Mary Sia
{{Short description|Chinese-American teacher and cookbook author}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mary Sia
| image = MarySia1971.png
| alt = The face of a Chinese-American woman, from a 1971 newspaper.
| caption = Mary Sia, from a 1971 obituary.
| other_names =
| birth_name = Mary Ling-Sang Li
| birth_date = August 3, 1899
| birth_place = Honolulu
| death_date = {{death date and age|1971|11|18|1899|8|3}}
| death_place = Honolulu
| occupation = Cookbook writer, teacher
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| children = Calvin C.J. Sia
| parents = Kong Tai Heong (mother)
| relatives = Li Ling-Ai (sister)
}}
Mary Li Sia (August 3, 1899 – November 18, 1971) was a Chinese-American teacher and cookbook author, called "the Julia Child of Hawai'i"{{Cite web|last=Solomon|first=Molly|date=August 23, 2013|title=Mary Li Sia: A Celebration|url=https://www.hpr2.org/post/mary-li-sia-celebration|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Hawaii Public Radio|language=en}} for her long and visible career teaching and writing about Chinese food.
Early life
Mary Ling-Sang Li was born in Honolulu, the eldest of the nine children of Chinese-born doctors Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong.McCunn, Ruthanne Lum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150827152200/http://www2.hawaii.edu/~johnb/micro/m130/readings/Chinatown/chinatown.html "Profiles in Chinatown Courage"], Chinese American Portraits (Chronicle Books 1988).{{Cite news|last=Eulane|first=Edie|date=1959-02-19|title=Mary Sia's Cookbook Tells Chinese Folklore|pages=20|work=The Eugene Guard|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62342644/mary-sias-cookbook-tells-chinese/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}} Her sister Li Ling-Ai was an actress and film producer. Mary Li earned a degree in home economics at the University of Hawaiʻi.{{Cite web|last=Namiki|first=Noriko|date=April 21, 2020|title=A Moment in Our History: Mary Sia's Kitchen and MCBL|url=https://www.ywcaoahu.org/ywca-oahu-120/2020/4/21/a-moment-in-our-history-mary-sias-kitchen-and-mcbl|access-date=2020-11-01|website=YWCA O‘ahu|language=en-US}} She pursued further studies in music at Yale University, and in home economics at Cornell University.{{Cite web|last=Sia|first=Calvin C. J.|date=Winter 2003|title=Gems by Mary Li Sia|url=http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=436|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Flavor and Fortune}}
Career
Sia lived and studied in Beijing in the 1920s, with her husband, a medical school professor.{{Cite news|date=1936-07-10|title=Former Isle Girl Returns for Visit|pages=15|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62344887/former-isle-girl-returns-for-visit/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Lo|first=May Day|date=1935-12-07|title=Hawaii Folk in China|pages=6|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49218469/honolulu-star-bulletin/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}} They moved to Hawai'i in 1939. She was director of the Oahu YWCA in the 1940s, and served on the branch's board. She taught classes in Chinese cooking at the YWCA in Honolulu from the 1940s into the 1970s.{{Cite book|last=Inness|first=S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvfFAAAAQBAJ&q=Mary+Li+Sia&pg=PA48|title=Secret Ingredients: Race, Gender, and Class at the Dinner Table|date=2005-12-22|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-4039-8105-9|pages=48|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Paddleford|first=Clementine|date=1961-06-04|title=East Meets West in the Kitchen|pages=145|work=The Kansas City Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62343825/east-meets-west-in-the/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|last=Balsley|first=Betsy|date=1969-07-16|title=Teens Learn the Art of Chinese Cooking|pages=53|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49199407/honolulu-star-bulletin/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}} She led her classes on trips through factories, restaurants, and markets, to understand the larger context of her recipes and techniques.
Sia wrote cookbooks, including Chinese Chopsticks (1935), an English-language cookbook published in Beijing, for international residents of the city,{{Cite web|last=Laudan|first=Rachel|date=2012-08-27|title=Cooking Across Cultures, Classes, and Sexes in the 1930s: The Extraordinary Career of Mary Sia|url=https://www.rachellaudan.com/2012/08/cooking-across-cultures-classes-and-sexes-in-the-1930s-the-extraordinary-career-of-mary-sia.html|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Rachel Laudan|language=en-US}} and Mary Sia’s Chinese Cookbook (1956), which went through multiple editions.{{Cite book|last=Sia|first=Mary Li|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M6UgAQAAIAAJ|title=Mary Sia's Chinese Cookbook|date=1972|publisher=University of Hawaii|isbn=978-0-87022-760-8|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Sia|first=Mary Li|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YcFQAQAAIAAJ|title=Mary Sia's Chinese Cookbook|date=1956|publisher=University Press of Hawaii|language=en}} "I have spent a lifetime in opening new culinary worlds to thousands of people, both in the East and the West," she explained in the preface to her cookbook.
Personal life
Mary Li married physician Richard Ho Ping Sia in 1924. They had three children, Sylvia, Calvin, and Julia, all born in Beijing before 1930. She played the organ at churches in Hawaii, and was an avid tennis player.{{Cite news|last=Adams|first=Wanda A.|date=2013-02-06|title=Fourth Edition of a Classic|pages=D1|work=Honolulu Star-Advertiser|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62343034/fourth-edition-of-a-classicwanda-a/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}} She was a widow when she died in 1971, aged 72 years, in Honolulu.{{Cite news|date=1971-11-20|title=Mary Li Sia, 72, Dies; Was Cooking Authority|pages=15|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/62343417/obituary-for-mary-li-sia-aged-81/|access-date=2020-11-01|via=Newspapers.com}} Her former teaching kitchen at the YWCA in Oahu became the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership in recent years. Her son Calvin C.J. Sia became a noted pediatrician.{{Cite web|date=August 2020|title=Calvin Chia Jung Sia Obituary|url=https://obits.staradvertiser.com/2020/08/30/calvin-chia-jung-sia-30082020/|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Honolulu Star-Advertiser}} Her granddaughters Laura Ing Baker and Louise Ing promoted the 2013 republication of Sia's cookbook with public appearances and classes.{{Cite web|date=2013-08-23|title=Mary Sia's Chinese Cooking Legacy Lives On|url=https://uhpress.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/mary-sias-chinese-cooking-legacy-lives-on/|access-date=2020-11-01|website=News from University of Hawaiʻi Press|language=en}}
References
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Category:American people of Chinese descent
Category:American cookbook writers
Category:American women food writers
Category:Chinese cookbook writers
Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni
Category:Chinese women food writers
Category:20th-century American women writers