Han Suyin
Encyclopedia
Han Suyin (born September 12, 1917), is the pen name
of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow . She is a Chinese
-born Eurasian
author of several books on modern China
, novel
s set in East Asia
, and autobiographical works
, as well as a physician
. She currently resides in Lausanne
and has written in English
and French
.
, Henan
, China
. Her father was a Belgian-educated Chinese engineer
, Chow Yen Tung ' onMouseout='HidePop("38901")' href="/topics/Pinyin">pinyin
: Zhōu Yintong), of Hakka
heritage, while her mother was Flemish
. In 1938 Han Suyin married Pao H. Tang (Tang Paohuang), a Chinese Nationalist military officer, who was to become a general. They had one adopted daughter (Yungmei).
She began work as a typist
at Beijing
Hospital in 1931, not yet fifteen years old. In 1933 she was admitted to Yenching University
where she felt she was discriminated against as a Eurasian
. In 1935 she went to Brussels
to study science. In 1938 she returned to China, working in an American Christian mission
hospital in Chengdu
, Sichuan
. She described her wartime experiences in her memoir, Destination Chungking.
She went again to London in 1944 to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. Her autobiographical novel Winter Love set during this period of her life, concerns her own acceptance of her biraciality and bisexuality. She graduated MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery) with Honours in 1948 and went to Hong Kong
to practice medicine in 1949 at the Queen Mary Hospital. Her husband, Tang, meanwhile, had died in action during the Chinese Civil War
in 1947. In Hong Kong, she met and fell in love with Ian Morrison
, an Australian war correspondent and a married man based in Singapore, who was killed in Korea in 1950. She portrayed their relationship in A Many-Splendoured Thing
and the factual basis of their relationship is documented in My House Has Two Doors.
In 1952, she married Leon F. Comber, a British officer in the Malayan Special Branch, and went with him to Johore, Malaya
(present-day Malaysia), where she worked in the Johore Bahru General Hospital and opened a clinic in Johore Bharu and Upper Pickering Street, Singapore. (Comber resigned from the British Colonial Police Service as an acting Assistant Commissioner of Police [Special Branch] mainly because of the perceived anti-British bias of her novel And the Rain My Drink
. In 2006, Dr. Comber was a Research Fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Monash University
, Melbourne
.)
In 1955, Han Suyin contributed efforts to the establishment of Nanyang University
in Singapore
. Specifically, she offered her services and served as physician to the institution, after having refused an offer to teach literature. Chinese writer Lin Yutang
, first president of the university, had recruited her for the latter field, but she declined, indicating her desire "to make a new Asian literature, not teach Dickens", according to the Warring States Project at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Also in 1955, her best-known work, A Many-Splendoured Thing
, was made into a Hollywood film
. In her autobiographical work My House Has Two Doors, she distanced herself from the film, saying that although the film was shown for many weeks at the Cathay Cinema in Singapore to packed audiences, she never went to see it, and that the film rights were sold to pay for an operation on her adopted daughter who was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. Much later, the movie itself was made into a daytime soap opera.
After Comber and Han Suyin's divorce, she married Vincent Ratnaswamy, an Indian
colonel
(died January 2003 in Bangalore
, India
), and lived for a time in Bangalore
, India
. Later, Han Suyin and Vincent Ratnaswamy resided in Hong Kong and Switzerland
. Although separated, they remained married until Ratnaswamy's death. Since 1956, Han Suyin visited China almost annually becoming one of the first foreign nationals to visit post-1949 revolution China, including through the years of the Cultural Revolution. In 1974 she was the featured speaker at the founding national convention of the US China Peoples Friendship Association
in Los Angeles.
and the internal and foreign policies of modern China since the end of the imperial
regime. Many of her writings feature the colonial
backdrop in East Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Her novel A Many-Splendoured Thing, the story of a married British foreign correspondent Mark Elliot who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor, was made into a film called Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
. This also inspired a popular song
.
