{{Short description|Chinese-Belgian scientist (1912–2008)}} {{family name hatnote|Qian (Tsien)|lang=Chinese}} {{Infobox person | name = Qian Xiuling | image = Qian Xiuling cropped square in 1933.JPG | image_size = 170px | caption = Qian Xiuling in 1933 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date |1913|3|13}} | birth_place = Yixing, Jiangsu, China | death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|8|1|1913|3|13}} | death_place = Brussels, Belgium | death_cause = | other_names = Siou-Ling Tsien de Perlinghi | known_for = Saving lives during World War II in Belgium | spouse = Grégoire de Perlinghi | children = | parents = | relatives = | footnotes = | education = Catholic University of Leuven }} {{Infobox Chinese | t = 錢秀玲 | s = 钱秀玲 | p = Qián Xiùlíng | w= Tsien Siou-Ling | mi = {{IPA|cmn|tɕʰjɛn˧˥ ɕju˥˩liŋ˧˥|}} }}
'''Qian Xiuling''' (13 March 1913 – 1 August 2008), or '''Siou-Ling Tsien de Perlinghi''', was a Chinese-Belgian scientist who won a medal for saving nearly 100 lives during World War II in Belgium. She had a street named after her and a 16-episode TV drama was made of her life for Chinese television. She has been called the "Belgian Schindler".
==Life== left|thumb|upright|Qian Xiuling in 1930 Qian was born on 13 March 1913 in Yixing in Jiangsu Province in 1912 to a large and well connected family.<ref name="china1">[http://china.org.cn/english/NM-e/30626.htm A Story of World War II Heroism Comes Home to China]. China.org.cn. Retrieved on 2015-04-23.</ref>
In 1929, she left for Europe to study physics and chemistry in Belgium at the Catholic University of Leuven, along with her brother Zhuoru.<ref name=woc/><ref name=ref2025>{{Cite web |last=WELSCH |first=Marc |date=2025-06-15 |title=Qian Xiuling, étudiante chinoise de l'UCLouvain, a sauvé 97 personnes pendant la guerre |url=https://www.lalibre.be/etudiant/2023/07/14/qian-xiuling-etudiante-chinoise-de-luclouvain-a-sauve-97-personnes-pendant-la-guerre-YWG6UTDHFZESLGLVFY3VRALDC4/ |access-date=2025-06-15 |website=La Libre.be |language=fr}}</ref>
In 1933, she married Grégoire de Perlinghi, a Belgian doctor,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.7sur7.be/sciences/deces-de-siou-ling-tsien-qui-avait-sauve-ecaussinnes-des-nazis~ad9886d3/ |title=Décès de Siou-Ling Tsien, qui avait sauvé Ecaussinnes des nazis |publisher=7sur7 |language=fr |access-date=2023-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829143456/https://www.7sur7.be/sciences/deces-de-siou-ling-tsien-qui-avait-sauve-ecaussinnes-des-nazis~ad9886d3/ |archive-date=2019-08-29}}</ref> after breaking her engagement to her Chinese fiancé,<ref name=qin>{{cite journal|last1=Qin|first1=Bo|title=The History And Context Of Chinese-Western Intercultural Marriage In Modern And Contemporary China (From 1840 To The 21st Century)|journal=Rozenburg Quarterly - Asia Studies|volume=3|issue=Chinese-Western Intimacy and Marriage – An Invisible International Hierarchy|url=http://eh-verlag.de/singleBook.php?id=1750|access-date=1 April 2015}}</ref> and they went to live in Herbeumont.
