Chi Nyok Wang
{{short description|Chinese educator}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Chi Nyok Wang
| image = ChiNyokWang1916.png
| alt = A young Chinese woman, her dark hair in an updo, wearing a light-colored blouse with ribbon and lace trim
| caption = Chi Nyok Wang, from the 1916 yearbook of Mount Holyoke College
| native_name = 王季玉
| other_names = Wang Jiyu, Wang Chi-yueh
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1885
| birth_place = Suzhou, China
| death_date = 1967
| death_place =
| occupation = Educator, school principal
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = Chi Che Wang (sister)
}}
Chi Nyok Wang (王季玉) (1885–1967), also known as Wang Jiyu, was a Chinese educator, principal of the Tsunghua School for Girls (振華女學校) in Suzhou from 1926 to 1958. She was one of the first two Chinese students at Mount Holyoke College.
Early life and education
Wang was born in Suzhou, China, one of the five daughters of a government official father, Wang Songwie, and a social reformer mother, {{Interlanguage link|王谢长达|lt=Wangxie Changda|zh|王谢长达}}(王謝長達).{{Cite web|title=Tsunghua Girls' School|url=https://www.huangquest.com/tsunghua-girls-school.html|access-date=2021-11-09|website=HuangQuest|language=en}}{{Cite journal|last=Wang|first=Huibin|date=September 2020|title=Born to do science? A case study of family factors in the academic lives of the Chinese scientific elite|journal=Cultures of Science|language=en|volume=3|issue=3|pages=186–196|doi=10.1177/2096608320960243|s2cid=225109663|issn=2096-6083|doi-access=free}} Her sister, Chi Che Wang, attended Wellesley College and stayed in the United States to make a career as a biochemist.{{Cite journal|date=January 1914|title=Chinese Girls Reunited|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BEVBAQAAMAAJ&dq=Chi+Nyok+Wang&pg=PA144|journal=Mission Studies|volume=7|pages=36}}
Wang attended Mount Holyoke College, as one of the school's first two Chinese students, alongside her classmate Yau Tsit Law. Law and Wang were officers of the school's small Chinese Students' Club.{{Cite journal|date=December 1915|title=Mount Holyoke|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sr4LAAAAYAAJ&dq=Chi+Nyok+Wang&pg=PA137|journal=The Chinese Students' Monthly|volume=11|pages=137–138}} She completed a bachelor's degree in 1916.Mount Holyoke College, [https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:47840 Llamarada] (1916 yearbook): 214.
In 1917, she earned a master's degree in botany at the University of Illinois,University of Illinois, [https://uihistories.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/rview_browsepdf?REPOSID=8&ID=7960&pagenum=370 Board of Trustees Minutes] (1918): 364. with a thesis titled "Revegetation and Plant Succession along Salt Fork Creek". Her thesis advisor was plant ecologist Walter Byron McDougall.{{Cite book|last=Wang|first=Chi Nyok|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100180437|title=Revegetation and plant succession along Salt Fork Creek|date=1917|series=Master's thesis, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign}}
Career
From 1926 to 1958, Wang was principal of the Tsunghua School for Girls in Suzhou, a Christian school founded by her mother in 1906, though she was offered teaching and administrative positions at other prestigious Chinese institutions.{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/5edwhoswhoinchina00shanuoft|title=Who's who in China; biographies of Chinese leaders|date=1936|publisher=Shanghai China Weekly Review|others=Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library - University of Toronto|pages=242–243|via=Internet Archive}} Her sisters Wang Jizhao and Wang Jichang also worked at the school. Boys sometimes attended the school, including anthropologist and sociologist Fei Xiaotong.{{Cite book|last1=Arkush|first1=R. David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=puuPxMYZl3AC&dq=Wang+Jiyu+Suzhou&pg=PA7|title=Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China|last2=Harvard University Council on East Asian Studies|date=1981|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center|isbn=978-0-674-29815-6|pages=7|language=en}}
In 1925 Wang attended the Conference on American Relations with China, held in Baltimore.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4sItAAAAMAAJ&dq=Wang+Tsung+Hua+school&pg=PA190|title=American Relations with China: A Report of the Conference Held at Johns Hopkins University, September 17-20, 1925, with Supplementary Materials, and Arranged to be of Use to Discussion Groups, Current Events Clubs, and University Classes|date=1925|publisher=Conference on American Relations with China|pages=190|language=en}} She was a member of the Institute of Pacific Relations when it met in Honolulu in 1925.{{Cite book|last=Conference|first=Institute of Pacific Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LtY5AQAAIAAJ&dq=Wang+Tsung+Hua+school&pg=PA38|title=Institute of Pacific Relations, Honolulu Session, June 30-July 14, 1925: History, Organization, Proceedings, Discussions and Addresses|date=1925|publisher=Institute|pages=38|language=en}} In 1949 she was again in the United States, to study at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Chicago.{{Cite web|title=Class Notes from Chi Nyok Wang, Class of 1916|url=https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/class-notes-from-chi-nyok-wang-class-of-1916/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-09|website=Alumnae Association|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200627143056/https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/class-notes-from-chi-nyok-wang-class-of-1916/ |archive-date=2020-06-27 }}{{Cite news|date=1949-03-14|title=Chinese Teacher|pages=2|work=The Bangor Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88641216/chinese-teacher/|access-date=2021-11-09|via=Newspapers.com}}
Personal life
Wang died in 1967, in her eighties. Her school is now known as Suzhou No.10 Middle School.{{Cite web|title=Welcome to Suzhou Zhenhua Middle School-苏州市振华中学校|url=http://www.suzhouzhenhua.com/Item/1396.aspx|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-10|website=Suzhou Zhenhua Middle School|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113120114/http://www.suzhouzhenhua.com:80/Item/1396.aspx |archive-date=2015-01-13 }}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/mtholyoke:33626 "Two freshman from the Class of 1916 on Mt. Tom on Mountain Day, l-r, possibly Yau Tsit Law and Chi Nyok Wang, from China"], a photograph in Mount Holyoke College Digital Collections
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Chi Nyok}}
Category:20th-century Chinese women educators
Category:20th-century Chinese educators
Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni