Hualing Nieh Engle (born 11 January 1925), née Nieh Hua-ling (), is a Chinese novelist, fiction writer, and poet. She is a professor emerita at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
.
Early life and education
Nieh Hua-ling was born on 11 January 1925 in
Wuhan
Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei, Hubei Province in the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the List of cities in China ...
,
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
, China. In 1936, Nieh's father, an official of the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
administration, was executed by the Communist
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
during the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
.
In 1948, she graduated with a degree in English from the Western Languages Department of
National Central University
National Central University (NCU, ; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Kwet-li̍p Chung-yong Thài-ho̍k'', Wade–Giles: ''Kuo2 Li4 Chung Yang Ta4 Hsüeh2'' or ''中大'', ''Chung-ta'') is a public research university with long-standing traditions based in Taiwa ...
.
Following the
Chinese Communist Revolution
The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...
, she and her family relocated to Taiwan.
Career
In Taiwan, Nieh became the literary editor and a member of the editorial board of ''
Free China Journal
''Free China Journal'' () was a periodical sponsored by the Kuomintang that was published in Taiwan after the Kuomintang retreat following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
The first issue appeared on 20 December 1949. The publisher was H ...
'', a liberal intellectual magazine. She served in these positions until 1960, when the magazine was closed down by the
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
administration.
She also began to teach creative writing courses at
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan.
The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...
and
Tunghai University
Tunghai University (THU; ) is the oldest private university in Taiwan, established in 1955. It was founded by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA). It is located in Xitun District, Taichung, Taiwan. According to ''Tim ...
,
becoming the first faculty member to do so in Chinese.
She met
Paul Engle
Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), was an American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as co-founder of the International W ...
, then director of the
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...
, while he was visiting Taiwan to research the contemporary literary scene in Asia. He invited her to attend the Writers' Workshop. As the political climate grew worse in Taiwan, she was placed under surveillance and prevented from publishing. She decided to accept Engle's invitation and arrived in Iowa City in 1964 with seven books already published.
In 1966, after receiving her Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from the Writers' Workshop, she suggested to Engle, then retiring from the Workshop, that they start a writing program solely for international writers. Their joint plan was to invite published writers from all over the world to Iowa City to hone their craft, exchange ideas, and create cross-cultural friendships. With support from the University of Iowa and a private grant, the first group of international writers convened in Iowa City in 1967 as the first participants in the
International Writing Program
The International Writing Program (IWP) is a writing residency for international artists in Iowa City, Iowa. Since 2014, the program offers online courses to many writers and poets around the world. Since its inception in 1967, the IWP has hosted o ...
(IWP). They were married in 1971.
With Engle as director and Nieh Engle as assistant director and then associate director, the International Writing Program grew into a recognized residency for literary artists. As an active editor, Nieh Engle sought to introduce little-known Chinese literary trends emerging even in the middle of the Cultural Revolution. She and Engle translated and edited a collection of Mao Zedong's poems. This was followed by a two-volume scholarly collection, ''Literature of the Hundred Flowers'', which she edited and co-translated.
In 1976, to honor their role in promoting exchange among international artists, 300 writers advanced the Engles for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
. The pair was officially nominated by US Ambassador at Large
W. Averell Harriman. In 1979 they coordinated a "Chinese Weekend," one of the first encounters between writers from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the diaspora after
1949
Events
January
* January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022.
* January 2 – Luis ...
.
Nieh Engle continued as the director of the International Writing Program (IWP) after Engle's retirement in 1977. She retired in 1988, and currently serves as a member of the IWP Advisory Board. She was also a member of the panel of judges for the prestigious ''Asiaweek'' Short Story Competition.
At the University of Iowa, she was co-director of the Translation Workshop from 1975 to 1988. She has received several honorary doctorates as well as an award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the State of Iowa and the National Association of Governors in 1982. The Chinese magazine ''Asia Weekly'' named her novel Sang ch'ing yu t'ao hung (''Mulberry and Peach'') as one of the top 100 Chinese novels of the 20th century.
[''Asia Weekly'', June 14–20, 1999]
Alongside her administrative and editorial work, Nieh Engle has maintained an active literary career. She is the author of more than two dozen books, written in Chinese and widely translated, including novels, essay collections, collections of stories, translations, and edited works. These include ''Mulberry and Peach'', which, in its English translation (''Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China''), won an American Book Award in 1990; ''Thirty Years Later'' (San shih nien hou); ''Black, the Most Beautiful Color'' (Hei she, he she, tsui mei li ti yen she); and ''People in the Twentieth Century'' (Jen tsai erh shih shih chi). Her most recent novel in Chinese, ''Far Away, a River'' (Qian shan wai, shui chang liu), depicts one of the themes that are often reflected in her novels: the search for identity and roots. Her memoir, ''Images of Three Lives'', a picture-essay book, chronicles her experiences in China, Taiwan and the United States.
