Han, Suyin (1917–)

Chinese author and physician. Name variations: Elizabeth Chou; Chou Kuang Hu; Zhou Guanghu; Elizabeth Comber. Born Chou Kuang Hu or Zhou Guanghu, Sept 12, 1917, in Peking (Beijing), China; dau. of Y.T. Chou (Chinese) and Marguerite (Denis) Chou (Belgian); attended Yenching University in Peking; University of Brussels, BSc; London University, MB, BS, 1948; m. General Pao H. Tang (Bao Dang), 1938 (died 1947); m. Leonard F. Comber, Feb 1,1952 (div. c. 1962); m. Vincent Ruthnaswamy, 1964; children: (dau.) Yung Mei (adopted 1941).

Took the pseudonym Han Suyin while writing 1st book, Destination Chungking (1942); wrote the largely autobiographical novel, A Many-Splendored Thing (1952), which was a huge success and established her international literary reputation; accepted assistantship in Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong (1949); lived in numerous countries but spent most of early to middle years in China; during 1950s, was suspected of being an American spy by the Chinese despite her earnest medical work for her compatriots and was simultaneously blacklisted as a Communist in US; other books include … And the Rain My Drink (1956), From One China to the Other (1956), The Mountain is Young (1957), Four Faces (1960), The Crippled Tree (1965), A Mortal Flower (1966), Birdless Summer (1967), The Morning Deluge: Mao Tse Tung and the Chinese Revolution, 1893–1954 (1972), The Enchantress (c. 1985), and two novellas, Cast But One Shadow (1962) and Winter Love (1963).

See also memoir My House Has Two Doors (Putnam, 1980); and Women in World History.