Ching Wan, age 93, of Ann Arbor, Michigan passed away on Thursday, March 28, 2024. She was born on December 18, 1930 in the Liaoning Province of China, north of the city of Shenyang where it meets the Heilongjiang Province. She was the eldest daughter of Chao, Li-Ren who was a local community leader and scholar and Wang, Shje his third wife. She was joined four years later by her little brother, Chao, Sheng and finally a baby sister a year after that. Unfortunately, this was tumultuous time. Her father, Chao, Li-Ren died when she was around 7 years old. The whole region, encompassing the Korean peninsula, and the Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces which are immediately adjacent to the north had been fought over between China, Russia and Japan. At the time of her birth, these regions were under Japanese control as a result of the First Sino-Chinese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Further wars would occur including the struggle between Nationalist Chinese and the Communist Chinese factions, and the then Soviet Russia, and Japan. When she was 7 years old, the Second Sino-Japanese War also known as the War of Resistance broke out (Kàngrì zhànzhēng, 抗日战争, 1937-1945) and would ultimately become subsumed into the global maelstrom of World War II.
During this period of upheaval, the family became separated. Ching, and her brother Sheng, were taken by her maternal grandmother, Wang, Tian-Si along with an aunt to live with relatives further south in Tianjin (near Beijing), when her mother remarried. Her mother and her little sister remained in the Shenyang. They would not see each ever again. After first staying in the Tianjin area, through most of the war, there was a brief respite but soon the Chinese Civil War broke out in earnest and the small family fled to the island of Taiwan to stay with a sister of Wang, Tian-Si first in Tainan and later in Taipei.
Despite the chaotic childhood, Ching managed to progress with her education, completed high school and graduated from Taipei Normal University. She started her adult life as a teacher at a girls junior and senior high school teaching Chinese, and mathematics. She would meet Wan, Weiying, who was also a graduate of Taipei Normal University and was a lecturer in Chinese and English at Tamkang College. On February 5, 1955 they married. That same year, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China announced the first government scholarship program for graduate studies abroad. After placing first in the exam for the field of library science Wan, Weiying studied at the University of Minnesota and completed a Master Degree in 1957. He then worked briefly for the Detroit Public Library system from 1957 to 1959 while studying for a second MA at Wayne State University in public policy and administration. In 1959 he returned to Taipei as the chief assistant librarian at the National Central Library. In 1961 he moved to the newly formed Department of Library Science at the National Taiwan University as an associate professor of library science. In 1964 he accepted an invitation to become the curator of the Chinese collection at the University of Michigan. By this time, the family had two sons Bertram Hsin-Chung Wan born in 1955 and Julian Hsin-Cheng Wan born in 1961. The family lived first in Ann Arbor, MI before moving to New Haven, CT from 1966 to 1969 when Weiying was wooed away to build the East Asian Collection at Yale University. In 1969, the family returned to Ann Arbor when Weiying became the head of the University of Michigan Asia Library. The family were naturalized as US citizens on March 21, 1972.
Ching would spend most of her time running the household and looking after the children. Later when they were older she worked briefly as a data entry clerk during the final days of the computer programming using keypunched cards. The computer language FORTRAN was still in use and Ching thought the syntax was straightforward because to her it resembled an algebraic expression. She noted that she could see computers would be very useful and encourage the children to learn how to use them. She loved classical music particularly the piano. While in Taiwan, she would practice on the school pianos and in the US she finally had the chance to own her own piano, an upright spinet that she would play for close to 40 years. Her preference was for the classical music of Chopin, and Tchaikovsky and composers with strong melodies. She liked concert pianists, Arthur Rubinstein and Andre Watts, and enjoying going to Hill Auditorium and the Power Center for concerts. She was practical, stoic and greatly determined. When asked about the chaos of her childhood, she would remark that there was not anything she could do and she just had to tough it out, endure, and go on with life. She had a sly sense of humor. Once when watching television, while changing channels, she happened upon a big production musical number with the pop diva Tina Turner who was singing, dancing, and spinning up and down a long elaborate staircase. Although pop music was not her taste, she stayed on the channel, and after watching the whole routine, Ching would note “that woman knows how to wear high heels.” She appreciated greatly the friends she made in Ann Arbor, particularly the neighbors who made her feel welcome and help her get acclimatized and become fluent with English: the late Dorothy Mohler (wife of the late Don Mohler, formerly of the UM Music School) and the late Marguerite Harms (wife of the late George Harms).
She is survived by her sons, Bertram Wan and Julian Wan of Ann Arbor, MI nephews Mark Chao of Chicago, IL (daughter Samantha, and son Jonathan), and Raymond Chao of Nashville, TN. A private burial will be conducted through Muehlig Funeral Chapel, Ann Arbor, MI. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Wei-Ying Wan Book Fund care of the University of Michigan Asia Library, 920 N. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.
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