Hilda Yen
| Hilda Yank Sing Yen | |
|---|---|
| 顏雅清 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 January 1906 |
| Died | 18 March 1970 (aged 64) |
| Nationality | Chinese American |
| Occupation | Diplomat, aviator, speaker |
| Religion | Episcopalian, from 1944 Bahá'í Faith |
Hilda Yank Sing Yen (Chinese: 顏雅清; pinyin: Yán Yǎqīng) or sometimes Yan, was one of the leading figures of Chinese American society for some decades. Coming from a high-profile family traditionally serving Chinese governments and society, she left the East while continuing to be a bridge of cultures. Initially proving herself in university, she worked in diplomatic circles leading to the League of Nations for some years and then, inspired by aviator Li Xiaqing, she embarked on extended flights across the United States, speaking on international peace, pointing to the needs of China against the looming aggressions of the era, and then working with the United Nations. A major transition was her conversion to the Bahá'í Faith in 1944 and she was centrally involved in the religion achieving its registration as a non-governmental organization with the United Nations, where she then continued her work for several years. Ultimately she was disappointed in the international community's lack of embrace of a spiritual-religious commitment as the basis of an international peace and withdrew from such concerns. Along the way, she married twice, with two children from the first marriage though she died divorced.
Her date of birth is conjectured from conversion from eastern calendars. Late in life she adopted the date of January 17 though most of her life she used November 29 as her date of birth. The year is similarly a matter of conjecture: around 1904 to 1906. Her parents were FC Yen and Siu Ying Chow, the extended family being prominent under Sun Yat-sen. Her baptism name was Hilda. Her sister was similarly named Dorothy.
Her family had adopted Christianity; her grandfather and his brother were among the earliest converts to Christianity as Episcopalians; they also volunteered to fight for the Union North in the American Civil War while in school at Ohio's Kenyon College. Her father became a doctor in China and served in South Africa. Her family moved while at an age of about 8 years to New Haven, Connecticut, where her father entered Yale School of Medicine followed by Harvard Medical School in public health while she attended elementary school. Her family returned to China and then back in the States again for more work in public health, when at the age of about 16 she took the university entrance exam as a cultural exchange student without permission of her parents and won entry into Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. She majored in history but then her family returned to Shanghai abruptly, before she finished her degree, in 1924. Back in China, she majored in psychology and while there she participated in foiling an anti-foreigner uprising at her school and worked in a hospital. She had an arranged married to P.T. Chen, a Chinese banker, and had two children, William Kuo Wei Chen and Doreen Kuo Feng Chen. In the mean time she devoted her time to local child and women's advocacy institutions as well as at the YWCA.
...
Wikipedia