Florence Chia-ying Yeh (born July 1924), also known as Ye Jiaying (), Jialing (), and by her married name Chia-ying Yeh Chao, is a Chinese-born Canadian poet and sinologist. She was a scholar of
classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry is traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese and typified by certain traditional forms, or modes; traditional genres; and connections with particular historical periods, such as the poetry of the Tang dy ...
. She taught for twenty years at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
(UBC), and has been Professor Emerita since her retirement in 1989. She is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada.
After retiring from UBC, she has been teaching at
Nankai University 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 popu ...
where she is the founding Director of the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture.
Early life and education
Chia-ying Yeh was born 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 ...
in 1924. Her family was from the prominent
Manchu clan of
Yehe Nara, originally of
Tümed
The Tümed (Tumad, ; "The many or ten thousands" derived from Tumen) are a Mongol subgroup. They live in Tumed Left Banner, district of Hohhot and Tumed Right Banner, district of Baotou in China. Most engage in sedentary agriculture, living in ...
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
ethnicity.
The famous
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
poet
Nalan Xingde
Nalan Xingde (; January 19, 1655 – July 1, 1685), Manchu name Nara Singde, courtesy name Rongruo (), was a Qing dynasty Chinese poet, famous for his ci poetry. He was born Nalan Chengde (納蘭成德), but had to change his name when the Kan ...
was from the same clan. Her grandfather was a Qing official, and her sinicized family shortened its surname to the
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
Yeh after the fall of the Manchu Qing dynasty in 1911.
[
Yeh began composing poetry at the age of ten. She was admitted to the Chinese department of Fu Jen Catholic University (Beijing) in 1941, where she studied under the well known scholar of poetry .] After graduating in 1945, she taught in the then capital Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
, and married Chao Chung-sun (赵钟荪), a navy employee, in March 1948. By the end of the year, the Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
government was losing the Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
and busy retreating to 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 ...
. Yeh also moved with her husband to Taiwan, and settled in Changhua
Changhua (Hokkien POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. For many centuries the site was ...
, where Yeh found a teaching job at a secondary school. She gave birth to her first daughter Chao Yen-yen (赵言言) in August 1949.
During the White Terror
White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...
period of Taiwan, numerous intellectuals were suspected of being Communist sympathizers and imprisoned without trial. In December 1949, Yeh's husband Chao Chung-sun was arrested on suspicion of being a Communist spy. In June 1950, Yeh was herself jailed, together with the principal and six other teachers at her school. She brought her daughter to the prison as the baby was less than a year old.[ She was released soon afterwards, but her husband was imprisoned for more than three years.][
]
Career and later life
In the 1950s, Yeh taught classical Chinese poetry at National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan.
The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...
, Tamkang University
Tamkang University (TKU; ) is a private university in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was founded in 1950 as a junior college of English literature. Today it is a comprehensive university with 11 colleges that serves nearly 25,000 ...
, and Fu Jen University in Taiwan.[ Writers ]Pai Hsien-yung
Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai (; born July 11, 1937) is a Chinese writer from Taiwan who has been described as a "melancholy pioneer". He was born in Guilin, Guangxi at the cusp of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pai's father was the Kuomintang (KMT) ge ...
, Chen Yingzhen, Xi Murong
Xi Murong (; born 1943) is a writer and painter. She is most famous for her poetry, especially the collections ''Qi li xiang'' (''Seven-li scent'') and ''Wuyuan de qingchun'' (''Unregrettable Youth'').
Personal life
On 15 October 1943, Xi ...
, and were some of her students. She is often honoured as "the teacher of masters."[
She moved to the United States in 1966,][ and taught at Michigan State University and ]Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. She then settled in Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada, where she taught at the University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
from 1969 until retiring in 1989.[
After Canada established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, Yeh returned to China for the first time in 1974, and visited her brother who still lived in their old home. She composed a long poem to commemorate the visit.][
Starting in 1979, Yeh returned to China every summer to teach at numerous universities,][ including Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, ]Tianjin Normal University
Tianjin Normal University (TNU) () is a public research university founded in 1958 in Tianjin, China. In 2017–2018, Chinese University Alumni Association ( CUAA) ranks Tianjin Normal University 3rd in normal universities in north China.
