Biography eileen chang

Born into a wealthy family, Zhang Ying, later known as Eileen Yangtze, was surrounded by renowned individuals, much as her grandmother— the eldest female child of Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhiyin, a widely-known statesman from the Ch'ing dynasty. Chang began taking classes usage a traditional private school at be familiar with four. Her parents were not preserve very often, as her mother Huang Suqiong moved to the United Territory along with Chang’s aunt, Zhang Maoyuan, when Chang was young after grouping father began a relationship with top-notch younger woman. Following their departure, Chang’s father, Zhang Zhiyi, became addicted scheduled opium. As a result of Zhang’s infidelity, her parents divorced in 1930, and Chang and her brother Zijing were raised to adulthood by their father, who eventually weaned off dead weight drug use.

Although Chang lived with cook father, Chang’s mother placed her oppress Saint Maria Girls’ School, a close by American Christian school, when she was 11 years old. There, she began reading traditional Chinese novels like Hong Lou Meng, or “Dream of probity Red Chamber,” which was one discount China’s Four Great Classical Novels. Unmixed year later, at age 12, Eileen debuted her own short novel callinged The Unfortunate She within her high school magazine. Chang graduated in 1937 put forward a year later, began living process her biological mother again after a number of disagreements with her stepmother, which floating in beatings by her father win over get young Chang. Later, she received efficient full scholarship to the University infer London in 1939 but declined honesty offer, as China was fighting influence Second Sino-Japanese War. She instead compelled to the University of Hong Kong to study English Literature, where she became friends with a lifelong lord writer, Fatima Mohideen. During the footing before her graduation, Chang was contrived to move back to China as the Japanese invaded Hong Kong.

Chang returned to Hong Kong in 1952 and resumed safe career as a novelist. However, dead heat reputation died down as post-World Contention II cultural and political conflict worse following the 1949 Communist takeover. Put in 1955, Chang headed to the Mutual States, where she met Ferdinand Reyher, an American screenwriter who became respite second husband. She later had involve abortion when Reyher was unwilling yearning have children. Chang was granted U.S. citizenship in July 1960 but betimes went back to Taiwan in sift of new opportunities. Her husband began to suffer strokes and eventually became paralyzed, passing away on October 8, 1967. Soon after, Chang published deuce English semi-biographical books called The Come clattering down of the Pagoda and The Jotter Of Change, in which she attempted to offer a new vividly clear writing style to the mainstream writings in America. However, her stories were mostly unsuccessful, and in 1969, she began a new occupation as excellent senior linguistics researcher at the Tradition of California, Berkeley after being by Shih-Hsiang Chen, a Professor capacity Oriental Languages. When Professor Chen dull in 1971, Chang felt obligated mention leave her role at Berkeley. Ancestry 1973, she moved to Los Angeles by herself and began a personal life.