{{Short description|Chinese writer (1894–1973)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Use British English|date=April 2026}} {{Family name hatnote|Yuan|lang=Chinese}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|dateformat=dmy}} '''Yuan Changying''' (Chinese:袁昌英; 11 October 1894 – 28 April 1973) was a Chinese writer.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2023-02-06 |title=Yuan Changying |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/global/uncovered/1920s/yuan-changying |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=The University of Edinburgh |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Guo |first=Li |date=2013 |editor-last=Fong |editor-first=Grace S. |editor2-last=Widmer |editor2-first=Ellen |editor3-last=Haiping |editor3-first=Yan |editor4-last=Dooling |editor4-first=Amy |title=Negotiating the Traditional and the Modern: Chinese Women's Literature from the Late Imperial Period through the Twentieth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43653372 |journal=Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=195–220 |jstor=43653372 |issn=0732-7730}}</ref> She was the first Chinese woman to graduate from the University of Edinburgh and the first Chinese woman to be a Master's student in Britain.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":5" /> She is best known for her collection of plays - ''Southeast Flies the Peacock.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":9" />''

== Personal life == On 11 October 1894, Yuan Changying was born in the city of Liling in Hunan.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /> Her father Yuan Jiapu was educated at Waseda University.<ref name=":4" /> Yuan's mother died when Yuan was young.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Yan |first=Haiping |title=Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 1905-1948 |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=9780415474580}}</ref> Her father remarried and had a son and another daughter.<ref name=":9" /> Yuan married Chinese economist Yang Duanliu (杨端六) who she met when he was studying at the University of London.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=The three Musketeers of Luojia-Wuhan University |url=https://en.whu.edu.cn/info/1050/3154.htm |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=en.whu.edu.cn}}</ref> After graduating from University of Edinburgh in 1921, Yuan returned to China with Yang.<ref name=":4" /> In February 1923 in Changsha, Yuan gave birth to their daughter Yang Jingyuan (杨静远).<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |title=《彼得潘》译者杨静远去世 享年92岁 |url=https://www.sohu.com/a/www.sohu.com/a/18734586_123753 |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=www.sohu.com }}{{Dead link|date=November 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> Later on, Yuan gave birth to their son Yang Hongyuan (杨弘远).<ref name=":11" />

== Education == In 1916, Yuan started attending Blackheath High School in London.<ref name=":4" /> From 1916 to 1921, Yuan studied at the University of Edinburgh, where she earned a Master's Degree in English drama and literature.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Welland |first=Sasha Su-Ling |title=A thousand miles of dreams: the journeys of two Chinese sisters |date=2006 |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-5313-2 |series=American voices |location=Lanham (Md.) |pages=229–231}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Joubin |first=Alexa Alice |title=Chinese Shakespeares: two centuries of cultural exchange |date=2009 |publisher=Columbia Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-231-14848-1 |series=Global chinese culture |location=New York, NY |pages=114 |language=en}}</ref> Her master's thesis was about William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.<ref name=":4" />

== Career == In 1922, she started teaching women at Beijing Normal University.<ref name=":4" />

In 1928, Yuan became a professor at Wuhan University in the School of Chinese Language and Literature.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Department of English-武汉大学外国语言文学学院 |url=https://fls.whu.edu.cn/ywb/About_Us/About_the_Departments/Department_of_English.htm |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=fls.whu.edu.cn}}</ref> While at Wuhan University, she worked and befriended Su Xuelin and Ling Shuhua and the three of them were known together as the "Three Female Talents of Luojia Mountain,"<ref name=":5" /> the "Three Heroines of Luojia,”<ref name=":4" /> or "The Three Musketeers of Luojia."<ref name=":6" /> She also taught at the China University of Political Science and Law.<ref>Jos Schyns, Su Hsueh-Lin, and Chao Yen-Sheng eds., ''1500 Modern Chinese Novels & Plays'' (Ridgewood: The Gregg Press, 1965), 116.</ref>

In 1930, she published ''Southeast Flies the Peacock'', which was a collection of Chinese plays in the "spoken drama" style instead of in an opera style.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Yuan's nickname - "the peacock of Liling" - originated from her 1930 collection.<ref name=":6" /> In 1935, students at Wuhan University performed ''Southeast Flies the Peacock''.<ref name=":5" /> Yuan was also a part of a literary group called The Crescent Moon Society.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Literary societies of Republican China |date=2008 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1933-4 |editor-last=Denton |editor-first=Kirk A. |location=Lanham, MD |pages=279 |editor-last2=Hockx |editor-first2=Michel}}</ref>

In 1931, she accused Hong Shen of plagiarism in her article "Zhuang shi huangdi he Zhao yanwang."<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Luo |first=Liang |date=2015 |title=Reading Hong Shen Intermedially |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24886568 |journal=Modern Chinese Literature and Culture |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=208–248 |jstor=24886568 |issn=1520-9857}}</ref> Hong Shen would deny these accusations.<ref name=":10" />

Later in life, Yuan became a member of Chinese Democratic League.<ref name=":4" />

== Death == In 1973, she died in Liling.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" />

== Legacy == The University of Edinburgh honored Changying by naming The Yuan Changying Prize after her.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Gupta |first=Hemangini |date=19 May 2023 |title=Announcing the Yuan Changying Prize Winners 2023! |url=https://www.gender.ed.ac.uk/announcing-the-yuan-changing-prize-winners-2023/ |access-date=18 November 2023 |website=www.gender.ed.ac.uk}}</ref> The Yuan Changying Prize recognizes outstanding ‘gender observations’ written by undergraduate students in Edinburgh's "Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World" class.<ref name=":7" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

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Category:1894 births Category:1973 deaths Category:People educated at Blackheath High School Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Academic staff of Wuhan University Category:20th-century Chinese women writers Category:20th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights Category:Chinese women academics Category:People from Liling Category:Shakespearean scholars