Hsiao Li Lindsay, Baroness Lindsay of Birker (; 17 July 1916 – 25 April 2010), was a British peeress who supported

Chinese Communist The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

resistance to the

Japanese occupation of China The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific The ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Early life and wartime activity

Hsiao Li was born Li Yueying () in Taiyuan, Shanxi. Her father, Colonel Li Wenqi, was a rich nonconformist Chinese landowner who refused to bind her feet. She took part in student demonstrations at Taiyuan Normal University and was blacklisted by the authorities. She then fled to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, where she changed her name. In Beijing, she entered

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

, where she met Michael Lindsay, who was a professor there. Lindsay was using his protected status as a foreign citizen to smuggle radio and medical supplies to the communists, who were resisting the Japanese occupation. He needed a native speaker of Chinese to help him and Hsiao Li agreed to assist him. The couple married on 25 June 1941. After the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, Lindsay found himself a citizen of an enemy state and thus liable for arrest. The Japanese authorities soon came to arrest the couple, but they managed to escape. For the next four years, the pair worked behind enemy lines, with Hsiao Li teaching English to the troops. Two children were born to them during their 500-mile journey on foot to the communist headquarters in

Yenan Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

: Erica, born in a hut in the mountains in 1942, and

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

, born in a hospital cave in

in 1945.

Baroness Lindsay of Birker

After the war, in 1945, Hsiao Li's father-in-law, Sandie Lindsay, was elevated to the peerage as Baron Lindsay of Birker. Hsiao Li and her husband moved to Britain, where they lived with his parents, Sandie and Erica Lindsay, and then to Australia, where he worked at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

. Another daughter, Mary, was born in 1951. The next year, her husband succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker, and Hsiao Li becoming the Baroness Lindsay of Birker. Lord Lindsay's career brought them to Chevy Chase, Maryland, a suburb of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in 1959, where they remained after his retirement in 1975. The same year, Lady Lindsay became a United States citizen. The pair visited China in 1949 and 1954; in 1954, they functioned as official interpreters for an unsuccessful Labour Party delegation to China. In 1958, they were refused visas because of Lord Lindsay's criticism of the communist leadership. Their next visit to the country was not until 1973, after which they were very critical of the Cultural Revolution. After her daughter Erica's death in 1993 and Lord Lindsay's death in 1994, Lady Lindsay returned to China, where she had been offered an apartment in Beijing by the Chinese government in gratitude for her work during the war. She lived there until 2003, when she returned to Washington, D.C. to live with her granddaughter, Susan Lawrence. Lady Lindsay's memoirs, written shortly after the war, were translated into English in 2007. She was frequently admitted to hospital in the final three years of her life. She died on 25 April 2010 in Washington, at age 93.

Bibliography

* Lindsay, Hsiao Li: ''Bold Plum: With the Guerrillas in China's War Against Japan'' (2007);

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, Hsiao Li, Baroness Lindsay of Birker 1916 births 2010 deaths People from Taiyuan Yenching University alumni Chinese people of World War II Lindsay of Birker British people of Chinese descent Place of death missing Chinese emigrants to the United States