Author, translator Nieh Hualing dies at 99

Renowned Chinese-American author and translator Nieh Hualing passed away at the age of 99 in her home in Iowa, the United States, on Monday. “She didn’t suffer and passed away in peace,” said her second daughter Wang Xiaolan, who broke the news to the media.

The emeritus professor of the University of Iowa is best remembered for co-founding the International Writing Program (IWP) with her husband Paul Engle. The IWP has brought together over 1,000 writers from more than 100 countries, including Nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk, Czesław Miłosz, and Seamus Heaney.

                         Nieh Hualing in a 2018 file photo. Photo from WeChat account "中国新闻周刊"

“In the course of China’s reform and opening up, a group of talented Chinese writers and poets have participated in the IWP, a writing residency in Iowa City initiated by Chinese novelist Nieh Hualing and her husband, U.S. poet Paul Engle,” Xinhua said in a tribute to Nieh on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Nieh was born in 1925 in Hubei Province and grew up in the shadows of the Japanese invasion of China during World War II and the Chinese People’s War of Liberation. She graduated with a degree in English from the Western languages department of the National Central University, the predecessor to Nanjing University, in 1948.

A young Nieh Hualing in an undated file photo. Photo from WeChat account“澎湃新闻”

After relocating to Taiwan, she became a literary editor and member of the editorial board of the Free China Fortnightly, a liberal intellectual magazine that was banned by local authorities in 1960. Nieh also taught creative writing courses at Taipei’s two major universities, becoming the first faculty member to teach creative writing in Chinese. During her time in Taiwan, she published a novel and several short story collections and translated works by Henry James and William Faulkner into Chinese.

In 1963, she met her future husband, Paul Engle, then director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Engle, who was on a trip to research the contemporary literary scene in Asia, invited her to attend the Writers’ Workshop. In 1964, she traveled to Iowa City and became the first Chinese writer to attend the program. Together, they founded the IWP in 1967 by merging the Writers’ Workshop and a program focusing on literature translation.

Nieh Hualing with her late husband, Paul Engle, in an undated file photo. Photo from WeChat account“澎湃新闻”

During its first year, 16 writers, including Hong Kong-based Dai Tian and the late Taiwanese poet Ya Hsien, participated in the program. Nieh and her husband visited the Chinese mainland in 1978, and in the years that followed, invited Xiao Qian, Wang Meng, Ai Qing, Ding Ling, Wang Anyi, and many other authors to Iowa to participate in exchanges with peers from other countries.

Nieh became IWP’s director after her husband retired in 1987 and continued to support a new generation of Chinese novelists, including Su Tong, Yu Hua, Bi Feiyu, Ge Fei, Chi Li, and A Lai, among others.

Nieh retired in 1988 and had since served as a member of the IWP Advisory Board. She is cited as a significant figure in 20th-century Chinese-language literature, and her contributions through the IWP have had a lasting impact on the global literary community.