Zung Wei-tsung

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Zung Wei-tsung
程婉珍
A young Chinese woman wearing eyeglasses and a high-collared silk blouse
Zung Wei-tsung, from the 1919 yearbook of Smith College
Other namesCheng Wanzhen
Occupation(s)YWCA leader, educator, journalist

Zung Wei-tsung or Cheng Wanzhen (程婉珍), known after 1926 as Mrs. Chiu, was a Chinese social worker, educator, and journalist in the 1920s. She was interested in child labor and women workers, and involved in leadership of the YWCA at the international level.

Early life and education[edit]

Zung Wei-tsung was from Shanghai. She attended the McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and studied music at the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro,[1] where she is remembered as the college's "very first international student".[2] She graduated from Smith College in 1919,[3] with a degree in history.[4][5] While in the United States, she was a member of the Chinese Students Christian Association in North America, and chaired the Association's committee on Bible study for women.[6][7]

Career[edit]

Zung was a leader of the YWCA in China and internationally in the 1920s.[8][9] She worked with British YWCA leader Agatha Harrison.[10][11] She was also active in the leadership of the National Christian Council of China.[12] With the YWCA, she took particular interest in child labor regulation, and working conditions for women, in the face of rapid industrialization.[13][14] She was founding president of the Shanghai Business Women's Club,[15][16] wrote a column in a daily newspaper,[17][18] and taught English at Pingmin Girls' School and the Laura Haygood Normal School in Suzhou.[19] She helped to organize the Shanghai Suffrage Association in 1922.[13]

In 1921,[20] Zung represented Chinese women as a guest speaker at the Second International Congress of Working Women and the International Labor Conference, both held in Geneva.[21][22][23] She also visited and toured factories in England for seven weeks, during that 1921 trip.[24][25] "Although industrially China has made a bad beginning," she wrote in 1924, "she is still in the advantageous position of being able to learn from the West."[26] She left the YWCA in 1926, for health and ideological reasons, and to marry W. Y. Chiu that year.[13][25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Greensboro College (N.C.) (1920). Echo. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Greensboro, N.C. : Greensboro College. p. 182 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ "GC Goes to China". The Collegian. 2016-09-08. Retrieved 2021-11-17.
  3. ^ Smith College, Class of 1919 (1919 yearbook): 90. via Internet Archive
  4. ^ Mathews, Basil; Southon, Arthur Eustace (1924). Torchbearers in China. Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada. pp. 177–179.
  5. ^ "A Chinese Girl with a Mission". The Children's Newspaper: 7. October 25, 1924 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Directory of the Chinese Students Christian Association of North America". The Chinese Students Christian Journal. 5: 78. January 1919.
  7. ^ "Officers and Committees of the Chinese Student Christian Association in North America". The Chinese Students Christian Journal. 5: 74. November 1918.
  8. ^ Drucker, Alison R. (1979-09-01). "The Role of the YWCA in the Development of the Chinese Women's Movement, 1890-1927". Social Service Review. 53 (3): 421–440. doi:10.1086/643755. ISSN 0037-7961. S2CID 144110321.
  9. ^ LI, Yu-ning (1977-10-01). "A Study of the Young Women's Christian Association of China: 1890-1930". Chinese Studies in History. 11 (1): 18–63. doi:10.2753/CSH0009-4633110118. ISSN 0009-4633.
  10. ^ Porter, Lucius Chapin (1924). China's Challenge to Christianity. Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada. p. 60.
  11. ^ "Miss Harrison in Hongkong". The Weekly Review of the Far East. December 10, 1921. p. 76 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ "The National Christian Council of China". Chinese Studies in History. 27 (3–4): 73–97. 1994-04-01. doi:10.2753/CSH0009-463327030473. ISSN 0009-4633.
  13. ^ a b c Littell-Lamb, Elizabeth (2011). "Caught in the Crossfire: Women's Internationalism and the YWCA Child Labor Campaign in Shanghai, 1921––1925". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 32 (3): 134–166, esp. 156-158. doi:10.5250/fronjwomestud.32.3.0134. ISSN 0160-9009. JSTOR 10.5250/fronjwomestud.32.3.0134. PMID 22299195. S2CID 41260044.
  14. ^ Ma, Yuxin (2005). "Women journalists in the Chinese enlightenment, 1915–1923". Gender Issues. 22 (1): 62. doi:10.1007/s12147-005-0010-6. ISSN 1098-092X. S2CID 143295097.
  15. ^ "Chinese Women Make Industrial Survey". China Review. 3: 55–56. July 1922.
  16. ^ "Shanghai Business Women". The North China Herald. February 25, 1922. p. 523 – via ProQuest.
  17. ^ Hutchinson, Paul (1924). China's Real Revolution. Missionary education movement of the United States and Canada. p. 128.
  18. ^ Zung, Wei Tsung (March 1, 1922). "The Woman's Viewpoint: The Chinese Church and the New Industrial System". The Chinese Recorder. p. 186 – via ProQuest.
  19. ^ "Class of 1919 News". The Smith Alumnae Quarterly. 12: 170. February 1921.
  20. ^ "Chinese Woman Returns From International Congress". The Weekly Review of the Far East. January 21, 1922. p. 342 – via ProQuest.
  21. ^ "China to be Represented at Working Women's Congress". China Review. 1: 152. September 1921.
  22. ^ Cobble, Dorothy Sue (2021-05-11). For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality. Princeton University Press. pp. 86, 130. ISBN 978-0-691-15687-3.
  23. ^ "Zung Wei Tsung". The Sacramento Star. 1921-10-31. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-11-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Women in China in Need of Teaching". The Leader-Post. 1921-10-13. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-11-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ a b Porter, Robin Scarland. "The Christian Conscience and Industrial Welfare in China, 1920-1941" (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1977): 71-72, 85.
  26. ^ Zung, Wei Tsung (1924). "Present Industrial Opportunity Before the Church". The China mission year book. Shanghai : The Christian Literature Society for China. pp. 388–393 – via Internet Archive.