Published : 2024-11-10
On November 10, 1985, Chinese educator Wu Yifang (吳貽芳) passed away at the age of 92.
Wu Yifang was born in Wuchang, Hubei Province during the late Qing Dynasty. During the May Fourth Movement, she was the president of the student union at the famous Ginling College (金陵女子大學) and led a large number of students to participate in protests on the streets.
In 1922, Wu went to the United States to study and obtained a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Michigan. In 1928, Wu Yifang returned to China to serve as the president of Ginling College in Nanjing.
Over the next 23 years, she nurtured a large number of highly educated intellectuals. Wu Yifang was highly reputed, and at that time, there was a popular saying "Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培) in the north, Wu Yifang in the south."
Another achievement of Wu Yifang was in April 1945, when she went to San Francisco as a nonpartisan representative with a delegation to attend the founding conference of the United Nations and became the first woman in the world to sign the United Nations Charter.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Wu served as honorary president of Nanjing Normal University, vice governor of Jiangsu Province, and vice chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation.
To commemorate Wu Yifang, a "Yifang Garden" has been built on the original site of Ginling College (now within the campus of Nanjing Normal University), and it includes a bronze statue and a memorial hall.
