{{Short description|Canadian anthropologist and educator (1915–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox writer <!-- see Template:Infobox writer --> | image = Isabel Crook.png | caption = Crook in 1940 | name = Isabel Crook | birth_name = Isabel Brown | birth_date = {{birth date|1915|12|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Chengdu, Sichuan, China | death_date = {{death date and age|2023|8|20|1915|12|15|df=y}} | death_place = Beijing, China | resting_place = | occupation = Professor, anthropologist | nationality = {{cslist|Canadian|British}} | language = {{cslist|English|Chinese}} | alma_mater = {{cslist|University of Toronto|London School of Economics}} | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = {{cslist|''Xinglong Chang: Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940–1942''|''Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn''}} | spouse = {{marriage|David Crook|1942|2000|end=died}} | children = 3 | relatives = {{ubl|Homer G. Brown (father)|Muriel J. Hockey (mother)}} | awards = Medal of Friendship (2019) | website = <!-- {{URL|website}} --> | partner = | signture = | module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes | s = {{linktext|饶|素|梅}} | t = {{linktext|饒|素|梅}} | p = Ráo Sùméi }} }}
'''Isabel Crook''' ({{nee|'''Brown'''}} {{zh|s=饶素梅|t=|p=Ráo Sùméi}}; 15 December 1915 – 20 August 2023) was a Canadian-British anthropologist, political prisoner, and professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. A widely acclaimed pioneer of English language education in PR China and a witness to the profound transformations in modern Chinese history<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202308/20/WS64e1e0c7a31035260b81d223.html |title=Pioneering educator and researcher passes at 107 |website=Chinadaily|date=20 August 2023|language=en|access-date=30 March 2026}}</ref>, Crook conducted anthropological studies in China and played an instrumental role in foreign language education in China.
== Early life == Isabel Brown was born on 15 December 1915, in Chengdu, Sichuan, to Canadian missionaries Homer and Muriel Brown.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} Homer was the dean of the Education Faculty at West China Union University.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} Muriel set up Montessori Schools in China and served on the board of the YWCA.{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018a}} Isabel's sisters, Muriel and Julia, were also born in Chengdu and all three attended the city's Canadian School.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}
As a child, Isabel Brown became interested in anthropology and the many ethnic minorities in China.{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018b}} In 1939, at the age of 23, she graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}
== Later life, revolution and career == After graduating, Brown returned to China and set out for western Sichuan with a Chinese colleague to study the Yi people (known then as ''Lolos'') who followed a shamanic religion and lived in a caste-based society heavily reliant on slavery.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}{{sfn|Isabel Crook|2018b}} The next year, the Chinese National Christian Council hired Brown to survey impoverished rural families in a village outside of Chongqing, which later became the basis for her publication ''Prosperity's Predicament.''{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}
In the early 1940s, Brown met David Crook, a British communist who had spied for the NKVD in both Spain and Shanghai, and married him in 1942.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}} In 1947, they went to Ten Mile Inn, Shidong Township, Hebei Province, to observe and study the Chinese Land Reform.{{sfn|China Daily|2017}} Six months later, they accepted an invitation from CPC leaders to teach at a new foreign affairs school, the forerunner of today's Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}
As a teacher at BFSU, Crook laid the foundation for foreign language education in China.{{sfn|Ministry of Foreign Affairs|2022}} During the Cultural Revolution, David was imprisoned from 1967 to 1973 in Qincheng prison, while she was confined to the BFSU campus.{{sfn|David Crook|1990}} Isabel said she understood and forgave her captors.{{sfn|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}}
Crook retired from teaching in 1981 and resumed her research studies as an anthropologist. Her study of the village in Sichuan, which she, {{ill|Xiji Yu|zh|俞錫璣}} and others had begun in the 1940s, was continued in the 90s and then eventually published as ''Prosperity's Predicament: Identity, Reform, and Resistance in Rural Wartime China'' in 2013.{{sfn|Crook, Yu & Hershatter|2013}}{{sfn|Griffiths|2023}}
In June 2019, she became an honorary citizen of Bishan District, Chongqing.{{sfn|Zeng Qinglong|2019}}
The Crooks had three sons.{{sfn|SACU|2021}}{{sfn|Gittings|2023}} She died in Beijing on 20 August 2023, at age 107.{{sfn|Gittings|2023}}
==Works== * ''Xinglong Chang: Field Notes of a Village Called Prosperity 1940–1942'' ({{lang|zh-Hans|兴隆场：抗战时期四川农民生活调查（1940–1942）}}) {{ISBN|978-7-101-08034-6}} * Crook, Isabel and David. 1959. ''Revolution in a Chinese Village: Ten Mile Inn'' ({{lang|zh-Hans|十里店：中国一个村庄的革命}}). London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul {{ISBN|978-1-134-68555-4}} * Crook, Isabel and David. 1966. ''The First Years of Yangyi Commune''. London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-3463-6 * Crook, Isabel and David. 1979. ''Ten Mile Inn: Mass Movement in a Chinese Village''. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-394-41178-1 * {{Cite book|title=Prosperity's Predicament: Identity, Reform and Resistance in Wartime China|first1=Christina K |last1=Gilmartin |first2=Isabel |last2=Crook |first3=Xiji |last3=Yu |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |year=2013}} {{ISBN|978-1-4422-5277-6}}
