Li Xiangheng ( zh, 李薌蘅, 1900 – 10 August 1966) was a Chinese politician. She was among the first group of women elected to the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan () is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for four-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a ...

in 1948.

Biography

Li was born Li Xiulan, later changing her name to Xiangheng because it had less common

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

.Leslie T. Chang (2010
''Factory Girls: Voices from the Heart of Modern China''
pp95–115 She attended , where she majored in music and physical education. During her time there she married , a geologist and mining engineer, in an

arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of Marriage, marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaki ...

. Three days after their wedding he moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for work, and they remained apart for seven years as her father did not think it appropriate for women to leave the country. After graduating, she became a teacher at Jilin Girls' Normal School. She was later appointed dean of Jilin Girls' Middle School and headmistress of Harbin No.1 Girls' High School. Zhang returned to China in 1927, and the couple's first child was born in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

. After the Mukden Incident, the couple left what became

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

, and moved between different mining towns in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

and

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

. By 1945 they were living in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

. Zhang was killed in 1946 during a visit to

Fushun Fushun ( zh, s=, t=, p=Fǔshùn, historically Fuxi ()) is a prefecture level city in Liaoning province, China, about east of Shenyang, with a total area of , of which is the city proper. Situated on the Hun River ("muddy river"), it is one o ...

to take over a coal mine from Soviet troops; the killing (which became known as the 'Zhang Shenfu incident') provoked anti-Soviet protests.Déjà Vu: A Surprising Link from Author to Reviewer
Wellseley Centres for Women After Zhang's death, Li established a coal distribution company and in 1947 moved to

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. She was a delegate to the 1946 that drew up the

constitution of the Republic of China The Constitution of the Republic of China is the fifth and current constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), ratified by the Kuomintang during the Constituent National Assembly session on 25 December 1946, in Nanking, and adopted on 25 De ...

. In the

1948 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1948. Previous: List of elections in 1947 Next: List of elections in 1949 Africa * 1948 Mauritian general election * 1948 South African general election * 1948 Southern Rhodesian general election As ...

to the Legislative Yuan she ran as a

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

candidate in

Jilin ) , image_skyline = Changbaishan Tianchi from western rim.jpg , image_alt = , image_caption = View of Heaven Lake , image_map = Jilin in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_al ...

Province and was elected to parliament.李薌蘅
Legislative Yuan She relocated to Taiwan during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

, where she remained a member until her death of emphysema in 1966. Her son

Leroy Chang Leroy L. Chang (; 20 January 1936 – 10 August 2008) was a Taiwanese-American experimental physicist and solid state electronics researcher and engineer. Born in China, he studied in Taiwan and then the United States, obtaining his doctorate f ...

emigrated to the United States, where his daughter Leslie T. Chang became a writer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Xiangheng 1900 births Chinese schoolteachers Members of the Kuomintang 20th-century Chinese women politicians Members of the 1st Legislative Yuan Members of the 1st Legislative Yuan in Taiwan 1966 deaths