this drink of theirs -- luckily it is possible to make at home!
What is a Pink Drink?
Yao learned to play these two different instruments while in school (you have to get both, no half credit!)
What are trumpet and cello?
This is Miha's Chinese name, which you would know if you read her Instagram bio (no cheating!)
What is 米哈?
This number is the sum of the number of tattoos Yao has and the number of piercings Yao has
What is 5? (2 tattoos + 3 piercings)
(Bonus: +200 points to the team who can most accurately draw Yao's tattoos. Starting now!!)
Yao is pictured here going snowboarding in this city.
What is Dubai?
Yao is allergic to some varieties of this fruit, although she enjoys eating varieties she is not allergic to.
What is mango?
Yao recently won the Barbara & Sandy Dornbusch Award in Social Psychology award for her paper published in this journal in 2024.
What is the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies?
Miha is not Yao's first hamster; this is the name of her previous hamster that she had as a child.
Who is Meffy?