King Lan Chew (November 4, 1901 – February 2, 1988), also known as Qionglan Chew or Caroline B. Chew, and later as Caroline Chew Ruttle, was an American dancer. She was billed as "the only Chinese concert dancer in America" in the 1930s, when she toured North America on the

chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

circuit.

Early life

King Lan Chew was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, the daughter of Presbyterian minister, publisher and lecturer

Ng Poon Chew Ng Poon Chew (, March 14, 1866 – March 13, 1931) was an author, publisher, and advocate for Chinese American civil rights. He published the first Chinese-language daily newspaper to be printed outside of China.Franklin Ng,Ng Poon Chew" in ...

and Chun Fah Chew. Both of her parents were born in China. She was raised in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, the youngest of five siblings, and studied piano. She graduated from Oakland High School in 1921, and from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

in 1925; she completed a master's degree at Mills the following year. She studied dance with

Hanya Holm Hanya Holm (born Johanna Eckert; 3 March 1893 – 3 November 1992) is known as one of the "Big Four" founders of American modern dance. She was a dancer, choreographer, and above all, a dance educator. Early life, connection with Mary Wigman Bo ...

Harald Kreutzberg Harald Kreutzberg (December 11, 1902 – April 25, 1968) was a German dancer and choreographer associated with the Ausdruckstanz movement, a form in which the individual, artistic expression of feelings or emotions is essential. Though largely fo ...

, and

Michio Itō was a Japanese dancer who developed his own choreography style in Europe and America. He was the son of Kimiye Iijima and architect Tamekichi Ito who was educated at the University of Washington; he was one of nine children, and the brother of D ...

, among other teachers.

Career

Chew worked as a social worker at Oakland's International Institute after college. She danced on Broadway in ''Continental Varieties'' (1935) with French singer

Lucienne Boyer Lucienne Boyer (18 August 1901 – 6 December 1983) was a French diseuseMansfield News Journal 9 November 1934 pg. 20 and singer, best known for her song " Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix. Early career Born as Émilienne-H ...

, and in the film adaptation of

Pearl Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck ...

's ''

The Good Earth ''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in ''Sons'' (1932) ...

'' (1937). She toured on the chautauqua circuit in North America in the 1930s and 1940s, billed as "the only Chinese concert dancer in America". Her act involved her interpretations of traditional dances and costumes from China, Java, India, Japan, Turkey, and Burma, and original contemporary dances to works by Gershwin,

Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...

and

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

. She created all her own costumes for her performances, with zippers for quick changes. She appeared with the Red Gate Players, directed by puppeteer Pauline Benton; she succeeded

Soo Yong Soo Yong, (, originally Young Hee (楊喜); October 31, 1903 – October 29, 1984) was a Chinese-American actress. She acted in twenty-three Hollywood films and numerous television shows, mostly in supporting roles. Among them were ''The Good E ...

and the troupe's "mistress of ceremonies"''.''

Personal life

Caroline Chew married performer, writer and publicist Lee Ruttle in New York in 1938. She was widowed in 1985, and she died in California in 1988, aged 87 years. There are items related to Chew in her sister Mansie (Jingping) Chew's scrapbook, archived at the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chew, King Lan 1901 births 1988 deaths People from Berkeley, California American dancers Mills College alumni Oakland High School (Oakland, California) alumni American dancers of Asian descent American people of Chinese descent