Florence Chia-ying Yeh, also known as Ye Jiaying. (Photo/Screenshot)
(ECNS) -- Florence Chia-ying Yeh, also known as Ye Jiaying, has made a new donation of 17.11 million yuan ($2.49 million) to Nankai University where she heads the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture.
Yeh donated 15.57 million yuan last year to the university in Tianjin, establishing the Jialing Fund to support the study of classical culture.
Born in 1924, Yeh graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University, which later became part of Beijing Normal University, in 1945. A Canadian Chinese, she was awarded the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1990. In March 2016, Professor Yeh received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the You Bring Charm to the World Award Ceremony, an annual awards ceremony co-sponsored by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.
Yeh applied to return to China to teach in the spring of 1978 and was accepted to teach at the Chinese department of Nankai University for three months in 1979. Over the next 20 years, she taught Chinese classical poetry at dozens of universities including Nanjing University and Fudan University. In 1993, she became founding director of the China Comparative Literature Institute, later renamed the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture.
In 2002, she obtained a long-term residence permit in China. Her official residency at Nankai University commenced on Oct. 17, 2015 and she continues to live at the university.