Literary Award for Best Literary Translation) to help develop literature translation in China. “Han Suyin Award for Young Translators” sponsored by the China International Publishing Group was also set up by Han Suyin. So far it has given out awards 21 times(in 2009).
Han has also been influential in Asian American literature
, as her books were published in English and contained depictions of Asians that were radically different from the portrayals found in both Anglo-American and Asian-American authors. Frank Chin
, in his essay "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake", credits Han with being one of the few Chinese American writers (his term) who does not portray Chinese men as "emasculated and sexually repellent" and for being one of the few who "[wrote] knowledgeably and authentically of Chinese fairy tales, heroic tradition, and history".
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Elizabeth Comber, born Rosalie Elisabeth Kuanghu Chow . She is a Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
-born Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
author of several books on modern China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s set in East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
, and autobiographical works
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, as well as a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. She currently resides in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
and has written in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Biography
Han Suyin 韩素音, was born in XinyangXinyang
Xinyang is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Henan province, People's Republic of China, the southernmost such administrative division in the province.-Recent history:...
, Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
, China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
. Her father was a Belgian-educated Chinese engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, Chow Yen Tung ' onMouseout='HidePop("38901")' href="/topics/Pinyin">pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Zhōu Yintong), of Hakka
Hakka people
The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese who speak the Hakka language and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China....
heritage, while her mother was Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
. In 1938 Han Suyin married Pao H. Tang (Tang Paohuang), a Chinese Nationalist military officer, who was to become a general. They had one adopted daughter (Yungmei).
She began work as a typist
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
at Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
Hospital in 1931, not yet fifteen years old. In 1933 she was admitted to Yenching University
Yenching University
Yenching University was a university in Beijing, China. It integrated three Christian colleges in the city in 1919. Yenching is an alternative name of Beijing - derived from its status as capital of Yan state, one of the seven Warring States from 5th century BC to 3rd century BC.The university...
where she felt she was discriminated against as a Eurasian
Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th-century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent....
. In 1935 she went to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
to study science. In 1938 she returned to China, working in an American Christian mission
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
hospital in Chengdu
Chengdu
Chengdu , formerly transliterated Chengtu, is the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China. It holds sub-provincial administrative status...
, Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
. She described her wartime experiences in her memoir, Destination Chungking.
She went again to London in 1944 to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. Her autobiographical novel Winter Love set during this period of her life, concerns her own acceptance of her biraciality and bisexuality. She graduated MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine & Surgery) with Honours in 1948 and went to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to practice medicine in 1949 at the Queen Mary Hospital. Her husband, Tang, meanwhile, had died in action during the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
in 1947. In Hong Kong, she met and fell in love with Ian Morrison
Ian Morrison
Ian Ernest McLeavy Morrison was an Australian journalist and war correspondent for The Times. He was one of the first journalists to be killed in the Korean War...
, an Australian war correspondent and a married man based in Singapore, who was killed in Korea in 1950. She portrayed their relationship in A Many-Splendoured Thing
A Many-Splendoured Thing
A Many-Splendoured Thing is a novel by Han Suyin. It was made into the 1955 film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, which also inspired a famous song. In her autobiographical work "My House Has Two Doors" she clearly dissociates herself from the film and had no interest in even watching it in...
and the factual basis of their relationship is documented in My House Has Two Doors.
In 1952, she married Leon F. Comber, a British officer in the Malayan Special Branch, and went with him to Johore, Malaya
Federation of Malaya
The Federation of Malaya is the name given to a federation of 11 states that existed from 31 January 1948 until 16 September 1963. The Federation became independent on 31 August 1957...
(present-day Malaysia), where she worked in the Johore Bahru General Hospital and opened a clinic in Johore Bharu and Upper Pickering Street, Singapore. (Comber resigned from the British Colonial Police Service as an acting Assistant Commissioner of Police [Special Branch] mainly because of the perceived anti-British bias of her novel And the Rain My Drink
And the Rain My Drink
And the Rain My Drink is a novel by Han Suyin. It is set against a backdrop of the Malayan Emergency of the late 1940s and 1950s. It describes the methods used by the British colonial authorities and the left-wing rebels, and how individual lives were affected.Republished in 2010 by Monsoon Books....
