Li Pei (; December 20, 1917 – January 12, 2017), was a Chinese linguist and professor of English.

Biography

Born in

Zhenjiang Zhenjiang, alternately romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal. It is opposite Yangzhou (to its north) and ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, She majored in economics at

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

in 1936. In 1947, she studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in the U.S. where, she met and married

Guo Yonghuai Guo Yonghuai (also spelled Yung-Huai Kuo, ; April 4, 1909 – December 5, 1968) was a Chinese aerospace engineer and aerodynamics scientist. Biography Guo was born in Rongcheng, Shandong. He started his undergraduate education at Nankai Unive ...

who became later one of the founding fathers of China's nuclear bomb. Li and Guo returned to China from the U.S. in 1956. In 1961, Li started teaching English language at the

University of Science and Technology of China The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a public university in Hefei, China. It is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education of the People' ...

. In 1978, she was transferred to the university's graduate school (Renamed to

University of Chinese Academy of Sciences The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS; ) is a public university headquartered in Shijingshan, Beijing, Shijingshan, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The university is part of the Double ...

) and served as the dean of the English Department until her retirement at 70. In 1998, Li initiated the "Zhongguancun Lecture Hall". She organized more than 600 weekend lectures given by notable scholars from many horizons, including economist

Li Yining Li Yining (; 22 November 1930 – 27 February 2023) was a Chinese economist. He voiced for the privatization of state-owned companies, and his advocacy led to the reestablishment of China's stock exchanges in 1990. For this reason, he was nickn ...

from Peking University and historian Zi Zhongyun from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

, Li was isolated and placed under surveillance for years. Her husband died in an airplane crash in 1968 and her only daughter died of disease in 1997. These tragedies won her a reputation for being mentally strong. Li was also an active philanthropist in her twilight years; she gave away all her life-time savings (approx. US$90,000) to her university, to the aid of victims of natural disasters, to the education for special needs children and to the conservation of traditional performing arts. After her death, her story went viral on Chinese Internet and traditional media, she was praised by netizens as "the final aristocrat in China" in contrast to the lavish lifestyle of today's Chinese society. Eight hundred people attended her funeral service. In an editorial appeared on the day after, a liberal-oriented newspaper ''

China Youth Daily The ''China Youth Daily'' ( zh, s=中国青年报, t=, p=) is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China. It has been the newspaper of the Communist Youth League of China since 1951. It has occasional ...

'' wondered, whether "Li Pei had taken away with her life an age". According to the official obituary released by the

, Li dedicated her life to the education of groups of brilliant young people. In 2018, the asteroid 212797 Lipei was named in her memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Pei 1917 births 2017 deaths Women linguists Linguists of English Linguists from China Scientists from Zhenjiang Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology of China Cornell University alumni National University of Peking alumni Academic staff of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences