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Han Suyin

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In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisHan.
Elizabeth KC Comber
(aka Han Suyin)
BornRosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chou
12 September 1916
Xinyang,Henan,Republic of China
Died2 November 2012(2012-11-02)(aged 95)
Lausanne,Vaud,Switzerland
Resting placeBois-de-Vaux Cemetery
Pen nameHan Suyin
OccupationAuthor and physician
LanguageChinese,English, French
CitizenshipBritish
Period1942–2012
GenreFiction, history, biographies
SubjectMao Zedong,Zhou Enlai
Notable worksA Many-Splendoured Thing
The Crippled Tree
My House Has Two Doors
SpouseTang Pao-Huang(1938–1947)
Leon Comber(1952–1958)
Vincent Ratnaswamy(1960–2003)
Children2 (adopted)
Han Suyin
ChineseChuQuangHô
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional ChineseHànTốÂm
Simplified ChineseHàn tố âm

Rosalie Matilda Kuanghu Chou(Chinese:Chu quang hô;[1]12 September 1917 or 1916 – 2 November 2012)[2]was a Chinese-born Eurasian physician and author[3]better known by herpen nameHan Suyin(Chinese:Hàn tố âm). She wrote in English and French on modern China, set her novels in East and Southeast Asia, and published autobiographical memoirs which covered the span of modern China. These writings gained her a reputation as an ardent and articulate supporter of theChinese Communist Revolution.She lived inLausanne,Switzerland, for many years until her death.

Biography[edit]

Han Suyin was born inXinyang,Henan,China.Her father was a Belgian-educated Chinese engineer, Chou Wei (Chinese:Chu vĩ;pinyin:Zhōu Wěi), ofHakkaheritage, while her mother, Marguerite Denis,[4]was Belgian (Flemish).[5][6]

She began work as a typist atPeking Union Medical Collegein 1931, not yet 15 years old. In 1933 she was admitted toYenching Universitywhere she felt she was discriminated against as a Eurasian. In 1935 she went toBrusselsto study medicine. In 1938 she returned to China, and marriedTang Pao-Huang(Chinese:Đường bảo hoàng), aChinese Nationalistmilitary officer, who was to become a general. She worked as a midwife in an American Christian mission hospital inChengdu,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.[7]

In 1944, she went with her daughter to London, where her husband Pao had been posted two years earlier as military attaché,[8]to continue her studies in medicine at theRoyal Free Hospital.Pao was subsequently posted to Washington and later to theManchurianfront.[8]In 1947, while she was still in London, her husband died in action during theChinese Civil War.

She graduated with MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) with Honours in 1948 and in 1949 went toHong Kongto practice medicine at theQueen Mary Hospital.There she met and fell in love withIan Morrison,a married Australian war correspondent based in Singapore, who was killed in Korea in 1950. She portrayed their relationship in the bestselling novelA Many-Splendoured Thing(Jonathan Cape,1952)[8]and the factual basis of their relationship is documented in her autobiographyMy House Has Two Doors(1980).[9]

In 1952, she marriedLeon Comber,a British officer in the MalayanSpecial Branch,[6]and went with him toJohore,Malaya(present-dayMalaysia), where she worked in theJohor BahruGeneral Hospital and opened a clinic in Johor Bahru and Upper Pickering Street, Singapore. In 1953, she adopted another daughter, Chew Hui-Im (Hueiying), in Singapore.[10]

In 1955, Han contributed efforts to the establishment ofNanyang Universityin Singapore. Specifically, she served as a physician at the institution, having refused an offer to teach literature. Chinese writerLin Yutang,the first president of the university, had recruited her for the latter field, but she declined, indicating her desire "to make a new Asian literature, not teach Dickens".[11]

Also in 1955, her best-known novel,A Many-Splendoured Thing,was filmed asLove Is a Many-Splendored Thing.The musical theme song, "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing",won theAcademy Award for Best Original Song.In her autobiography,My House Has Two Doors,she distanced herself from the film, saying that although it was shown for many weeks at the Cathay Cinema in Singapore to packed audiences, she never went to see it and that the film rights had been sold to pay for an operation on her adopted daughter who had pulmonarytuberculosis.Much later, the movie itself was made into a daytimesoap opera,Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,which ran from 1967 to 1973 on American TV.

In 1956, she published the novelAnd the Rain My Drink,whose description of theguerrilla warof Chinese rubber workers against the government was perceived to be very anti-British, and Comber is said to have resigned as acting Assistant Commissioner of PoliceSpecial Branchmainly because of this. In a 2008 interview, he said: "The novel portrayed the British security forces in a rather slanted fashion, I thought. She was a rather pro-Left intellectual and a doctor. I understood the reasons why the communists might have felt the way they did, but I didn't agree with them taking up arms."[12]After resigning, he moved into book publishing as the local representative for London publisherHeinemann.[13]Han Suyin and Comber divorced in 1958.[1]

In 1960, Han marriedVincent Ratnaswamy,anIndiancolonel,and lived for a time inBangalore,India. They later resided in Hong Kong and Switzerland, where she remained, living in Lausanne. Although later separated, they remained married until Ratnaswamy's death in January 2003.

After 1956, Han visited China almost annually. She was one of the first foreign nationals to visit post-1949 revolution China, including through the years of the Cultural Revolution. In 1974, she was the featured speaker at the founding national convention of theUS-China Peoples Friendship Associationin Los Angeles.

Han died in Lausanne on 2 November 2012, aged 95.

A very human account of Han Suyin, the physician, author, and woman, is provided inG. M. Glaskin'sA Many-Splendoured Woman: A Memoir of Han Suyin,published in 1995.[14]

Influences[edit]

Han Suyin funded the Chinese Writers Association to create the "National Rainbow Award for Best Literary Translation" (which is now theLu XunLiterary Award for Best Literary Translation) to help develop literature translation in China. The "Han Suyin Award for Young Translators", sponsored by theChina International Publishing Group,was also set up by her, and as of 2009 it had conferred awards 21 times.[15]

Han has also been influential inAsian American literature,as her books were published in English and contained depictions of Asians that were radically different from the portrayals found in both Anglo-American and Asian-American authors.Frank Chin,in his essay "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake", credits Han with being one of the few Chinese American writers (his term) who does not portray Chinese men as "emasculated and sexually repellent" and for being one of the few who "[wrote] knowledgeably and authentically of Chinese fairy tales, heroic tradition, and history".[16]

Bibliography[edit]

Cultural and political conflicts between East and West in modern history play a central role in Han Suyin's work. She also explores the struggle for liberation in Southeast Asia and the internal and foreign policies of modern China since the end of theimperialregime. Many of her writings feature the colonial backdrop in East Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. A notable exception is the novellaWinter Love,about a love affair between two young Englishwomen at the end of World War Two.

Novels[edit]

Autobiographical works[edit]

  • China[17]
    • The Crippled Tree(1965) – covers China and her and her family's life from 1885 to 1928
    • A Mortal Flower(1966) – covers the years 1928–38
    • Birdless Summer(1968) – covers the years 1938–48
    • My House Has Two Doors(1980) – covers the years 1949–79 – split into two when released as paperback in 1982, with the second part calledPhoenix Harvest
    • Phoenix Harvest(see above)
    • Wind in My Sleeve(1992) – covers the years 1977–91
  • A Share of Loving(1987) – a more personal autobiography about Han Suyin, her Indian husband Vincent and Vincent's family[7]
  • Fleur de soleil – Histoire de ma vie(1988) – French only:Flower of sun – The story about my life

Screenplay[edit]

Historical studies[edit]

Essays[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^abLake, Alison (4 November 2012)."Han Suyin, Chinese-born author of 'A Many-Splendoured Thing,' dies at 95".The Washington Post.She later changed her middle name to Elizabeth, the name she preferred.
  2. ^"Renowned Chinese-born author dies".Australian Network News.4 November 2012.
  3. ^"Han Suyin – In voicing her Eurasian identity, she defined a people".Time.13 November 2006. Archived fromthe originalon 4 January 2012.Retrieved17 May2012.
  4. ^Kowalska, Teresa (2000)."Tea, ivory and Ebony: Tracing Colonial Threads in the Inseparable Life and Literature of Han Suyin".Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.40:24.JSTOR23895258.
  5. ^Asiapac Editorial (2003). Kraal, Diane (ed.).Gateway to Eurasian Culture.Asiapac Books.p. 29.ISBN9789812299048.
  6. ^abFox, Margalit(5 November 2012)."Han Suyin Dies; Wrote Sweeping Fiction".The New York Times.Archived fromthe originalon 14 March 2023.
  7. ^abDing Jiandong."Han Suyin Research".Archived fromthe originalon 4 August 2005.Retrieved17 May2012.
  8. ^abcGittings, John(4 November 2012)."Han Suyin – Chinese-born author best known for her 1952 book A Many-Splendoured Thing"(obituary).The Guardian.
  9. ^Jae-nam Han, John (2001). "Han Suyin (Rosalie Chou)".Asian-American Autobiographers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook.Bloomsbury Academic. p. 104.ISBN9780313314087.
  10. ^Han, Suyin (1980).My House Has Two Doors.London:Jonathan Cape.p. 217.ISBN0-224-01702-0.
  11. ^"Sinologists – Lin Yutang".Archived fromthe originalon 9 August 2013.
  12. ^Vengadesan, Martin (30 November 2008)."The officer who loved Malaya".The Star online.Archived fromthe originalon 5 December 2008.
  13. ^Monash Asia Institute: Dr Leon ComberArchived26 March 2012 at theWayback Machine.Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  14. ^Glaskin, Gerald Marcus (1985),A Many-Splendoured Woman: A Memoir of Han Suyin(Singapore: Graham Brash.ISBN978-981-218-045-2).
  15. ^Dong Chun."Sculpture of Han Suyin Unveiled".CPAFFC Voice of Friendship.Archived fromthe originalon 27 February 2012.Retrieved21 July2021.
  16. ^Chin, Frank. "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake", 1990. Reprinted inThe Big Aiiieeeee!,Meridian, 1991. Above quote is on p. 12.
  17. ^Chambers Biographical Dictionary.Chambers. 28 September 2007. p. 700.

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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