Isabel Crook

{{Short description|Canadian anthropologist and educator (1915–2023)}}

{{Infobox writer

| image = Isabel Crook.png

| caption = Crook in 1940

| name = Isabel Crook

| pseudonym =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|12|15|df=y}}

| birth_place = Chengdu, Sichuan, China

| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|8|20|1915|12|15|df=y}}

| death_place = Beijing, China

| resting_place =

| occupation = Professor, anthropologist

| nationality = {{cslist|Canadian|British}}

| language = {{cslist|English|Chinese}}

| alma_mater = {{cslist|University of Toronto|London School of Economics}}

| period =

| genre =

| subject =

| movement =

| notableworks = {{cslist|Xinglong Chang: Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940–1942|Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn}}

| spouse = {{marriage|David Crook|1942|2000|end=died}}

| children = 3

| relatives = {{ubl|{{#ifexist: Homer G. Brown|Homer G. Brown (father)}}|{{#ifexist: Muriel J. Hockey|Muriel J. Hockey (mother)}}}}

| awards = Medal of Friendship (2019)

| website =

| partner =

| signture =

| module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes

| s = {{linktext|饶|素|梅}}

| t = {{linktext|饒|素|梅}}

| p = Ráo Sùméi

}}

Isabel Crook ({{zh|s=饶素梅|t=|p=Ráo Sùméi}}; 15 December 1915 – 20 August 2023) was a Canadian-British anthropologist, political prisoner, and professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Crook conducted anthropological studies in China and played an instrumental role in foreign language education in China.

Early life

Isabel Brown was born on 15 December 1915, in Chengdu, Sichuan, to Canadian missionaries Homer and Muriel Brown.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} Homer was the dean of the Education Faculty at West China Union University.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} Muriel set up Montessori Schools in China and served on the board of the YWCA.{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018a}} Isabel's sisters, Muriel and Julia, were also born in Chengdu and all three attended the city's Canadian School.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}

As a child, Isabel Brown became interested in anthropology and the many ethnic minorities in China.{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018b}} In 1939, at the age of 23, she graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}

Later life, revolution and career

After graduating, Brown returned to China and set out for western Sichuan with a Chinese colleague to study the Yi people (known then as Lolos) who followed a shamanic religion and lived in a caste-based society heavily reliant on slavery.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018b}} The next year, the Chinese National Christian Council hired Brown to survey impoverished rural families in a village outside of Chongqing, which later became the basis for her publication Prosperity's Predicament.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}

In the early 1940s, Isabel met David Crook, a British Stalinist who had spied for the NKVD in both Spain and Shanghai, and married him in 1942.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}} In 1947, they went to Ten Mile Inn, Shidong Township, Hebei Province, to observe and study the Chinese Land Reform.{{sfn|China Daily|2017}} Six months later, they accepted an invitation from CPC leaders to teach at a new foreign affairs school, the forerunner of today's Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}

As a teacher at BFSU, Crook laid the foundation for foreign language education in China.{{sfn|Ministry of Foreign Affairs|2022}} During the Cultural Revolution, David was imprisoned from 1967 to 1973 in Qincheng prison, while she was confined to the BFSU campus.{{sfn|David Crook|1990}} Isabel said she understood and forgave her captors.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}

Crook retired from teaching in 1981 and resumed her research studies as an anthropologist. Her study of the village in Sichuan, which she, {{ill|Xiji Yu|zh|俞錫璣}} and others had begun in the 1940s, was continued in the 90s and then eventually published as Prosperity's Predicament: Identity, Reform, and Resistance in Rural Wartime China in 2013.{{sfn|Crook, Yu & Hershatter|2013}}{{sfn|Griffiths|2023}}

In June 2019, she became an honorary citizen of Bishan District, Chongqing.{{sfn|Zeng Qinglong|2019}}

The Crooks had three sons.{{sfn|SACU|2021}}{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} She died in Beijing on 20 August 2023, at age 107.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}

Works

Xinglong Chang: Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940–1942 ({{lang|zh-Hans|兴隆场：抗战时期四川农民生活调查（1940–1942）}}) {{ISBN|978-7-101-08034-6}}
Crook, Isabel and David. 1959. Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn ({{lang|zh-Hans|十里店：中国一个村庄的革命}}). London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul {{ISBN|978-1-134-68555-4}}
Crook, Isabel and David. 1966. The First Years of Yangyi Commune. London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-3463-6
Crook, Isabel and David. 1979. Ten Mile Inn: Mass Movement in a Chinese Village. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-41178-1
{{Cite book|title=Prosperity's Predicament: Identity, Reform and Resistance in Wartime China|first1=Christina K |last1=Gilmartin |first2=Isabel |last2=Crook |first3=Xiji |last3=Yu |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |year=2013}} {{ISBN|978-1-4422-5277-6}}

