Florence Chia-ying Yeh, also known as Ye Jiaying, a respected scholar of classical Chinese poetry, passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday. Her death was confirmed by Nankai University in Tianjin, where she had worked for many years.
Yeh devoted over 70 years to teaching, researching, and promoting classical Chinese poetry both in China and internationally. Even into her 90s, she continued her academic work. She mentored many well-known writers, including Kenneth Hsien-yung Pai and Hsi Mu-jung.
Born in Beijing in 1924 into a literary family, Yeh began studying classical poetry at an early age. She began her teaching career in 1945 and went on to teach at universities in Taiwan and the United States. In 1969, she moved to Vancouver, Canada, where she became a tenured professor at the University of British Columbia and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
In 1979, Yeh returned to mainland China to give lectures during the holidays. She spent her later years living and working at Nankai University. In 2018 and 2019, she donated her entire life savings of 35.68 million yuan (approximately 4.93 million USD) to Nankai University to support research on traditional Chinese culture.
Throughout her life, Yeh received many prestigious awards, including the “Lifetime Achievement Award in Chinese Poetry,” the “Most Influential Foreign Experts During 40 Years of China’s Reform and Opening-Up,” the 2019 “Chinese Government Friendship Award,” and the “Touching China 2020 Person of the Year.”
Despite her many accolades, Yeh always cherished the title of “teacher” above all else. On her 90th birthday, she said, “If there is a life after this, I would choose to be a teacher again, and still teach classical poetry.”
