Han Suyin was a well-known author and authority on Chinese literature. Her 15 works of fiction, autobiography, history and cultural analysis include A Many-Splendored Thing (1952), which was made into Academy Award-winning film in 1955. Han studied medicine at universities in Peking, Brussels, and London, practiced in Hong Kong and Malaya, and in 1960 began a second career as a lecturer in contemporary Asian literature in Singapore. Her other books include And the Rain My Drink (1956) and The Mountain is Young (1958). Her writing addressed the themes of women, peasants, the divide between town and country, many forms of exploitation, and Western incomprehension of Asia. She was a vociferous opponent of the Vietnam War. Han also funded educational projects, including one supporting cultural relations between India and China. In 1974, she was the featured speaker at the founding national convention of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association in Los Angeles. She died in 2012.
Dr. Han was on campus for five days in October, during which she gave two public lectures: “The Chinese Perception of the World” and “Writers and Writing in China Today.”
In her first lecture, Han traced the history of the Chinese Revolution, building on thirty years of thought and writing. The revolution was not an extraordinary act, she argued, but part of a much longer history of constant volcanic revolutionary movements throughout human history, from the pre-industrial development of new religions to the French and Russian Revolutions. Han discussed the history of Chinese dynasties and imperial politics, and explained that the revolution linked science and democracy together to overthrow feudalism and colonialism. A generation of young Chinese people turned away from the West towards Soviet Russia, working to transform Marxist theories to a Chinese context. China in 1980 was in the midst of an incredible number of experiments, Han explained, as they tried to work out the best route to a just society. She urged the audience to not leave with the idea that all experiments are permanent, there was a great sense of flexibility in China. After discussing how the Chinese looked at their own process of revolution, Han ended by discussing Chinese foreign policy. Remarkably, she said it had been quite consistent even across the revolution. China’s conception of the world was oriented toward ensuring peaceful coexistence, which was considered necessary for their own progress. Now, she believed that the West was becoming increasingly aware of the importance of peace and prosperity in China to peace in the world.
Listen to Han’s first lecture below.