Works
Books in Chinese
*''Creeper'', novella (1953)
*''Jade Cat'', short stories (1959)
*''The Lost Golden Bell'', novel (1960)
*''A Small White Flower'', short stories (1963)
*''The Valley of Dreams'', essays (1965)
*''Mulberry and Peach'', novel (1976)
*''Several Blessings of Wang Ta-nien'', short stories (1980)
*''Stories of Taiwan'', selected short stories (1980)
*''After Thirty Years'', essays (1980)
*''Iowa Notes'', essays (1983)
*''Black, Black, The Most Beautiful Color'', essays (1983)
*''Lotus (or Far Away, a River)'', novel (1984)
*''A Selection of Taiwan Stories'' (editor; 1984)
*''People in the Twentieth Century'', essays (1990)
*''Human Scenery and Natural Scenery'', selected essays (1986)
*''Far Away, A River'', novel (1996)
*''Tales from the Deer Garden'', essays (1996)
*''Three Lives'', memoir (2004)
*''Images of the Three Lives'', picture-essay memoir in traditional Chinese character (2007)
*''Images of the Three Lives'', picture-essay memoir in simplified Chinese character (2008)
Books in English (and translations)
*''The Purse'', short stories in English (1959); translated into Portuguese (1967)
*''A Critical Biography of Shen Ts'ung-wen'', in English (Twanye Publishers, 1972)
*''Two Women of China'', novel translated into English (1985), Croatian (1986), and Hungarian (1987)
*''Mulberry and Peach'' translated into English (1986), Dutch (1988) and Korean (1990)
Books translated into Chinese
*''Madame de Mauves'',
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
(1959)
*''Selected American Stories'' (includes works by
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...
,
Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism an ...
,
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
,
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...
,
Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Walter Van Tilburg Clark (August 3, 1909 – November 10, 1971) was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. He ranks as one of Nevada's most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century, and was the first inductee into the 'N ...
,
Stephen Benet, and
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
, among others) (1960)
Books translated into English
*''Eight Stories by Chinese Women'' (1963)
*''Poems of Mao Tse-tung'' (with Paul Engle) (1972)
*''Literature of the Hundred Flowers'' (editor, co-translator) (1981)
Vol. 2
Poetry Translation Series (co-edited with Paul Engle and the translator of each language)
*''Contemporary Korean Poetry'' (1970)
*''Modern Chinese Poetry'' (1970)
*''The Last Romantic: Mihail Eminescu'' (1972)
*''The Poetry of Postwar Japan'' (1975)
*''Writing from the World'' (1976)
*''Modern Bulgarian Poetry'' (1978)
*''Lev Mak, Out of the Night and Other Poems'' (1978)
*''Vasco Popa: Selected Poems'' (1978)
*''Nichita Stanescu, The Still Unborn about the Dead'' (1978)
*''Russian Poetry: The Modern Period'' (1978)
*''Contemporary Yugoslav Poetry'' (1978)
Awards
*Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Colorado (1981)
*Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Dubuque (1981)
*Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, National Association of Governors (1982)
*Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, Coe College (1983)
*Award for Fiction,
American Book Award
The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...
(1990), for ''Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China''
*Medal of Merit for Cultural Service, Ministry of Culture, Poland (1992)
*Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, Hong Kong Baptist University (2009)
*Best Chinese Writing in the World, Sin Chew Jit Poh, Malaysia (2009)
Honors
*Member of the International Advisory Board, Translation Center, Columbia University (1984–85)
*Member of the Advisory Board of the Chinese literary magazine Four Seas, China
*Judge, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, USA (1981–82)
*Advisory Professorship, Fudan University, Shanghai, China (1984)
*Honorary Professorship, Beijing Institute of Communications, Beijing, China (1986)
*Advisor, Pegasus International Prize for Fiction, USA (1989–90)
*Inducted into Iowa Women's Hall of Fame (2008)
Notes and references
External links
Interview from the 2009 Mid-Autumn Festival issue of ''Full Tilt Magazine''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engle, Hualing Nieh
1925 births
Living people
Taiwanese emigrants to the United States
Chinese emigrants to the United States
Chinese women short story writers
Taiwanese women short story writers
Republic of China novelists
National Central University alumni
Nanjing University alumni
University of Iowa faculty
American writers of Chinese descent
Taiwanese women novelists
Writers from Wuhan
Educators from Hubei
Chinese women novelists
Chinese Civil War refugees
Taiwanese people from Hubei
20th-century Taiwanese short story writers
American Book Award winners
Republic of China short story writers
Short story writers from Hubei