Han Suyin
| Elizabeth KC Comber | |
|---|---|
| Born | Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chow 12 September 1916 Xinyang, Henan, Republic of China |
| Died | 2 November 2012 (aged 95) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Pen name | Han Suyin |
| Occupation | Author and physician |
| Language | Chinese, English, French |
| Ethnicity | Hakka-Flemish |
| Citizenship | British |
| Period | 1942–2012 |
| Genre | Fiction, history, biographies |
| Subject | Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai |
| Notable works |
A Many-Splendoured Thing The Crippled Tree My House Has Two Doors |
| Spouse |
Tang Pao-Huang (1938–1947) Leon F. Comber (1952–1958) Vincent Ratnaswamy (1960–2003) |
| Children | Tang Yungmei and Chew Hui Im. Grandchildren: Karen Shepard, William Lee, Wilson Lee |
Han Suyin (simplified Chinese: 韩素音; traditional Chinese: 韓素音; pinyin: Hán Sùyīn; 12 September 1916 or 1917 – 2 November 2012) was the pen name of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chou (Chinese: 周光瑚; pinyin: Zhōu Guānghú). She was a China-born Eurasian, a physician, and author of books in English and French on modern China, novels set in East and Southeast Asia, and autobiographical memoirs which covered the span of modern China. These writings gained her a reputation as an ardent and articulate supporter of the Chinese Communist Revolution. She lived in Lausanne until her death.
Han Suyin was born in Xinyang, Henan, China. Her father was a Belgian-educated Chinese engineer, Chou Wei (Chinese: 周煒; pinyin: Zhōu Wěi), of Hakka heritage, while her mother was Flemish.
She began work as a typist at Peking Union Medical College in 1931, not yet 15 years old. In 1933 she was admitted to Yenching University where she felt she was discriminated against as a Eurasian. In 1935 she went to Brussels to study medicine. In 1938 she returned to China, married Tang Pao-Huang (Chinese: 唐保璜), a Chinese Nationalist military officer, who was to become a general. She worked as a midwife in an American Christian mission hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan. Her first novel, Destination Chungking (1942), was based on her experiences during this period. In 1940, she and her husband adopted their daughter, Tang Yungmei.
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