Stephen Yang

{{short description|Sichuanese surgeon, educator, and Quaker peace activist}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Stephen Yang

| image = Stephen Yang.png

| image_size = 180px

| caption = Stephen Yang in 1942

| birth_date = {{birth year|1911}}

| birth_place = Chongqing, Sichuan, Manchu Empire

| death_date = {{death year and age|2007|1911}}

| death_place = Sichuan, China

| nationality = Manchu Empire {{small|(1911–1912)}}
Republic of China {{small|(1912–1949)}}
People's Republic of China {{small|(since 1949)}}

| other_names = Stephen C. H. Yang

| occupation = Surgeon, medical educator, Quaker peace activist

| alma_mater = West China Union University

| employer = West China Union University
West China Medical University

| spouse = {{marriage|Ruth Dsang|1942}}

}}

Stephen Yang (1911–2007), also known as Stephen C. H. Yang,{{efn|{{lang-zh|t=楊振華|s=杨振华|first=t|w=Yang Chên-hua|p=Yáng Zhènhuá}}; Sichuanese romanization: Iang Chen-hua.}}{{cite journal |author= |date=1948 |title=West China Union University Medical News |url=https://mednexus.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/cmj.0366-6999.66.04.p227.01 |journal=Chinese Medical Journal |volume=66 |issue=4 |page=227 |issn=0366-6999 |access-date=June 14, 2023}} was a Sichuanese surgeon, medical educator, and Quaker peace activist.

Life and career

Stephen Yang was born in 1911 in Chongqing, Sichuan,{{cite web |url=https://info.scu.edu.cn/rwcd/info/1032/1251.htm |title=从解剖到解剖——忆华西老人杨振华 |trans-title=From Anatomy to Anatomy: In Memory of Stephen Yang of West China |author= |date=May 20, 2009 |website=info.scu.edu.cn |language=zh-hans |access-date=June 14, 2023}} and raised by parents of the Quaker faith (Religious Society of Friends). In 1922, he lived at the Friends Middle School on the campus of the West China Union University in Chengdu, cofounded by American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, American Methodist Episcopal Mission, Canadian Methodist Mission, and Friends' Foreign Mission Association. After graduating from the Union University in 1938 with a medical degree, he became a teacher at its College of Medicine while continuing his medical training.{{cite book |last1=Abbott |first1=Margery Post |last2=Chijioke |first2=Mary Ellen |last3=Dandelion |first3=Pink |last4=Oliver Jr. |first4=John William |date=2012 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccdgH9XOS-IC&dq=stephen+yang+1911+medical&pg=PA381 |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=381 |isbn=978-0-81086857-1}}

File:Wedding of Stephen Yang and Ruth Dsang.jpg

In 1942, Yang married Ruth Dsang, daughter of Lincoln L. G. Dsang, second president of West China Union University. The wedding took place in Chengdu. Dsang converted to Quakerism from Methodism upon marriage.{{cite journal |last=Zhang |first=Liping |date=2013 |title=从三个'教徒世家'看基督教对城市家庭的影响 |trans-title=Understanding Christianity's Influence on Urban Families by Researching on the History of Three Sichuanese Christian Families |url=https://www.globethics.net/pdfs/CNKI/CJFD/XNZS201302015.pdf |language=zh-hans |journal=Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities (Humanities and Social Science) |issue=2 |page=87 |issn=1004-3926 |access-date=June 14, 2023 |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407223318/https://www.globethics.net/pdfs/CNKI/CJFD/XNZS201302015.pdf |url-status=dead }} In the late 1940s, the couple traveled to Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia for their residency training, where they spent several days at Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation with Anna and Howard Brinton, who had visited them in Sichuan in 1944. They also toured hospitals in the United States and Canada.{{cite magazine |last=Ruth |first=Shirley |date=October 1988 |title=Quaker Voices from the People's Republic of China: An Interview with Stephen Yang and Ruth Dsang |url=https://archive.org/details/friendsbulletinp572unse_2/page/24 |magazine=Friends Bulletin |location=Torrance, CA |publisher=Friends Bulletin Publications |page=24 |access-date=June 14, 2023}}

Yang spent one year (1970–1971) in prison during the Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s, after his "rehabilitation", he attended several international meetings and was involved in the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. After retiring from the West China Medical University, he had continued working as a mentor to English teachers sent by British Quakers to teach at the university.

Stephen Yang

Life and career

See also

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References

Further reading