Yuen Tsung Sze (December 2, 1909 – July 16, 1992), known professionally as Mai-mai Sze, was a

Chinese-American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...

painter and writer. The

Bollingen Foundation The Bollingen Foundation was an educational foundation set up along the lines of a university press in 1945. It was named after Bollingen Tower, Carl Jung's country home in Bollingen, Switzerland. Funding was provided by Paul Mellon and his wife ...

first published her translation of the ''

Jieziyuan Huazhuan ''Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden'' (, ), sometimes known as (), is a printed manual of Chinese painting compiled during the early-Qing Dynasty. Many renowned later Chinese painters, like Qi Baishi, began their drawing lessons with the manual. ...

'' or ''The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting'' with her commentary in 1956.

Early life and education

Sze was born Yuen Tsung Sze in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

on December 2, 1909. Mai-mai is a nickname meaning "little sister," and this was the name under which she published all of her books. In 1915, she moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with her father

Alfred Sao-ke Sze Alfred Sao-ke Sze (; 1877–1958) was a prominent Chinese politician and diplomat during the most turbulent period in modern Chinese history. Early life Sze was born on April 10, 1877. In 1892, Sze moved to Washington, D.C. with his father, wh ...

, then the Chinese

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to the

Court of St. James's The Court of St James's is the royal court for the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. All ambassadors to the United Kingdom are formally received by the court. All ambassadors from the United Kingdom are formally accredited from the court – & ...

. The family lived there until 1921, when her father Alfred Sao-ke Sze was appointed the first

Chinese Ambassador to the United States The Chinese Ambassador to the United States is the official representative from the People's Republic of China to the United States of America. List of representatives This is a list of diplomatic representatives from China to the United Stat ...

and settled in Washington D.C. Mai-mai Sze moved there with him and attended the

National Cathedral School National Cathedral School (NCS) is an independent Episcopal private day school for girls in grades 4–12 located on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by philanthropist and suffragist Phoe ...

until 1927, when she enrolled at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

. At Wellesley, Sze studied the humanities, including English literature and composition, religion, philosophy, European history, and art. She graduated in 1931.

Career

Following her graduation from Wellesley, Sze's primary activity appears to have been painting. She exhibited a landscape in the 1933

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

, and also with Marie Sterner Galleries. Sze also worked as a graphic designer. In a letter to

Dorothy Norman Dorothy Norman (née Stecker; 28 March 1905 – 12 April 1997) was an American photographer, writer, editor, arts patron and advocate for social change. Biography Born Dorothy Stecker in Philadelphia to a prominent Jewish family, she was educate ...

, Sze wrote: "I started... as a painter, did a lot of illustrating, ads, designs for packaging, materials, wallpapers...." She illustrated her autobiography, Echo of a Cry. In the same letter to Norman, Sze mentions working also in theater. She made her first and only appearance as an actress in 1936, playing the Honorable Reader in ''Lady Precious Stream'' by

Hsiung Shih-I Hsiung Shih-I (; also S. I. Hsiung or Xiong Shiyi; 1902–1991) was a writer, biographer, translator, academic, and playwright in Beijing and London. He was the first Chinese person to direct a West End play, and the founder of Tsing Hua Academy ...

. Sze was notably photographed by several important artists, including Carl Van Vechten,

George Platt Lynes George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American fashion photography, fashion and advertising, commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s. He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from ...

, and

. Some of these photographs were published in fashion magazines including ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

''; it is unclear whether or not modeling was one facet of her career. Sze also engaged in political affairs as an active advocate for war relief in China, and as writer and speaker on foreign relations with the Far East. In 1944, she published a pamphlet on China, the second in the International Relations Series published by Western Reserve University Press, at the request of

. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War 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 Th ...

and throughout

World War II 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 opposin ...

, Sze traveled in America lecturing on China and organized the Chinese War Relief Committee in New York. She also published a regular column, "East-West" in the New York Post during this time. There is little documentation of Sze's relationship with the costume designer

Irene Sharaff Irene Sharaff (January 23, 1910 – August 16, 1993) was an American costume designer for stage and screen. Her work earned her five Academy Awards and a Tony Award. Sharaff is universally recognized as one of the greatest costume designers of a ...

. The two women were living together at the time of Sze's death in 1992, and in 1989, they coordinated the donation of their personal collections of books to the

New York Society Library The New York Society Library (NYSL) is the oldest cultural institution in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the New York Society as a subscription library. During the time when New York was the capital of the United States, it was the de ...

