Katherine Young (鄭珣;
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: Zhèng Xún) (May 10, 1901 – October 24, 2005) was an American
centenarian
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100 years, the term is invariably associated with longevity. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living cente ...
who, at the age of 102 in 2003, gained publicity when she was described as the oldest known living user of the Internet.
Biography
Born in a small
Hakka
The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
village in the
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
province during the final years of
Late Imperial China
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...
, she attended
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 ...
in the capital, then referenced as
Peking
}
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 ...
. Raising four daughters with her husband, Paul T. J. Young, she lived through the tumultuous 1920s, along with the death and destruction of the
Sino-Japanese War and World War II during the 1930s and 1940s. At war's end, with
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
's
Communist armies poised to take over, the family escaped to Hong Kong, then
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, and, in 1958, when Katherine Young was 57 years old, immigrated to the United States, settling in the California
charter city
In the United States, a charter city is a city in which the governing system is defined by the city's own charter document rather than solely by general law. In states where city charters are allowed by law, a city can adopt or modify its organ ...
of
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was estab ...
, along the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
.
In 1998, aged 97, and having served as president of the Rose Club in Palo Alto's Lytton Gardens Senior Communities, she decided to try something new and signed up for the retirement community's 12-week computer class which aimed to teach seniors how to use
WebTV
MSN TV (formerly WebTV) was a web access product consisting of a thin client device that used a television for display (instead of using a computer monitor), and the online service that supported it. The device design and service was developed by ...
. By the conclusion of these sessions, she was logging on and became an activist for the cause of encouraging elders to use the Internet. A
Pew Internet and American Life Project study showed that only 18% of Americans 65 and older get online, as opposed to 58% of the American population as a whole.
Five years later, on her 102nd birthday, she became a celebrity for being the oldest person to surf the Internet. She was feted with numerous birthday emails and an emailed
sonogram of her great-grandson, who was born in August 2003. She studied Chinese
genealogy
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
on
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and, having been Rose Club president for 16 years, researched roses. She used email to communicate with her ten grandchildren and told reporters she checks for new messages as many as six times a day. From her apartment, she accessed the Internet via MSN TV (formerly WebTV) Internet service provider. Microsoft recognized her achievement and gave her a golden lifetime subscription.
Katherine Young died in Palo Alto almost six months past her 104th birthday. It has been noted that although she was considered the oldest known living user of the Internet,
who, until very shortly before her death five years earlier, in 2000, at age 105, was a columnist, copyeditor and proofreader for the
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
newspaper ''
Independence Examiner
''The Examiner'' is the daily newspaper of eastern Jackson County, Missouri, including Independence, Blue Springs and Grain Valley. It is published five days a week – Tuesday through Saturday – and its webpage is at www.examiner.net.
''The ...
'', used the then-early Internet at a slightly more-advanced age.
References
External links
人生新鲜事学不完 美华裔102岁老人天天上网
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Katherine
1901 births
2005 deaths
American centenarians
Chinese emigrants to the United States
American people of Chinese descent
People from Fujian
People from Palo Alto, California
Yenching University alumni
Chinese Civil War refugees
Chinese centenarians
Women centenarians