Women's Health Women

Han Suyin Wikipedia

Han Suyin (Chinese language|Chinese: ?????????; pinyin: H??n S??y??n) (born on September 12, 1917 - ), is the Pseudonym|pen name of Elisabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow (Chinese language|Chinese: ?????????, pinyin: Zh??u Gu??ngh??). She is a China|Chinese-born author of several books on modern China, novels set in East Asia, and Autobiography|autobiographical works, as well as a physician.

Han Suyin was born in Xinyang, Henan province of China|province, China. Her father was a Chinese engineer surnamed Chow (Chinese language|Chinese: ???; pinyin: Zh??u), of Hakka heritage, while her mother was a Flanders|Flemish Belgium|Belgian. In 1938 Han Suyin married Pao H. Tang (Tang Paohuang), a KMT|Chinese Nationalist military officer, who was to become a general. They adoption|adopted one daughter.

She began work as a typewriter|typist at Beijing Hospital in 1931, not yet fifteen years old. In 1933 she was admitted to Yenching University|Yanjing (Yenching) University (later part of Peking University). In 1935 she went to Brussels to study medicine. In 1938 she returned to China, working in an USA|American Christian missionary|mission hospital in Chengdu (Cheng-tu), Sichuan, then went again to London in 1944 to study, graduated with a Bachelor's of Medicine (MB) in 1948 and went to Hong Kong to practice medicine in 1949. Her husband, Tang, meanwhile, had died in action during the Chinese Civil War in 1947.

In 1952, she married Leonard F. Comber, a British Empire|British civil servant, and went with him to Johore, Malaya (present-day Malaysia), where she worked in a tuberculosis hospital. She contributed efforts to the establishment of Nanyang University in Singapore. In 1955, her best-known work, Many-Splendored Thing, was made into a Hollywood film.

After Comber and Han Suyin's divorce, she later married Vincent Ratnaswamy, an Indian Army|Indian colonel (died January 2003 in Bangalore, India), and lived for a time in Bangalore, India. After the two separated, Han Suyin relocated to Switzerland. She currently resides in Lausanne and has written in English language|English and French language|French.

Last Modified:   2005-12-19