Ilien Tang
A young Chinese woman wearing a light-colored robe and holding a fan
Ilien Tang, from a 1911 publication
Born
Kiukiang, China
DiedMay 18, 1920
OccupationEducator

Ilien J. Tang (died May 18, 1920) was a Chinese educator. She started and supervised kindergartens in and near Nanchang, and was vice-principal at the Baldwin Memorial School for Girls.

Early life and education

Tang was born in Kiukiang (Jiujiang), and attended the Rulison-Fish Memorial School, a Methodist missionary school in that city.[1] American missionary Gertrude Howe, mentor to western-educated Chinese physicians Ida Kahn and Mary Stone,[2] helped Tang go to the United States in 1898.[3] She graduated from the Central Wesleyan College in Warrenton, Missouri, and completed kindergarten teacher training in Minneapolis.[4][5] She also studied at Columbia University later in life.[6] Her brother, known as John Tang, attended law school in the United States.[7]

Career

Tang spoke at church and YWCA events in the United States during her student years.[8] She returned to China in 1906.[9] In 1907, she and missionary Welthy B. Honsinger opened a kindergarten together at Nanchang.[10][11] She established several other kindergartens, and supervised them; she also compiled a book of clapping songs for kindergarten use.[12] She was assistant to Honsinger when the latter woman was head of the Baldwin Memorial School for Girls at Nanchang, including during its rebuilding after a fire.[13][14]

Tang was one of the leaders and speakers at the First Student Conference for Women in China in 1907, and at the Second Student Conference in 1908, both sponsored by the YWCA.[15][16] She was featured as one of the "professional women of China" in a 1914 article by Mary Stone.[17] She gave lectures to church and community groups during her return visit to the United States in 1918.[18]

Personal life

Tang lived with her colleague Welthy B. Honsinger,[19][20] and adopted two children, a son named Joyce and a daughter named Carolyn. She died in 1920,[21] after "months of intense suffering".[22] "Though dead, Miss Tang lives," said an American friend, Catherine Baker. "She lives in the hearts of many whom she often comforted and advised; she lives in the hearts of Nanchang students, to whom she gave her life and love; she will live always in the hearts of little children."[10]

References

  1. ↑ Burton, Margaret Ernestine (1911). The Education of Women in China. Fleming H. Revell Company.
  2. ↑ Robert, Dana L. (1998). "Gertrude Howe (1847-1928)". The United Methodist Church. Retrieved 2023-11-02.
  3. ↑ "Ilien Tang". Warrenton Banner. 1905-06-16. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Honsinger, Welthy B., "Ilien Tang" Woman's Missionary Friend 52(20)(August 1920): 285.
  5. ↑ "Kindergarten Exercises". The Minneapolis Journal. 1901-05-30. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Notes" Woman's Missionary Friend 51(7)(July 1919): 262.
  7. ↑ "From the Field: Nanchang". The China Christian Advocate. 2 (11): 12. December 1915.
  8. ↑ "Miss Tang is in Lincoln; The Chinese Maid Came to the City for Visit Monday". The Lincoln Star. 1903-08-24. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Going Back to China". The Minneapolis Journal. 1906-10-22. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. 1 2 "More About Miss Tang". Woman's Missionary Friend. 52 (20): 283. August 1920.
  11. ↑ Tsao, F. Y. (May 10, 1911). "A Brief History of Chinese Women-Students in America". The Chinese Students' Monthly. 6 (7): 620.
  12. ↑ Honsinger, Welthy B. “A Kindergarten in Central China” Kindergarten Review 22(9)(May 1912): 635–637.
  13. ↑ "Central China: Missionaries and their Stations" Annual Report of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1907): 142.
  14. ↑ Honsinger, Welthy (March 1921). "Where is She?". The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. 37 (3): 311.
  15. ↑ "First Student Conference for Women in China" Woman's Work in the Far East 19(1)(March 1908): 40.
  16. ↑ Paddock, A. Estelle (February 1910). "Second Student Conference in China". Association Monthly. 4 (1): 26–27.
  17. ↑ Stone, Mary (1914). "What Chinese Women Have Done and Are Doing for China". The China Mission Year Book. 5: 244.
  18. ↑ "Women of Far East to Speak". Star Tribune. 1918-04-11. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ Shemo, Connie A. (2011-10-16). The Chinese Medical Ministries of Kang Cheng and Shi Meiyu, 1872–1937: On a Cross-Cultural Frontier of Gender, Race, and Nation. Lehigh University Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-1-61146-086-5.
  20. ↑ Shreiner, Samuel A. Jr. (1980-12-28). "101 years old and going strong". Quad-City Times. p. 51. Retrieved 2023-11-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ Baker, Catherine. "In Memoriam: Ilien J. Tang" Kiangsi Women's Conference (1920): 2.
  22. ↑ "Personal Mention" Woman's Missionary Friend 52(7)(July 1920): 245.
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