To celebrate the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge, Oxbridge alumni in the United States gathered together at the Cosmopolitan Club in Manhattan on April 20, 2017 for a dinner organized by the Oxford & Cambridge Dinner Committee of New York City. Deputy Consul General Zhang Meifang of the Chinese Consulate General in New York was invited as a Cambridge alumna.

During the speech at the dinner, Zhang Meifang gladly recalled her memorable learning and living experience at Cambridge. She remarked that unlike in the 1990s when she was a student at Cambridge with very few Chinese schoolmates, there are over 1000 Chinese students currently enrolled at Oxbridge given China's continuous economic growth and opening-up policies. More and more Chinese students now have the financial capability to pursue education outside of China. Chinese students have become the largest demographic amongst all international students in the UK and in the U.S. What's more, China has become the largest engine of world economic growth, contributing to more than 25% of the global economic growth annually. And China will continue to develop and open up to the world. In the coming five years, China is expected to import $8 trillion in goods and service and make $750 billion of outbound investment. All these provide more opportunities for Oxbridge alumni.

The event's featured speakers also included Matthew Rycroft, British Permanent Representative to the UN , Gifford Combs, Managing Director of Dalton Investments LLC, and Bennett Freeman, Principal of Bennett Freeman Associates LLC.

The Oxford & Cambridge Dinner Committee of New York City was founded in 1933 in New York. Zhang Meifang is the first Chinese alumna who delivered a speech throughout the Committee's 84 years of history.

The Boat Race between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club on the River Thames in London is the world's most historic inter-schools rowing boat race. The first race was launched in 1829 and the event has been held annually since 1856, except during the First and Second World Wars. The event, one of the most iconic races in the UK and worldwide, is usually held in late March or early April. Upwards of 250,000 people watch the race live each year while a further 20 million or more watch it on television. As of 2017 Cambridge has won the race 82 times and Oxford 80 times, with one dead heat in 1877.