The Mandarin champion

Horne took all his cherished memories back to the United States and shared his story at the 13th Chinese Bridge Speech Contest for US high school students at the Confucius Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Boston in 2018.

"To both China and Chinese, I am so thankful for the new ways of thinking you have opened my eyes to and for making me contemplate more deeply the true meaning of compassion," Horne said fluently in Mandarin in his speech titled "Heavenly Tibet and the Hope in My Heart". He won the championship for the advanced-language group.

Horne said that being able to speak Mandarin is the gift of a lifetime, and he decided to pass it on by starting an after-school Chinese program at Riverdale.

"I feel that the gift of China was given to me by my Chinese teacher and all the other educators. So I really wanted to pay it forward and give that gift of understanding China and Chinese culture to other kids," he said. "I teach some third, fourth and fifth graders simple Chinese, and it's really about exposing them to something new and hoping that later on they are engaged with China and study Chinese."

Horne said that "in the Chinese classroom, we are not only working to learn Chinese. We are working toward a more peaceful world. What happens in the Chinese classroom - it's beautiful. It's magical."

Unlike many other US high school students, Horne is something of a "Chinese local" who knows how to shop on Taobao (Chinese shopping website), sing Mandarin songs in Tik Tok (a short video platform also known as Douyin in China), and listen to popular songs that are often used in square dancing in China.

"I firmly believe that all of us, regardless of nationality or cultural background, have a moral obligation to work to understand those different from ourselves," Horne said, showing off the smartphone case he bought on Taobao.

Horne recently got accepted to Harvard University, and he said "with much certainty" that he plans to engage with China "for the rest of his life".

"It's hard to say at this point what that engagement will look like, whether it will be in academia, in diplomacy, in economics. ... But I definitely want to study China in a very intellectual setting. I want to learn more about Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. I want to take a lot more in-depth look at what makes China, China in a scholarly way."

Horne said he himself is a good example of the two countries' people-to-people exchanges.

"I think of the 40 years of US-China relations, all of the people that I had the privilege to encounter throughout my years of learning Chinese. It really enriched my life, both academically and personally. That is what it means to me. It means 40 years of friendship."