Awards

Crook was awarded a Doctor of Letters by Victoria University, Toronto in 2018.{{sfn|Victoria University|2023}}

On 30 September 2019, Crook was awarded the Medal of Friendship by Chinese president Xi Jinping.{{sfn|China Plus|2019}}

References

Sources

{{Cite news |title=A Story of Rural Wartime China, 70 Years in the Making |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/12/13/the-long-strange-life-of-comrade-isabel/ |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=Wall Street Journal China Real Time blog |date=13 December 2013 |ref={{harvid|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}} }}
{{Cite web |url=http://davidcrook.net/simple/chapter12.html |title=The Autobiography of David Crook – The Ballad of Beijing Gaol (1967–73) |website=davidcrook.net |date=1990 |access-date=2 March 2020 |first=David |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|David Crook|1990}} }}
{{Cite web |url=http://www.isabelcrook.com/childhood/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429130311/http://www.isabelcrook.com/childhood/|url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2018 |title=Parents 1915, Chengdu – Isabel Crook |date=29 April 2018 |access-date=2 March 2020 |first=Isabel |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|Isabel Crook|2018a}} }}
{{Cite web |url=http://www.isabelcrook.com/anthropology/westsichuan1938/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429130402/http://www.isabelcrook.com/anthropology/westsichuan1938/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2018 |title=Western Sichuan Tibetan area 1938 |date=2018 |access-date=22 August 2023 |first=Isabel |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|Isabel Crook|2018b}} }}
{{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/21/isabel-crook-obituary |journal=The Guardian |first=John |last=Gittings |date=21 August 2023 }}
{{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook: A life-long friend of China |url=http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/china/9/20190926/358863.html |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=cri.cn |date=26 September 2019 |ref={{harvid|China Plus|2019}} }}
{{Cite web |title=Isabel Crook: Founder of New China's Foreign Language Education |url=https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/topics_665678/zggcddwjw100ggs/jszgddzg/202208/t20220830_10757630.html |date=30 August 2022 |access-date=21 August 2023 |website=www.fmprc.gov.cn |ref={{harvid|Ministry of Foreign Affairs|2022}} }}
{{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook: Live with China one century |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-07/07/content_30034479.htm |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=China Daily |date=7 July 2017 |ref={{harvid|China Daily|2017}} }}
{{Cite web |title=Michael Crook and his mother Isabel from Beijing in Conversation with Dr Frances Wood, SACU Vice President |url=https://sacu.org/event/michael-crook-and-his-mother-isabel-from-beijing-in-conversation-with-dr-frances-wood-sacu-vice-president/ |access-date=21 August 2023 |website=Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) |language=en-UK |ref={{harvid|SACU|2021}} }}
{{Cite news|author1=Zeng Qinglong |url=http://www.sohu.com/a/341902579_355626 |script-title=zh:国家最高荣誉！璧山荣誉市民伊莎白·柯鲁克被授予"友谊勋章" |work=Sohu |date=18 September 2019 |accessdate=5 October 2019 |language=zh}}
{{cite book |last1=Crook |first1=Isabel |last2=Yu |first2=Xiji |last3=Hershatter |first3=Gail |title=Prosperity's predicament: identity, reform, and resistance in rural wartime China |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham Bouöder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK |isbn=978-1-4422-5277-6 |edition=First published |ref={{harvid|Crook, Yu & Hershatter|2013}} }}
{{cite news |last1=Griffiths |first1=James |title=Isabel Crook, Canadian anthropologist awarded friendship medal by China's Xi Jinping, dies aged 107 |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-isabel-crook-canadian-anthropologist-awarded-friendship-medal-by/ |access-date=25 August 2023 |work=The Globe and Mail |date=22 August 2023 |language=en-CA |ref={{harvid|Griffiths|2023}} }}
{{cite web |title=Honorary Degrees Conferred by Senate |url=https://www.vicu.utoronto.ca/about-victoria/honorary-degrees/honorary-degrees-conferred-by-senate/ |website=vicu.utoronto.ca |publisher=Victoria University, Toronto |access-date=26 August 2023 |language=en-CA |ref={{harvid|Victoria University|2023}} }}

External links

{{Official website|1=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929/http://www.isabelcrook.com/}}
[http://en.people.cn/90882/8061568.html A century of love for China]

Category:1915 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:Writers from Chengdu

Category:University of Toronto alumni

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:English anthropologists

Category:British women anthropologists

Category:Canadian anthropologists

Category:Canadian women anthropologists

Category:Academic staff of Beijing Foreign Studies University

Category:Canadian women centenarians

Category:British women centenarians