Press Release Details
Yale-China Mourns the Loss of Close Friend, Sophie Tierong Zhu
August 13, 2009
Tierong “Sophie” Zhu, close friend and mentor to generations of Yale-China Association Teachers in Hunan province and an alumna of Yale University (M.A. Sociology ’48), passed away on August 9, 2009 in Changsha at the age of 94. The officers, trustees, members, alumni, and staff of the Yale-China Association extend our deepest condolences to Ms. Zhu’s family and friends. She is survived by her son, Zhang Taiheng, daughter-in-law Sun Xinhua, and grandson Zhang Yingfan.
The magnitude of Ms. Zhu’s impact on Yale-China staff and scores of Yale-China Teaching Fellows (known as “Bachelors” until the 1980’s), cannot be measured. As a teacher at Hsiang-Ya (now Xiangya) School of Nursing and Yali Middle School, Ms. Zhu served as a mentor, teacher, friend, and confidant to dozens of Yale graduates stationed in Changsha over the years.
Ms. Zhu’s ties with the Yale-China Association date to shortly after 1938, when she moved to Changsha from her native Shanghai to marry her husband, the late Zhang Yifan. A great humanitarian, Ms. Zhu was active in relief work during the Sino-Japanese War, working with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and the YWCA, among other organizations. In 1946, she and her husband came to the United States, where they both studied at Yale (Zhang Yifan attended Yale Law School). Upon graduation, they returned to their homeland to help build the new China.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Zhu began teaching at Hsiang-Ya, where she spent the next 38 years. She also served in various government positions in the early days of the People’s Republic of China, until 1955. After that point, her husband’s political activism, his subsequent death, and the tumult of the Cultural Revolution marked Ms. Zhu’s life with extreme hardship. Although her ties with the Yale-China Association and Yale University contributed to her difficulties until 1979, Ms. Zhu never wavered in her support for Yale-China. When the organization returned to Changsha in 1980 after the normalization of relations, Ms. Zhu was ready and eager to again befriend the Yale-China Fellows and those who traveled to Changsha in association with Yale-China’s health work. Often this included weekly dinners at her home, where she chatted with the Fellows, answered their questions about Chinese language and culture, and regaled them with stories of her time at Yale and in China during the war.
“I think between the Yale Bachelors and me there exists friendship, which gives mutual support and inspiration,” she wrote to the Yale-China staff upon receiving the Yale-China Award in 1999. “I have been only doing trifling matters as a Grandma to make their stay in China a little bit more pleasant and their work here more fruitful. In fact, my life has been greatly enriched by them, too.”
In her twilight years, these personal, one-on-one connections continued. Most recently, she became friends with Yale-China Director of Teaching Programs, Christina Stouder, who resides in Changsha and visited Ms. Zhu regularly until the time of her death.
“Sophie was certainly an amazing woman, and it was an honor to have been able to spend a bit of time with her on visits this past year,” writes Christina. “She enjoyed reminiscing about her days at Yale and her interactions with Yale-China Fellows in Changsha. In her very simple apartment at Xiangya, among the few decorations that she kept was a Yale pennant and her framed graduation certificate.”
To read a portrait of Ms. Zhu by Soren N. Rottman from the spring 1998 issue of the Yale-China Review, please click here.
To share your thoughts and memories of Sophie Zhu, please email them to yalechinastories@yale.edu or share them through the Yale-China Stories pagehere. Memories of Sophie will be posted online and some will be published in our next newsletter. Photos can also be shared through the site.
You can also share your stories about Sophie on the Yale-China page on Facebook here.
The magnitude of Ms. Zhu’s impact on Yale-China staff and scores of Yale-China Teaching Fellows (known as “Bachelors” until the 1980’s), cannot be measured. As a teacher at Hsiang-Ya (now Xiangya) School of Nursing and Yali Middle School, Ms. Zhu served as a mentor, teacher, friend, and confidant to dozens of Yale graduates stationed in Changsha over the years.
Ms. Zhu’s ties with the Yale-China Association date to shortly after 1938, when she moved to Changsha from her native Shanghai to marry her husband, the late Zhang Yifan. A great humanitarian, Ms. Zhu was active in relief work during the Sino-Japanese War, working with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and the YWCA, among other organizations. In 1946, she and her husband came to the United States, where they both studied at Yale (Zhang Yifan attended Yale Law School). Upon graduation, they returned to their homeland to help build the new China.
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Zhu began teaching at Hsiang-Ya, where she spent the next 38 years. She also served in various government positions in the early days of the People’s Republic of China, until 1955. After that point, her husband’s political activism, his subsequent death, and the tumult of the Cultural Revolution marked Ms. Zhu’s life with extreme hardship. Although her ties with the Yale-China Association and Yale University contributed to her difficulties until 1979, Ms. Zhu never wavered in her support for Yale-China. When the organization returned to Changsha in 1980 after the normalization of relations, Ms. Zhu was ready and eager to again befriend the Yale-China Fellows and those who traveled to Changsha in association with Yale-China’s health work. Often this included weekly dinners at her home, where she chatted with the Fellows, answered their questions about Chinese language and culture, and regaled them with stories of her time at Yale and in China during the war.
“I think between the Yale Bachelors and me there exists friendship, which gives mutual support and inspiration,” she wrote to the Yale-China staff upon receiving the Yale-China Award in 1999. “I have been only doing trifling matters as a Grandma to make their stay in China a little bit more pleasant and their work here more fruitful. In fact, my life has been greatly enriched by them, too.”
In her twilight years, these personal, one-on-one connections continued. Most recently, she became friends with Yale-China Director of Teaching Programs, Christina Stouder, who resides in Changsha and visited Ms. Zhu regularly until the time of her death.
“Sophie was certainly an amazing woman, and it was an honor to have been able to spend a bit of time with her on visits this past year,” writes Christina. “She enjoyed reminiscing about her days at Yale and her interactions with Yale-China Fellows in Changsha. In her very simple apartment at Xiangya, among the few decorations that she kept was a Yale pennant and her framed graduation certificate.”
To read a portrait of Ms. Zhu by Soren N. Rottman from the spring 1998 issue of the Yale-China Review, please click here.
To share your thoughts and memories of Sophie Zhu, please email them to yalechinastories@yale.edu or share them through the Yale-China Stories pagehere. Memories of Sophie will be posted online and some will be published in our next newsletter. Photos can also be shared through the site.
You can also share your stories about Sophie on the Yale-China page on Facebook here.
» Article on Sophie Zhu’s Life from the Spring 1998 Yale-China Review
» Yale-China Community Remembers Sophie Zhu
» Yale-China Stories
» Yale-China Teaching Fellowship Page on Facebook
» Yale-China Teaching Fellowship Program
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