. In 2006, Dr. Comber was a Research Fellow at Monash Asia Institute, Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
.)
In 1955, Han Suyin contributed efforts to the establishment of Nanyang University
Nanyang University
Nanyang University was a university in Singapore from 1956 to 1980. During its existence, it was Singapore's only Chinese language post-secondary institution...
in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. Specifically, she offered her services and served as physician to the institution, after having refused an offer to teach literature. Chinese writer Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation, and his compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West.-Youth:Lin was born in...
, first president of the university, had recruited her for the latter field, but she declined, indicating her desire "to make a new Asian literature, not teach Dickens", according to the Warring States Project at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Also in 1955, her best-known work, A Many-Splendoured Thing
A Many-Splendoured Thing
A Many-Splendoured Thing is a novel by Han Suyin. It was made into the 1955 film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, which also inspired a famous song. In her autobiographical work "My House Has Two Doors" she clearly dissociates herself from the film and had no interest in even watching it in...
, was made into a Hollywood film
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 American drama-romance film. Set in 1949-50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter , who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from China , only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong...
. In her autobiographical work My House Has Two Doors, she distanced herself from the film, saying that although the film was shown for many weeks at the Cathay Cinema in Singapore to packed audiences, she never went to see it, and that the film rights were sold to pay for an operation on her adopted daughter who was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. Much later, the movie itself was made into a daytime soap opera.
After Comber and Han Suyin's divorce, she married Vincent Ratnaswamy, an Indian
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
(died January 2003 in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
), and lived for a time in Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Later, Han Suyin and Vincent Ratnaswamy resided in Hong Kong and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. Although separated, they remained married until Ratnaswamy's death. Since 1956, Han Suyin visited China almost annually becoming one of the first foreign nationals to visit post-1949 revolution China, including through the years of the Cultural Revolution. In 1974 she was the featured speaker at the founding national convention of the US China Peoples Friendship Association
US China Peoples Friendship Association
The US–China Peoples Friendship Association describes itself as "a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501 educational organization" whose "goal is to develop and strengthen friendship and understanding between the peoples of the United States and China....
in Los Angeles.
Works
Cultural and political conflicts between East and West in modern history play a central role in Han Suyin's work. She also explores the struggle for liberation in Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
and the internal and foreign policies of modern China since the end of the imperial
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
regime. Many of her writings feature the colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
backdrop in East Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Her novel A Many-Splendoured Thing, the story of a married British foreign correspondent Mark Elliot who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor, was made into a film called Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (film)
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing is a 1955 American drama-romance film. Set in 1949-50 Hong Kong, it tells the story of a married, but separated, American reporter , who falls in love with a Eurasian doctor originally from China , only to encounter prejudice from her family and from Hong Kong...
. This also inspired a popular song
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (song)
"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" is a popular song with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was publicized first in the movie, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing , winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song...
.
Influences
Han Suyin has funded the Chinese Writers Association to create the "National Rainbow Award for Best Literary Translation" (which is now the Lu XunLu Xun
Lu Xun or Lu Hsün , was the pen name of Zhou Shuren , one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua as well as classical Chinese...
Literary Award for Best Literary Translation) to help develop literature translation in China. “Han Suyin Award for Young Translators” sponsored by the China International Publishing Group was also set up by Han Suyin. So far it has given out awards 21 times(in 2009).
Han has also been influential in Asian American literature
Asian American literature
Although immigrants from Asia and Americans of Asian descent have been writing in the United States since the 19th century, Asian American literature as a category of writing only came into existence in the early 1970s...
, as her books were published in English and contained depictions of Asians that were radically different from the portrayals found in both Anglo-American and Asian-American authors. Frank Chin
Frank Chin
Frank Chin is an American author and playwright.- Life and career :Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California, but was raised to the age of six by a retired Vaudeville couple in Placerville, California. At six his mother brought him back to the San Francisco Bay Area to live in Oakland Chinatown...
