Ｗｒｉｔｅｒ’ｓ Ｐａｓｓｉｏｎ ｆｏｒ Ｃｈｉｎａ

Yu Liqing， a writer popular with overseas Chinese readers， is now known by many people as the vice president of Evergreen Education Foundation， a USA-based organization designed to help children in China’s remote areas and help schools there set up libraries with Internet hookups. The organization also provides Chinese students from needy families with scholarships. Since the inception of the foundation in 2001 in California， USA， Yu Liqing has been its vice president. Totally devoted to the endeavors of the Evergreen， Yu Liqing has a very tight work schedule. She donates money， takes care of the accounting issues of the organization， plans activities， acts as liaison to keep information flow between Evergreen in California and Evergreen activists in China.

Before Yu was fully engaged with Evergreen undertakings， she was mostly known as a writer. She is still critically respected for her literary achievements.

Born on the mainland， Yu Liqing followed their parents to Taiwan when she was only three.Upon graduation from Taipei Medical College， the 22-year-old writer published her first collection of essays “Beyond One Thousand Mountains”. She continued her studies in Hawaii. Since 1972 she has lived with her husband in USA.

A prolific writer， she has published more than 30 books of essays， short stories， poetry and translations， mostly by Taiwan publishers and ten by the mainland publishers. In addition， her essays have appeared in newspapers and magazines of Chinese mainland as well as those of Hong Kong and Macao. In 1997， her essay about Hong Kong was published in the overseas edition of People’s Daily and won a first prize as one of the best among essays contributed by readers in commemoration of Hong Kong returning to the sovereignty of the motherland.

Strongly influenced by the classic Chinese culture， Yu grew up with a passion for Chinese painting. One of her paintings was once purchased by a collector. As a sophisticated connoisseur， she has built up a private collection of excellent paintings. Moreover， she has learned to translate painting skills into her writing. Critics speak highly of the unusual literary values in her essays.

Unlike some overseas Chinese writers who devote all their time and energy to writing， Yu Liqing has dedicated part of her time to activities in promoting Chinese culture. While teaching Chinese at a college in Buffalo， New York State from 1974 to 1976， she set up a Chinese school in Buffalo city and put together a Chinese primer which contained 100 children’s ballads.The textbook is still widely used as a supplementary material in various Chinese schools across the world.

In the late 1980s Yu Liqing rediscovered Su Qing in her father-in-law’s private library. She was amazed how excellent the female writer was and wondered why she had been lost in the literary chaos since the 1940s. Su Qing (1914-1982) was extremely popular in Shanghai in the 1940s. She even eclipsed the popularity of Eileen Chang and she was a writer Eileen Chang respected. Yu Liqing believed Su Qing deserved a place in a literary hall of fame. So she put the dead writer’s best essays together and published a collection entitled “Essays of Su Qing” in 1989. Yu Liqing is the woman behind the renaissance of Su Qing.

Yu Liqing， with her ancestral roots in Hangzhou， jokingly says that she is not a true native of Hangzhou， but she is highly concerned with Hangzhou and Zhejiang. After a memorable visit to Hangzhou more than 10 years ago， she wrote two significant essays on the West Lake. In 1995， she visited an exhibition of paintings by artists in Zhoushan Archipelago when the exhibition was touring in USA. Afterwards， she wrote a review on the successful exhibition.

Nowadays Yu visits China every two years. It was during a visit more than 10 years ago that Yu became aware of the marked imbalance of education in China’s urban and rural areas. She was deeply disturbed by the situation， thinking that individuals should help children in need if the government could not take care of all the kids in the country. That is why she is all out for the Evergreen Education Foundation. She has “adopted” a few kids in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia in the sense that she has donated money for their secondary education.#8194;□