In 1939, one source suggests that she travelled to Paris in hopes of studying in Marie Curie's laboratory but the whole facility had been moved to the United States because of the war.<ref name=woc/>
thumb|upright|Qian marrying Grégoire de Perlinghi in 1933 In June 1940, her town of Herbeumont was occupied by the German army when a Belgian youth blew up a military train by burying a mine under the railway. The youth was sentenced to death, but Qian realised that she knew the German general who was in charge of Belgium. She had known General Alexander von Falkenhausen when he was working in China<ref name=corg/> as part of the Sino-German cooperation. Falkenhausen had been an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek<ref name=spartacus>[http://spartacus-educational.com/GERfalkenhausen.htm Alexander von Falkenhausen], spartacus-educational.com, retrieved 1 April 2015</ref> and he worked closely with Qian's elder cousin, Lieutenant General Qian Zhuolun. She wrote a letter and travelled to see Falkenhausen, who decided to use his authority to spare the boy for reasons of humanity.<ref name="china1"/><ref name=corg>{{cite web |url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Apr/30512.htm |title=A Story of World War II Heroism Comes Home to China |work=China.org.cn |date=April 2002 |access-date=1 April 2015 }}</ref>
On 7 June 1944, Qian was contacted again when the Germans had taken 97 Belgians prisoner under sentence of death in revenge for three Gestapo officers who had been killed in the nearby town of Écaussinnes.<ref name=woc/> Despite being pregnant with her first child she again travelled to see Falkenhausen and asked him to intervene.<ref name=woc/> He hesitated but eventually agreed to release the people, although he knew that he was disobeying an order. The general was summoned to Berlin to explain his insubordination.<ref name=woc/>{{dubious|date=July 2020}} Falkenhausen was spared German trial and punishment by the war's end, but was arrested for war crimes. He was tried in Belgium in 1951.<ref name=spartacus/>
Qian appeared at the German general's trial and pleaded for Falkenhausen's good character.<ref name="woc">[http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/people/history/1409/552-1.htm Qian Xiuling: World War II Hero] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230054814/http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/people/history/1409/552-1.htm |date=2018-12-30 }}, Frank Zhao, 15 September 2014, Women of China, retrieved 1 April 2015</ref> He was sentenced for twelve years for executing hostages and deporting Jews, and deported to Germany to serve his sentence. After three weeks, when the minimum sentence according Belgium law had passed,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.belgiumwwii.be/de/belgien-im-krieg/personlichkeiten/alexander-von-falkenhausen.html|title=Alexander von Falkenhausen|website=www.belgiumwwii.be|access-date=Aug 6, 2020}}</ref> he was pardoned by German chancellor Konrad Adenauer and retired. He died in 1966.<ref name="spartacus" />
Qian left her position at the university in the early 1950s, disappointed by not being promoted.<ref name="ref2025" />
==Legacy== {{external media | width = 150px | float = right | headerimage= 140px | video1 = [http://english.cntv.cn/2014/06/06/VIDE1402032721643651.shtml “Qian Xiuling: China’s female Schindler in Belgium during WWII”], CCTV.com}}
Qian was awarded the Medal of Belgian Gratitude 1940–1945 by the Belgian government.<ref name="china1"/>
Qian's story was made into a sixteen-episode Chinese TV drama, ''Chinese Woman Facing Gestapo's Gun'', starring Xu Qing.<ref name=corg/> She was given a medal by the Belgians after the war but she never told her family in China of her story.
In 2003, Qian's granddaughter, Tatiana de Perlinghi, made a documentary film entitled ''Ma grand-mère, une héroïne?'' ("My grandma, a heroine?").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rtbf.be/tv/guide-tv/detail_ma-grand-mere-une-heroine?idshedule=2da8285f8eb9e3ce7b936d1ff93ac352&uid=52723048668 |title=Ma grand-mère, une héroïne? |access-date=2 April 2015 |publisher=RTBF |language=fr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403195309/http://www.rtbf.be/tv/guide-tv/detail_ma-grand-mere-une-heroine?idshedule=2da8285f8eb9e3ce7b936d1ff93ac352&uid=52723048668 |archive-date=3 April 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.madeinbrussels.net/documentaries/52-une-heroine-documentary |title=MY GRANDMA, A HEROINE ? |publisher=Made in Brussels |date=2003 |language=en |access-date=2023-12-27}}</ref>
In 2005, she was thanked by Zhang Qiyue, the Chinese Ambassador to Belgium, who visited the rest home where she lived.<ref name=amb>[http://en.people.cn/200507/25/eng20050725_198121.html The "Chinese Schindlers"], 25 July 2005, retrieved 1 April 2015</ref> Qian's husband had died in 1966. There is a street named ''Rue Perlinghi'' in her honour in the city of Écaussinnes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ecaussinnes.be/loisirs/tourisme/se-balader/parcours-cycliste-et-pedestre/rue-perlinghi |title=Rue Perlinghi |publisher=Commune d'Écaussinnes |language=fr |access-date=2023-12-27}}</ref> A novel by Zhang Yawen was published in 2003 with the English title of ''Chinese Woman at Gestapo Gunpoint''.<ref name=haiyan>{{cite book|last1=Haiyan|first1=Written by Zhang Yawen Translated by Chen|last2=Ziliang|first2=Li|title=A Chinese Woman at Gestapo Gunpoint|date=2003|publisher=Foreign Language Press|location=Beijing|isbn=7119031597|oclc=491515630}}</ref> Another biography by Feng Wu was translated and published in English in 2023. The book was titled "Forget Me: Madame Qian Xiuling-The Belgian Schindler".<ref name=forget>{{Cite book |last=Feng |first=Xu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMKe0AEACAAJ&q=qian+xiuling |title=Forget Me: Madame Qian Xiuling-The Belgian Schindler |date=2023-12-25 |publisher=Balestier Press |isbn=978-1-913891-45-9 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{commons category-inline}} *[http://news.sohu.com/s2005/qianxiuling.shtml Sohu special report on Qian Xiuling] {{in lang|zh}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qian, Xiuling}} Category:1912 births Category:2008 deaths Category:People from Yixing Category:Chinese women chemists Category:Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) alumni Category:Belgian resistance members Category:Chinese emigrants to Belgium Category:20th-century Belgian scientists Category:20th-century Belgian women scientists Category:20th-century Chinese scientists Category:20th-century Chinese women scientists Category:Scientists from Wuxi Category:Chemists from Jiangsu Category:Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Belgium