A few newer faces have joined the CLI team, and one longtime team member has a new job. Heney now runs the school and university groups that come to Guilin, Lumi looks after the rooms students live in, and Claire Su is our Marketing Manager. Tristan, who has been at CLI since 2012, is the one with the new job. All four have full bios on our team page.
Heney (陈禹烨 Chén Yǔyè), Program Manager
Heney is from Nanning and studied Chinese International Education at Guangxi Normal University here in Guilin. She then spent a year in Indonesia, studying and working as a trainee Chinese teacher. That year made her sure she wanted to teach Chinese for a living. She joined CLI as a Chinese teacher in July 2026.
She is now our Program Manager for school and university groups visiting Guilin. She builds their itineraries, books the hotels and buses, and keeps each day on schedule once a group arrives. She works alongside Anias Stambolis-D'Agostino, our Director of Custom Programs. In November she welcomed a group of nearly 150 students, here for a week of language and culture.
In Chinese schools the 班长 bānzhǎng, or class monitor, is the student who keeps the class organized. Heney did the job for six years, which is good practice for getting a busload of students where they need to be. Her motto is "Every coin has two sides."
Lumi (刘芳芳 Liú Fāngfāng), Property Manager
Lumi is from Guilin and has a degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Nanning Normal University. She started out as a tour guide in Henan Province in 2006 and came home to Guilin in 2008. Since then she has held management jobs at an international travel agency, a boutique guesthouse and tea shop, and JD Home Services. That adds up to about 20 years in the service industry.
Lumi joined CLI in 2026. She looks after student accommodation and housekeeping at the CLI Center, and she is the person who decides which room each student gets. When she isn't working, she reads and (unsurprisingly) drinks tea. "A warm cup of tea makes any place feel like home," she says.
Tristan (吕勇 Lǚ Yǒng), CLI Center Upkeep Manager
Tristan is from Guilin. He worked as a tour guide and then in hotels, in Hangzhou and back home in Guilin, before he became CLI's Property Manager in 2012.
With Lumi now looking after the rooms, Tristan has moved to a new role as CLI Center Upkeep Manager. He takes care of repairs and maintenance across the building, along with the Center's fire-safety checks and drills. On weekends he still organizes pickup soccer games with students and Guilin locals.
Claire Su (苏榆雯 Sū Yúwén), Marketing Manager
Claire is from Guilin. When she was 13, her family began hosting CLI students through our homestay program (寄宿家庭 jìsù jiātíng), and she has known CLI ever since. She has a bachelor's degree from Kean University in New Jersey and is now studying for a master's in educational technology at Columbia University. She works with us from New York.
As Marketing Manager, Claire works with the creators who come to Guilin to film with us, and she and our creative team pick the weekend-trip photos that go on our Instagram. Outside work she does yoga and rock climbing, and as a Guilin local she knows some good climbing spots around Yangshuo. For her team page she picked "Every climb is worth the view."