Histor ...
, Fudan University
Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...
, Nanjing University
Nanjing University (NJU; ) is a national public research university in Nanjing, Jiangsu. It is a member of C9 League and a Class A Double First Class University designated by the Chinese central government. NJU has two main campuses: the Xian ...
, Nanjing Normal University
Nanjing Normal University (NNU or NJNU; ) is a public research university in Nanjing, China. Founded in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious higher normal schools in China, and has become a research-intens ...
, Xinjiang University
Xinjiang University (XJU) ( ug, شىنجاڭ ئۇنىۋېرستېتى, ; zh , s = 新疆大学 , p = Xīnjiāng Dàxué ) is one of the major universities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China and is a national k ...
, and Lanzhou University
Lanzhou University () is a major research university in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Founded in 1909, it is one of the key universities under China's Ministry of Education (Double First Class University Plan, former Project 985 and Project 211). It ...
.[ She often paid for her own travel expenses and taught for free. She said that in mainland China there was a great desire to rediscover classical Chinese literature after the turmoil of the ]Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
.[
After Yeh retired from UBC in 1989, many Chinese universities invited her to teach in China full-time. She chose to teach at Nankai University 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 popu ...
, because her nephew was an alumnus and it was near her hometown Beijing.[ Nankai established the China Comparative Literature Institute (later renamed to Institute of Chinese Classical Culture) in 1993, headed by Yeh.][ She returns to UBC every summer to teach and research.][
In May 2014, Nankai University held the Chinese Poetry International Seminar to commemorate Chia-ying Yeh's 90th birthday. For the occasion, former Chinese Premier ]Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic polic ...
wrote a work of calligraphy of one of Yeh's poems.
Scholarships
Yeh donated half of her pension fund from UBC to establish two scholarships at Nankai University.[ One is called the Yongyan (Yung-Yen; ) Scholarship, which combines the given names of her elder daughter Chao Yen-yen and son-in-law Chung Yung-t'ing (), who died together in a car accident in 1976. The other is called Tuo'an (), in memory of her teacher Gu Sui, whose '' hao'' was An-ming ().][
]
Works
Chia-ying Yeh has published many scholarly works, almost all in Chinese. Her only major publication in English was ''Studies in Chinese Poetry'' (1998), co-written with Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
scholar James Robert Hightower. Her ''Jialing Poetry Manuscript'', published in 2000 in Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
, includes 540 poems she composed between 1939 (when she was 15) and 1995.[ She has been called a modern ]Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao (1084 – ca. 1155), alias Yian Jushi (Chinese: 易安居士) was a Chinese poet and essayist during the Song dynasty. She is considered one of the greatest poets in Chinese history.
Biography
Early life
Li Qingzhao was born in ...
, the famous Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
Chinese poet.
In 1997, Hebei Education Publishing House published ''The Collected Works of Jialing'' () in 10 volumes. In 2000, Guiguan Book Company of Taiwan published ''The Collected Works of Chia-ying Yeh'' in 24 volumes.[
]
See also
*Kang-i Sun Chang
Kang-i Sun Chang (born Sun K'ang-i, ; 21 February 1944), is a Chinese-born American sinologist. She is a scholar of classical Chinese literature. She is the inaugural Malcolm G. Chace Professor, and former chair of the Department of East Asian L ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeh, Chia-ying
1924 births
Living people
Canadian people of Mongolian descent
Canadian sinologists
Canadian women poets
Chinese Civil War refugees
Chinese emigrants to Canada
Chinese people of Mongolian descent
Chinese women poets
Educators from Beijing
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Catholic University of Peking alumni
Fu Jen Catholic University faculty
Harvard University faculty
Historians from Beijing
Manchu people
Michigan State University faculty
Nankai University faculty
National Taiwan University faculty
People from Changhua County
Taiwanese people from Beijing
Tamkang University faculty
University of British Columbia faculty
Women orientalists
Writers from Beijing
Chinese literary theorists
National University of Peking alumni