Chiang Yee

Chiang Yee (Chinese: 蒋彝, Pinyin: Jiǎng Yí, Wade-Giles: Chiang Yee) (May 19, 1903 – October 26, 1977), self-styled as "The Silent Traveller", was a Chinese poet, author, painter and calligrapher.

1903-1933: China

Chiang Yee was born in Jiujiang, China, on a day variously recorded as May 19 or June 14. He married Tseng Yun in 1924, with whom he was to have four children, and in 1925 graduated from Nanjing University (then named National Southeastern University), not only one of the world's oldest institutions of learning but also relaunched in 1920 as China's first modern university. He served for over a year in the Chinese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, then taught chemistry in middle schools, lectured at National Chengchi University, and worked as assistant editor of a Hangzhou newspaper. He subsequently served as magistrate of three counties (Jiujang in Jiangxi, and Dangtu and Wuhu in Anhui.) Unhappy with the situation in China then (see Nanjing decade), he departed for England in 1933, to study for an MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics, focusing on municipal administration, leaving wife and family behind.

1933-1955: England

From 1935 to 1938 he taught Chinese at the School of Oriental Studies (now School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London, and 1938 to 1940 worked at the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy and Pathology. During this period, he wrote and illustrated a well-received series of books entitled The Silent Traveller in..... His first was The Silent Traveller: a Chinese Artist in Lakeland, written from a journal of a fortnight in the English Lake District in August 1936). Others followed: The Silent Traveller in London, the Yorkshire Dales, and Oxford. Despite paper shortages and rationing, these books were kept in print. He wrote The Silent Traveller in Wartime, and, after World War II ended, the series gradually ventured further afield, to Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Boston, concluding in 1972 with Japan.

Commentary on his writing: 1933-1955

The books characteristically bring a fresh 'sideways look' in a peaceful and non-judgemental way to places perhaps unfamiliar at the time to a Chinese national: the author was struck by things the locals might not notice, such as beards, or the fact that the so-called Lion's Haunch on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is actually far more like a sleeping elephant. In his wartime books, Chiang Yee made it plain that he was fervently opposed to Nazism. His writings exude a feeling of positive curiosity, life-enhancing in a unique way. Some of his books have been re-issued in modern times, sometimes with fresh introductions.

1955-1975: United States

After living for some years in a small flat in London and being obliged, during the war, neither to travel nor to take part in the hostilities, on account of being classed as an 'alien', he moved to the United States in 1955, where he became a lecturer (and ultimately Emeritus Professor of Chinese) at Columbia University from 1955 to 1977, with an interlude in 1958 and 1959 during which he was Emerson Fellow in Poetry at Harvard University. He became a naturalized citizen in 1966. He illustrated all his books, including several for children, and he wrote a standard tome on Chinese calligraphy.

1975-1977: China

Chiang died in his seventies in China after spending over forty years away from his homeland, on a day variously recorded as October 7 or 26, 1977. His tomb is on the slopes of Lu-Shan above his home town; he is now part of the landscape and environment that influenced his painting over the years.

Survivors

Chiang Yee was survived by his eldest son, Chiang Chien-kuo who joined him in the UK after WWII. Chien-Kuo married and lived in Jersey, Channel Islands. He died in 2002 and was survived by his wife, Barbara Chiang, two children, Stephen and Sudi Chiang and grandchildren, Toby and Emily Chiang and Shiao-li Green. Chiang Yee's younger son, Chiang Chien-Fei, joined him in the USA in the 1960s, where he still lives with his wife and children in New England.

Chiang Yee's Works

The Silent Traveller series

• The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland (London: Country Life, 1937 reprinted Mercat, 2004) ISBN 1-84183-067-4
• The Silent Traveller in London (London: Country Life, 1938 reprinted Signal, 2001) 6 impressions by 1945.
• The Silent Traveller in the Yorkshire Dales (London: Methuen 1941) at least 3 editions by 1942. Not known if re-printed
• The Silent Traveller in Oxford (London: Methuen, 1944 reprinted Signal, 2003)
• The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh (London: Methuen, 1948 reprinted Mercat, 2003) ISBN 1-84183-048-8
• The Silent Traveller in New York, (London: Methuen, 1950)
• The Silent Traveller in Dublin, (London: Methuen, 1953)
• The Silent Traveller in Paris (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956)
• The Silent Traveller in Boston (New York: W. W. Norton, 1959)
• The Silent Traveller in San Francisco (New York: W. W. Norton, 1963) ISBN 0-393-08422-1
• The Silent Traveller in Japan (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972) ISBN 0-393-08642-9

Poetry

• The Silent Traveller’s Hong Kong Zhuzhi Poems (1972)

China: childhood and return

• A Chinese Childhood (New York: John Day, 1953)
• China Revisted: After forty-two Years (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977) ISBN 0-393-08791-3

Painting and calligraphy

• The Chinese Eye: An Interpretation of Chinese Painting, (London: Methuen, 1935)
• Chinese Calligraphy, (London: Methuen, 1955)
• Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique (Harvard: University Press, 1973 3rd ed.) ISBN 0-674-12225-9

Other works

• Chin-Pao and the Giant Pandas, (London: Country Life, 1939)
• The Men of the Burma Road (London: Methuen, 1942)
• Dabbitse, (London: Transatlantic Arts, 1944) for children
• Yebbin: a Guest from the Wild (London: Methuen, 1947) ISBN 0-908240-87-2
• The Story of Ming, (London: Puffin, c. 1945)
• Lo Cheng The Boy Who Wouldn′t Keep Still, (London: Puffin, c. 1945)
• Some Chinese Words to be learnt without a teacher, (Privately published; date unknown)

Illustrated only

• Innes Herdan (tr.), 300 Tang Poems, (Far East Book Co., 2000) illustrated by Chiang Yee. ISBN 957-612-471-9
• Birds and Beasts, Chiang Yee (Country Life 1939). A portfolio of illustrations of birds and animals.
• The Pool of Chien Lung by Lady Hosie 1944 (frontispiece)
• Chinese Cookery by M P Lee -'decorations (i.e. Illustrations) by Chiang Yee

Resources about Chiang Yee

• Da Zheng, 'The Traveling of Art and the Art of Traveling: Chiang Yee's Painting and Chinese Cultural Tradition',
• Da Zheng, 'Writing of Home and Home of Writing', Comparative American Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 488–505 (2003)
• Janoff, Ronald, "Encountering Chiang Yee: A Western Insider Reading Response to Eastern Outsider Travel Writing" (Ann Arbor, MI, UMI Dissertation Services, 2002)

References

• Huang, Suchen S., "Chiang Yee", in Asian-American Autobiographers: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook, edited by Guiyou Huang, Greenwood Press, 2001. ISBN 0-313-31408-X.

External links

• Introduction to 300 T'ANG POEMS
• Gallery of Chiang Yee's paintings of the English Lake District

Persondata
Name	Chiang Yee
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 19, 1903
Place of birth
Date of death	October 26, 1977
Place of death