, in his essay "Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake", credits Han with being one of the few Chinese American writers (his term) who does not portray Chinese men as "emasculated and sexually repellent" and for being one of the few who "[wrote] knowledgeably and authentically of Chinese fairy tales, heroic tradition, and history".
Novels
- Destination ChungkingChongqingChongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
(1942) - A Many-Splendoured ThingA Many-Splendoured ThingA Many-Splendoured Thing is a novel by Han Suyin. It was made into the 1955 film Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, which also inspired a famous song. In her autobiographical work "My House Has Two Doors" she clearly dissociates herself from the film and had no interest in even watching it in...
(1952) - And the Rain My DrinkAnd the Rain My DrinkAnd the Rain My Drink is a novel by Han Suyin. It is set against a backdrop of the Malayan Emergency of the late 1940s and 1950s. It describes the methods used by the British colonial authorities and the left-wing rebels, and how individual lives were affected.Republished in 2010 by Monsoon Books....
(1956) - The Mountain Is YoungThe Mountain Is YoungThe Mountain Is Young is a novel by Han Suyin. It is set in Nepal in 1956. The protagonist, Anne Ford, is a writer whose husband is a retired colonial civil servant: she comes to Khatmandu to teach English at the Girls Institute. The novel is based on Han Suyin's experiences when she was invited...
(1958) - Winter Love (1962)
- Cast But One Shadow (1962)
- Four Faces (1963)
- L'abbé Pierre (1965, French only)
- L'abbé Prévost (1975, French only)
- Till Morning Comes (1982)
- The Enchantress (1985)
Autobiographical works
- The Crippled TreeThe Crippled TreeThe Crippled Tree is a history and biography by Han Suyin. It covers the years 1885 to 1928, beginning with the life of her father, a Belgium-educated Chinese engineer of Hakka heritage, from a family of minor gentry in Sichuan. It describes how he met and married her mother, a Flemish Belgian,...
(1965) - A Mortal FlowerA Mortal FlowerA Mortal Flower is an autobiography by Han Suyin. It covers the years 1928 to 1938: her growing up in China and her journey to Belgium and her mother's family. Also her marriage to a rising officer in the Kuomintang and the retreat to Chungking in the face of the Japanese invasion of China....
(1966) - Birdless SummerBirdless SummerBirdless Summer is an autobiography by Han Suyin. It covers the years 1938 to 1948, her work as a midwife in Chengtu and then going to London with her husband, who was a military attaché there...
(1968) - My House Has Two DoorsMy House Has Two DoorsMy House Has Two Doors is one of a multi-book autobiography by Han Suyin. It tells of her life from 1948 to 1980, including the real-life love-affair that was the basis for her novel A Many-Splendoured Thing. She went from Hong Kong to Malaya, where she witnessed the Communist insurgency she...
(1980) - Phoenix Harvest (1982). (This is Volume II of the hardback edition of My House Has Two Doors, published separately in paperback.)
- Wind In My Sleeve (1992)
- A Share of Loving (1988)
- Fleur de soleil, histoire de ma vie (1988, French only: Flower of sun: the story of my life)
Historical studies
- China in the Year 2001 (1967)
- Asia Today: Two Outlooks (1969)
- The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetong and the Chinese Revolution 1893-1954 (1972)
- Lhasa, the Open City (1976)
- Wind in the Tower: Mao Tsetong and the Chinese Revolution, 1949-1965 (1976)
- China 1890-1938: From the Warlords to World War (1989; historical photo-reportage)
- Eldest Son: Zhou Enlai and the Making of Modern China (1994)
External links
- Women writers of Colour: Han Suyin
- Han Suyin Research, by Ding Jiandong
- Han Suyin, Elizabeth Comber, Gregory Melle's Personal Opinion and Author Bio
- Bibliography
- Han Suyin at Everything2.com
- Traveller's Tales: Han Suyin, a doctor in JB. Peggy Loh. Travel Times. Malaysia. 2005. Last accessed 8 March 2006.