. They also made a 1 million pound donation to

Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge Lucy Cavendish College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college is named in honour of Lucy Cavendish (1841–1925), who campaigned for the reform of women's education. Hist ...

. "The two ladies first heard about Lucy Cavendish College from an article, which appeared in the New York Times in October 1985 (read the original article). Following this, they met with Dame Anne Warburton, the College President at the time, and donated £1 million to Lucy Cavendish College. As well as funding the Music and Meditation Pavilion, their generous donation also endowed two prestigious research fellowships - the Alice Tong Sze Research Fellowship (named after Mai Mai Sze's mother) and the Lu Gwei Djen Research Fellowship. Sadly neither Mai Mai Sze nor Irene Sharaff were ever able to visit Lucy Cavendish College before their deaths in 1992 and 1993 (they died just a few months apart), but they still asked that their ashes be buried in the gardens of the college. Today, their ashes rest under two halves of the same memorial rock beside the entrance to the Pavilion, surrounded by the music and beauty they so enjoyed"

In his history of the

, William McGuire wrote that Sze and Sharaff were both students of

Natacha Rambova Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy; January 19, 1897 – June 5, 1966) was an American film costume designer, set designer, and occasional actress who was active in Hollywood in the 1920s. In her later life, she abandoned design ...

, who held private classes in comparative religion, symbolism, and Theosophy in her New York apartment in the 1930s.

Death and legacy

Mai-mai Sze died in New York Hospital on July 16, 1992, at age 82. The books owned by Sze and Irene Sharaff were donated to the

in New York City after their deaths, where they remain today. Th
Sharaff/Sze Collection
contains nearly one thousand books, including many on Chinese history, philosophy, and religion. Many of these, including sinologist Joseph Needham's ''

Science and Civilization in China ''Science and Civilisation in China'' (1954–present) is an ongoing series of books about the history of science and technology in China published by Cambridge University Press. It was initiated and edited by British historian Joseph Needham ( ...

'', contain Sze's own annotations. Sze and Sharaff also established a trust to support various educational and research institutions, including the

Needham Research Institute The Needham Research Institute (NRI; zh , t = 李約瑟研究所 ), located on the grounds of Robinson College, in Cambridge, England, is a centre for research into the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia. The institute is n ...

and

Lucy Cavendish College Lucy Cavendish College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college is named in honour of Lucy Cavendish (1841–1925), who campaigned for the reform of women's education. History The college was founded in 1965 by ...

, Cambridge University. At Lucy Cavendish College, a bequest from the trust funded the construction of a music and meditation pavilion, and established the Alice Tong Sze and Lu Gwei Djen Research Fellowships.

Works

Sze, Mai-mai. ''China''. Cleveland, Ohio: Western Reserve University Press, 1944. Print. Toward a Democratic Foreign Policy. Reference Pamphlet no. 2.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''Echo of a Cry: A Story Which Began in China''. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1945. Print.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''Silent Children: A Novel''. 1st ed. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co, 1948. Print.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''The Tao of Painting: A Study of the Ritual Disposition of Chinese Painting: With a Translation of the Chieh Tzu Yüan Hua Chuan, Or, Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, 1679-1701''. New York: Pantheon Books, 1956. Print. Bollingen Series 49.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''The Tao of Painting: A Study of the Ritual Disposition of Chinese Painting: With a Translation of the Chieh Tzu Yüan Hua Chuan; Or, Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, 1679-1701''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1957. Print.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''The Way of Chinese Painting, Its Ideas and Technique: With Selections from the Seventeenth-Century Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting''. New York: Random House, 1959. Print.

Sze, Mai-mai. ''The Tao of Painting: A Study of the Ritual Disposition of Chinese Painting: With a Translation of the Chieh Tzu Yüan Hua Chuan, Or, Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, 1679-1701''. 2nd ed. with corrections. New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. Print. Bollingen Series 49.

References

Citations

External links

New York Society Library: Sharaff/Sze Collection

"Speech by Mai-Mai Sze at India League Mass Meeting," SAADA Digital Archive

"Breadcrumbs in the Library," the Blog of the Journal of the History of Ideas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sze, Mai-Mai American artists of Chinese descent American writers of Chinese descent Republic of China painters Republic of China translators Painters from Tianjin Writers from Tianjin Wellesley College alumni 20th-century American painters 20th-century American translators 20th-century Chinese translators Lesbian artists American lesbian writers 20th-century American women writers Chinese emigrants to the United States American columnists National Cathedral School alumni American women non-fiction writers American women columnists 1909 births 1992 deaths