Ruth F. Weiss (December 11, 1908 – March 6, 2006), also known by her Chinese name, Wèi Lùshī (), was an Austrian-Chinese educator and journalist. She was the last surviving European eyewitness of 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 ...

and the beginnings of the

People’s Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Biography

Weiss was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and graduated in German and English Studies from the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

. In 1933 she travelled to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, a city that before

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 opposing ...

attracted many European émigrés including revolutionaries from the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, Jews and other refugees escaping the Nazis. She decided to stay, as did many others, and became fascinated by the social and political goals of the unfolding Chinese Revolution. Initially Weiss worked as a freelance journalist in Shanghai. Later she became a teacher at the Jewish School in Shanghai, at the School of the Chinese Committee of Intellectual Cooperation, and at the West China Union University. After working briefly as a secretary at the Canadian embassy in 1944, she became a correspondent at the United Nations Picture News Office (联合国影闻宣传处) in 1945 and joined the China Welfare Fund (中国福利会). One year later she took up a post at the Radio Division of the

United Nations Organization The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

in New York. Weiss worked as a teacher at the Jewish School in Shanghai, and married Yeh Hsuan, a Chinese engineer, with whom she had two children and went to the U.S. so he could pursue studies at MIT. Once the Chinese Revolution reached a climax in 1949, however, Weiss returned with her children to China, leaving Yeh in the U.S. After she returned to China she became a lecturer for the ''Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur'' (Publishing House for Foreign Literature) in

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 ...

from 1952 to 1965. In 1965 she worked as a journalist for "China im Bild" (人民画报). Ruth Weiss was one of about one hundred foreign-born residents to receive Chinese citizenship in 1955. In 1983 she was named one of eleven ''foreign experts'' by the

Communist Party of China 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 ...

that were part of membership of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. She died in

, aged 97.

Works

* ''"Die Peking-Oper"'' by Eva Siao, German by Ruth Weiss, Publisher Neue Welt, Beijing, 1958 * ''"Das kleine China-Handbuch"'', Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur (Publishing House for Foreign Literature), Beijing, 1958 * ''"Die Briefmarken der Volksrepublik China"'', Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur, Beijing, 1958 * ''"Am Rande der Geschichte - Mein Leben in China"'', Zeller-Verlag Osnabrück 1999; Neuauflage 2005 wagener-edition,

References

"Ruth Weiss (1908-2006)" (Die Welt 06.03.2006), in German

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Ruth 1908 births 2006 deaths 20th-century Austrian journalists Austrian Jews Austrian emigrants to China Chinese people of Austrian-Jewish descent Naturalized citizens of the People's Republic of China People's Republic of China journalists Writers from Vienna