Li Pei (; December 20, 1917 – January 12, 2017), was a Chinese linguist and professor of English.

Biography

Born in

Zhenjiang Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and b ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, She majored in economics at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

in 1936. In 1947, she studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in the U.S. where, she met and married

Guo Yonghuai Guo Yonghuai, or Yung-huai Kuo (; April 4, 1909 – December 5, 1968) was a Chinese aerospace engineer. He was an expert in aerodynamics. Biography Guo was born in Rongcheng, Shandong, and graduated from the department of physics of Peking U ...

who became later one of the founding fathers of China's nuclear bomb. Li and Guo returned to China from the U.S. in 1956. In 1961, Li started teaching English language at the

University of Science and Technology of China A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. In 1978, she was transferred to the university's graduate school (Renamed to

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS; ) is a public university for graduate education, under the direct leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The predecessors of UCAS are the Graduate University of the Chinese ...

) and served as the dean of the English Department until her retirement at 70. In 1998, Li initiated the "Zhongguancun Lecture Hall". She organized more than 600 weekend lectures given by notable scholars from many horizons, including economist

Li Yining Li Yining (; born 22 November 1930) is a Chinese economist. He has been a leading voice for the privatization of state-owned companies, and his advocacy led to the establishment of China's stock markets in 1990. Nicknamed "Mr. Stock Market", he ...

from Peking University and historian Zi Zhongyun from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During 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 goal ...

, Li was isolated and placed under surveillance for years. Her husband died in an airplane crash in 1968 and her only daughter died of disease in 1997. These tragedies won her a reputation for being mentally strong. Li was also an active philanthropist in her twilight years; she gave away all her life-time savings (approx. US$90,000) to her university, to the aid of victims of natural disasters, to the education for special needs children and to the conservation of traditional performing arts. After her death, her story went viral on Chinese Internet and traditional media, she was praised by netizens as "the final aristocrat in China" in contrast to the lavish lifestyle of today's Chinese society. Eight hundred people attended her funeral service. In an editorial appeared on the day after, a liberal-oriented newspaper ''

China Youth Daily The ''China Youth Daily'' () is the newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China since 1951 with editorial and financial independence in the People's Republic of China. In the 1980s, it was regarded as the best newspaper in mainland China wi ...

'' wondered, whether "Li Pei had taken away with her life an age". According to the official obituary released by the

, Li dedicated her life to the education of groups of brilliant young people. In 2018, the asteroid

212797 Lipei 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

was named in her memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Pei 1917 births 2017 deaths Women linguists Linguists of English Linguists from China Scientists from Zhenjiang Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology of China Cornell University alumni National University of Peking alumni Academic staff of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences