The Ling

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The Ling (1912)

The Ling ( Chinese  裕德 齡 , Pinyin Yù Délíng ; born June 8, 1885 in Beijing ; † November 21, 1944 in Berkeley ), also Elisabeth Antoinette White , was a Chinese -American author .

biography

The Ling as lady-in-waiting of Empress Dowager Cixi (ca.1903)

The Ling was a granddaughter of the Boston merchant John Pearson and his Chinese wife. Her father Yu Keng († 1905) belonged to the White Banner and thus to the Chinese administrative upper class of the Manchu ; he was catholic . The family initially lived in Shashi . The liberal father was unusually open-minded and loving for a Chinese when dealing with Der Ling and her sister Rong Ling (1889–1973), for which he was told by his superior Zhang Zhidongwas criticized. He particularly criticized the fact that Yu gave the girls just as extensive an education as her brothers, even in areas that were actually reserved for boys. The father also did not let his daughters have their feet tied and thus prepare them for a possible existence as a concubine . Other Chinese mocked their "big feet", for them a sign of base origin.

From 1895 to 1898 Yu was the Chinese ambassador to Japan and from 1899 to 1902 in France (1899–1902). His daughter The Ling ended up being fluent in Japanese , English and French . In Paris she took dance lessons with Isadora Duncan and befriended Sarah Bernhardt .

In 1903, Der Ling returned to China with her family, where she became a confidante of the Dowager Empress Cixi . She also worked as an interpreter for Cixi when she received visitors from abroad. She was made court lady and received the honorary title of princess. Her brother Xu Yunling (approx. 1880–1943), who had learned photography in France , took the only photographs of the empress widow that have survived.

After Cixi's death, Der Ling married the American businessman and diplomat Thaddeus Cohu White (1878-1953) in 1908 and had a son named Thaddeus Raymond, who died of pneumonia in New York in 1933 at the age of 20 . In the 1920s the family moved to Los Angeles . The Ling received US citizenship and was now also called Elisabeth Antoinette White . She began to get involved in society; she liked to stage herself as a Chinese princess, which strictly speaking she wasn't. In particular, she worked as a mediator of Chinese culture in the West. She wrote a total of eight books about her life and China. In her book Two Years in the Forbidden City she tried to rehabilitate the reputation of the Dowager Empress Cixi, who was demonized especially in the West, by describing her human side; the book contained photos taken by The Ling's brother.

Because of the Sino-Japanese War , China was unable to participate in the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1939 . Chinese overseas sponsored a "Chinese village" in the exhibition instead, and The Ling provided items such as jade objects and court robes. They were exhibited in the Princess Der Ling Pavilion , where she herself told visitors about Chinese culture and the imperial family.

1942 took the form according to Berkeley to attend the local university Chinese teaching. There she lived in the Hotel Carlton . In November 1944, she was run over by a truck on her way to class and suffered fatal injuries. The Time Magazine wrote in his obituary, she was the first "high-born" Chinese woman who married a foreigner. She is buried with her son and husband in Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor .

Publications (selection)

  • Two years at the court of Beijing . H. Minden, Dresden / Leipzig 1915. Online: Two Years in the Forbidden City
  • Old Buddha . Dodd Mead, 1928 ( digitized ).
  • Jades and dragons . Mohawk Press, New York 1932.
  • Kuan Hsü. Son of heaven . Hugendubel , Munich 1936.

literature

  • Grant Hayter-Menzies: Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling . Hong Kong University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-962-209-881-7 (English).
  • Shuo Wang: The Ling: Manchu Princess, Cultural Adviser, and Author . In: Kenneth James Hammond / Kristin Eileen Stapleton (eds.): The Human Tradition in Modern China . Rowman and Bitterfield, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7425-5466-5 , pp. 73-91 .

Web links

Commons : The Ling  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Grant Hayter-Menzies: Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ a b Elisabeth Antoinette “Princess Der Ling” White. In: de.findagrave.com. Accessed February 1, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Vivien Chen: Empress Cixi's favorite princess Der Ling and what you didn't know about her. In: scmp.com. June 8, 2018, accessed January 31, 2020 .
  4. ^ A b c Kenneth J. Hammond, Kristin Stapleton: The Human Tradition in Modern China. ISBN 978-1-461-64436-1 , p. 88 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  5. ↑ a b c d The Ling, “Princess” - Author. In: Berkeley Historical Plaque Project. Accessed January 31, 2020 (English).
  6. ^ A b David Hogge: The Empress Dowager and the camera. In: visualizingcultures.mit.edu. July 14, 1900, accessed January 31, 2020 .
  7. ^ Thaddeus Raymond White (1912-1933). In: de.findagrave.com. Accessed February 1, 2020 . Her English name is misspelled on the headstone ( Antionette instead of Antoinette ).
personal data
SURNAME The Ling
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yu, Deling (maiden name); White, Elisabeth Antoinette (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese author
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Beijing
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1944
Place of death Berkeley