Jiang Biwei
| Jiang Biwei 蔣碧薇 |
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|---|---|
1925 painting by Xu Beihong
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| Born |
9 April 1899 Yixing, Jiangsu, China |
| Died | 12 December 1978 (aged 79) Taipei, Taiwan |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Other names | Jiang Tangzhen |
| Partner(s) |
Xu Beihong Chang Tao-fan |
| Children | Xu Boyang, Xu Lili |
Jiang Biwei (Chinese: 蔣碧薇; pinyin: Jiǎng Bìwēi; 9 April 1899 – 12 December 1978) was influential in the lives of the painter Xu Beihong and the politician Chang Tao-fan. She published her memoirs and she is portrayed in Chinese historical dramas.
Jiang was born as Jiang Tangzhen (Chinese: 蔣棠珍) in Yixing, Jiangsu province on 9 April 1899. Her father Jiang Meisheng was a scholar and poet who wrote a book on the Zhuangzi, and her mother Dai Qingbo was a poet. She attended the Young Girls Normal School in Changzhou. In 1911, her parents betrothed her to Zha Zihan, who came from an influential family of Haining, Zhejiang.
In 1916 her family moved to avoid conflict in Yixing and so that her father could be a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. One of the student friends of her father was the ambitious and talented artist Xu Beihong. He would come to visit her family and he and Jiang became close. Xu was set to go to Japan to study and Jiang was upset that she would shortly be married to the Zha family. Breaking the marriage agreement was virtually impossible, so they left a note behind and eloped to Japan. Xu gave her the name Jiang Biwei as a disguise, which later became better known than her real name. The embarrassment for her family was so great that her parents declared that she had died from an illness. Their anger subsided after Jiang wrote a letter of apology from Japan. After six months the couple, whose funds had run out, moved back to Shanghai. Xu was then offered a bursary to study in France by Cai Yuanpei of Peking University.
In 1918 they both left and while Xu studied art in France she learned French so that she could run the household. Xu's bursary was not always regular and although he enrolled at top art schools they had to briefly move to Berlin where their francs would stretch further. At another point Jiang had to embroider at five francs a piece to make ends meet.
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Wikipedia