==Awards== Crook was awarded a Doctor of Letters by Victoria University, Toronto in 2018.{{sfn|Victoria University|2023}}
On 30 September 2019, Crook was awarded the Medal of Friendship by Chinese president Xi Jinping.{{sfn|China Plus|2019}}
==References== {{reflist|22em}}
==Sources== {{refbegin|33em}} * {{Cite news |title=A Story of Rural Wartime China, 70 Years in the Making |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/12/13/the-long-strange-life-of-comrade-isabel/ |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=Wall Street Journal China Real Time blog |date=13 December 2013 |ref={{harvid|WSJ China Real Time blog|2013}} }} * {{Cite web |url=http://davidcrook.net/simple/chapter12.html |title=The Autobiography of David Crook – The Ballad of Beijing Gaol (1967–73) |website=davidcrook.net |date=1990 |access-date=2 March 2020 |first=David |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|David Crook|1990}} }} * {{Cite web |url=http://www.isabelcrook.com/childhood/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429130311/http://www.isabelcrook.com/childhood/|url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2018 |title=Parents 1915, Chengdu – Isabel Crook |date=29 April 2018 |access-date=2 March 2020 |first=Isabel |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|Isabel Crook|2018a}} }} * {{Cite web |url=http://www.isabelcrook.com/anthropology/westsichuan1938/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429130402/http://www.isabelcrook.com/anthropology/westsichuan1938/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 April 2018 |title=Western Sichuan Tibetan area 1938 |date=2018 |access-date=22 August 2023 |first=Isabel |last=Crook |ref={{harvid|Isabel Crook|2018b}} }} * {{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/21/isabel-crook-obituary |journal=The Guardian |first=John |last=Gittings |date=21 August 2023 }} * {{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook: A life-long friend of China |url=http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/china/9/20190926/358863.html |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=cri.cn |date=26 September 2019 |ref={{harvid|China Plus|2019}} }} * {{Cite web |title=Isabel Crook: Founder of New China's Foreign Language Education |url=https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/topics_665678/zggcddwjw100ggs/jszgddzg/202208/t20220830_10757630.html |date=30 August 2022 |access-date=21 August 2023 |website=www.fmprc.gov.cn |ref={{harvid|Ministry of Foreign Affairs|2022}} }} * {{Cite news |title=Isabel Crook: Live with China one century |url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-07/07/content_30034479.htm |accessdate=5 October 2019 |work=China Daily |date=7 July 2017 |ref={{harvid|China Daily|2017}} }} * {{Cite web |title=Michael Crook and his mother Isabel from Beijing in Conversation with Dr Frances Wood, SACU Vice President |url=https://sacu.org/event/michael-crook-and-his-mother-isabel-from-beijing-in-conversation-with-dr-frances-wood-sacu-vice-president/ |access-date=21 August 2023 |website=Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU) |language=en-UK |ref={{harvid|SACU|2021}} }} * {{Cite news|author1=Zeng Qinglong |url=http://www.sohu.com/a/341902579_355626 |script-title=zh:国家最高荣誉！璧山荣誉市民伊莎白·柯鲁克被授予"友谊勋章" |work=Sohu |date=18 September 2019 |accessdate=5 October 2019 |language=zh}} *{{cite book |last1=Crook |first1=Isabel |last2=Yu |first2=Xiji |last3=Hershatter |first3=Gail |title=Prosperity's predicament: identity, reform, and resistance in rural wartime China |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham Bouöder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK |isbn=978-1-4422-5277-6 |edition=First published |ref={{harvid|Crook, Yu & Hershatter|2013}} }} *{{cite news |last1=Griffiths |first1=James |title=Isabel Crook, Canadian anthropologist awarded friendship medal by China's Xi Jinping, dies aged 107 |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-isabel-crook-canadian-anthropologist-awarded-friendship-medal-by/ |access-date=25 August 2023 |work=The Globe and Mail |date=22 August 2023 |language=en-CA |ref={{harvid|Griffiths|2023}} }} *{{cite web |title=Honorary Degrees Conferred by Senate |url=https://www.vicu.utoronto.ca/about-victoria/honorary-degrees/honorary-degrees-conferred-by-senate/ |website=vicu.utoronto.ca |publisher=Victoria University, Toronto |access-date=26 August 2023 |language=en-CA |ref={{harvid|Victoria University|2023}} }} {{refend}}
== Further reading == * {{cite book |author1=Tan Kai ({{lang|zh|谭楷}}) |script-title=zh:用我一生爱中国 |trans-title=Love China All My Life: Isabel Crook's Stories |year=2022 |publisher=Tiandi Press |location=Chengdu, Sichuan |isbn=978-7-5455-7034-2 |language=zh}}
==External links== * {{Official website|1=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929/http://www.isabelcrook.com/}} * [http://en.people.cn/90882/8061568.html A century of love for China]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crook, Isabel}} Category:1915 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Writers from Chengdu Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics Category:English anthropologists Category:British women anthropologists Category:Canadian anthropologists Category:Canadian women anthropologists Category:Academic staff of Beijing Foreign Studies University Category:Canadian women centenarians Category:British women centenarians Category:Canadian expatriates in China Category:Educators from Sichuan Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members