Huang Qingyun (; 10 May 1920 – 20 September 2018), or Wong Hing-wan in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, was a Hong Kong-Chinese writer of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and magazine publisher. She published the only Chinese-language children's magazine in China and Hong Kong during World War II, and later served as Vice President of the

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

Writers Association. Considered a pioneer of children's literature in Hong Kong, she received the Best Artist Award from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2009.

Biography

Huang was born in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was under British Empire, British rule from 1841 to 1997, except for a Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. It was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 ...

in 1920. She studied at

Sun Yat-sen University Sun Yat-sen University (; SYSU) is a public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education, SASTIND, and Guangdong Provincial Government. The university is p ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

(Canton),

, China, and received her master's degree from the

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) is the graduate school of education affiliated with Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, Teachers College has been a part of Columbia University since ...

in New York, the United States. In 1941, she established the bi-monthly magazine ''Modern Children'' (新兒童), the only Chinese-language children's magazine in China and Hong Kong that was published during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In "Letters to Big Sister Wan", a distinguished feature in the magazine, Huang, using the pen name Sister Wan (雲姐姐), corresponded with young readers. She encouraged them to study and helped them cope with life in wartime, when Hong Kong and much of China fell under Japanese occupation. After the end of World War II, the British authorities closed Huang's magazine in 1948 for its alleged sympathy for the Chinese Communist cause. She moved to Guangzhou and stayed in mainland China after the Communist takeover in 1949. She served as vice-president of the Guangdong Writers Association in the People's Republic of China. Huang moved back to Hong Kong in the late 1980s. Still active in the literary circle, she also became widely known as the mother-in-law of

Lo Hoi-sing Lo Hoi-sing (; 1949 – 14 January 2010) was a Hong Kong businessman born into a communist Hong Kong family. He was famous for rescuing Chinese dissidents in Operation Yellowbird after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, for which he was arrest ...

, the political activist who helped Chinese dissidents escape China after the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

. Lo was the husband of Chow Mat-mat (Zhou Mimi), who also became a well known children's writer under her mother's influence. Huang died on 20 September 2018, at the age of 98.

Selected works and awards

Huang published more than 60 books over a career spanning more than seven decades. Her works include: *''The Strange Red Star'' (奇異的紅星, 1956) *''Flowers in Full Bloom'' (花兒朵朵開, 1966) *''Daughter of the Moon'' (月亮的女兒, 1982) *''A Golden Childhood'' (金色童年, 1985) She twice won the Hong Kong Chinese Literature Prize for Children's Literature, for ''The Smart Dog and the Ever-Changing Cat'' (聰明狗和百變貓) and ''Strange Adventure of the Cat QQ'' (貓咪QQ的奇遇). In 2009, she received the Best Artist Award from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Qingyun 1920 births 2018 deaths Hong Kong women writers 20th-century Chinese women writers 20th-century Chinese writers 21st-century Chinese women writers 21st-century Chinese writers Chinese children's writers Chinese women children's writers Sun Yat-sen University alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Chinese magazine publishers (people)