After high school and college, her mother took her from war-ravaged Shanghai to Hawaii in 1947, where she majored in financial management and met Huang Hsi-lin, an ROC foreign affairs official posted on the island. Meeting in the Western, unarranged manner, the two quickly fell for each other and married soon after.
她在上海讀中學和大學，一九四七年母親陪著她離開飽受戰火侵襲的上海到夏威夷大學唸書，主修財務管理。在這其間自由戀愛認識了當時國民政府駐守在外的外交官員黃錫琳，兩人不久就結婚。