Keith, Margaret Woods

The Chinese Scholarship Committee was established by Professor Lucy Martin Donnelly in 1916, to provide Chinese women an education who could not otherwise obtain one in China. It was also intended to “deepen the understanding between China and the United States by bringing to this country the type of students who would represent the highest Chinese traditions, and who would in turn interpret to China our western civilization” (“Bryn Mawr Chinese Scholarship Committee,” pamphlet). The fund, as established, provided for one annual scholarship to a Chinese woman who wished to attend Bryn Mawr College.

The first woman to benefit from the scholarship was Fung Kei Liu, who graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1922. She returned to China in 1925 and established a school, which eventually became a recognized branch of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University. Since Fung Kei Liu, dozens of Chinese and other Asian women have benefitted from the scholarship. Graduates have gone on to become teachers, physicians, researchers and other professions, and have pursued further education at such prestigious institutions as Columbia University and Harvard University, among others.

Bibliography :

"Draft of The Unconquerable Spirit of China: Can Bryn Mawr do Better Than to Foster it?, by Lucy Martin Donnelly," 1978, Box 1, Folder 11, Accession number A89-30, Chinese Scholarship Committee records, 1916-1988, Bryn Mawr College Archives.

"Bryn Mawr Chinese Scholarship Committee," circa 1925, Box 1, Folder 11, Accession number A89-30, Chinese Scholarship Committee records, 1916-1988, Bryn Mawr College Archives.

"Chinese Scholarship Fund Observes 45th Anniversary," The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, November 6, 1962, Box 1, Folder 11, Accession number A89-30, Chinese Scholarship Committee records, 1916-1988, Bryn Mawr College Archives.

"45th Anniversary." Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin (1963):20.

Chew, Lucy Evans. "Scholarships For Chinese Students." Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin (1946): 10.

Donnelly, Lucy Martin. "China and Bryn Mawr." Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin (1921): 6-7.

From the guide to the Chinese Scholarship Committee records, circa 1916-1988, (Bryn Mawr College)