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1893
James
Yen was born Yen Yang-chu on the 26th of October,
in Bazhou, Sichuan Province, China.
1903
Enrolled
at the School of Western Learning of the China Inland
Mission, in Baoning, Sichuan, China.
1904
Baptized
as a Christian.
1907
Attended
the Methodist High school in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
1913
Entered
St. Stephen’s College and, later, St. Paul’s College,
both in Hongkong.
1916
Enrolled
at Yale University, U.S.A.
1918
Graduated
from Yale University, with a bachelor’s degree in
political science.
Immediately
after graduation, he left for France to serve as a volunteer
under the American YMCA’s national war council. His job
was to interpret for the Chinese coolies and peasants who
were brought to France to help the Allies` war efforts as
laborers. It was there that he first developed the
“Thousand Character Primer” to teach the illiterate
coolies and peasants how to read and write. It was also
there that he discovered that, while the peasants were
illiterate, “they did not lack brains, only
opportunity.” That discovery led to his decision to
dedicate his life to the education of China’s peasant
millions. Thus, begun the saga of Rural Reconstruction.
1919
Returned
to the U.S. to enroll for a master’s degree in history at
Princeton University, U.S.A.
1920
Returned
to China to be at the bedside of his seriously ill mother.
1921
Married
Alice Huie, the daughter of Chinese minister in New York,
U.S.A., on September 23rd.
1922
Launched
his first literacy campaign in Changsa, Hunan Province,
China, under the auspices of the Chinese YMCA.
One
of the volunteers who helped Dr. Yen in his campaign was a
young man named
Mao
Zedong (Mao Tse Tung ).
1923
Establishment
of the Chinese Mass Education Movement (CMEM) in Beijing,
China, with Madame Xiong Fushi (Zhu Qihui ) as chairperson
and Dr. Yen as secretary-general
1926
Ding
Xian (Ting Hsien), a rural county in Hebei Province, North
China, was designated by the CMEM as its first “social
laboratory.”
It
was in this social laboratory that Dr. Yen and his
colleagues in CMEM discovered the interlocking problems of
the peasants -- ignorance, poverty, disease, and civic
inertia – against which they developed an integrated,
fourfold rural reconstruction program of education,
livelihood, health and self-government, one of the earliest
models of an “integrated, people-centered and sustainable
rural development.”
1928
Yale
University honors Dr. Yen with an honorary master’s degree
for his literary work in China.
1929
Dr.
Yen and his family moved to Ding Xian, to live there on a
full-time basis, together with other CMEM staff members and
their families.
The
move came after Dr. Yen realized that one should
“go to the people and live among them” in order
to truly know them and learn from them.” Only then can
rural workers really help the people. By 1935, there were
over 500 CMEM staff living in Ding Xian.
1936
April
3: Establishment of the North China Rural Reconstruction
Council, composed of Yengching University, Nankai
University, Quinghua University, Nanjing University, the
Peking Union Medical College and the CMEM.
The
CMEM’s Ding Xian social laboratory served as the training
field for the five educational institution.
June
6: The CMEM moved its headquarters to Changsa, Hunan
Province, to be closer to the activities it would initiate
in Central China and West China.
The
Movement assisted the Hunan governor in a massive program of
training to resist the Japanese invasion and reconstruct the
countryside. As
a result, the Japanese encountered one of the fiercest
resistance to their invasion in Hunan.
July
1: Hengshan Xian, a county of Hunan, was chosen as CMEM’s
second social laboratory.
Meanwhile,
work in the first social laboratory, Dingxian, continued
until the end of September 1937, when the area fell to the
Japanese, forcing the remaining CMEM staff to withdraw to
Hunan.
October
2: Xindu Xian, a county of Sichuan Province, China became
the third social laboratory of CMEM.
Here,
the Movement emphasized the introduction of reforms in local
government administration. A member of the Movement was
appointed mayor of Xindu Xian.
1940
Establishment
of the College of Rural Reconstruction in Xiemachang, Baxian,
Sichuan, China to train workers for rural reconstruction in
China, with Dr. Yen as president.
1943
Dr.
Yen receives the Copernican Citation as one of ten
outstanding “modern revolutionaries” of the world,
“together with Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, John Dewey,
Orville Wright, Walt Disney and others.
1944
The
American-Chinese Committee of the Mass Education Movement
was organized in New York, U.S.A., to help support the work
of the CMEM. Mr. Gerard Swope was its president and Dr. Yen
served as its secretary.
1948
The
U.S. Congress approved the establishment of Sino-American
Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR) under the
China Aid Act, appropriating $27 million for the purpose of
China’s post war reconstruction.
Dr.
Yen played a major role in the JCRR’s establishment. In
recognition of this role, the amendment of the China Aid Act
which created the Commission was named the “Jimmy Yen
Provision.” Dr. Yen was subsequently appointed one of the
five members of the Commission.
1949
After
the Communist took control of China, Dr. and Mrs. Yen and
their two daughters left for the United States.
1951
Establishment
of International Mass Education Movement (IMEM), for the
purpose of “extending the experiences of the CMEM to other
developing countries.”
The
IMEM later became known as “Jimmy Yen’s rural
Reconstruction Movement.”
It merged with the International Institute of Rural
Reconstruction (IIRR) in 1970.
1952
Establishment
of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM), the
first national rural reconstruction movement outside China.
Dean Conrado Benitez was its first chairman and president.
Dr. Yen served as an adviser.
Today,
PRRM continues its proud tradition of
“building democracy from the bottom up” as the
oldest existing rural development organization in the
Philippines.
1960
August
31: Dr. Yen received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for
International Understanding
(the Asian equivalent of the Noble Peace Prize).
October
20: Dr. Yen, Justice William O. Douglas, John Leslie and
DeWitt Wallace signed the incorporation papers establishing
the IIRR in the Philippines.
Its purpose: to promote the adaptation of the rural
reconstruction experiences in China and the Philippines in
other developing countries in the world. Dr. Yen was elected
its first president.
1964
The
“Movimiento Guatelmatico de Reconstruccion Rural” (MGRR)
and the “ Movimiento Colombiano de Reconstruccion Rural”
(MCRR) were established.
1967
The
Thailand Reconstruction Movement (TRRM) was established.
Later, It was place under the Royal Patronage of the King of
Thailand.
May
2: The IIRR World Center in Silang, Cavite, The Philippines,
was inaugurated. Dr. Yen received the Order of the Golden
Heart Award of the Republic of the Philippines.
1972
The
Ghana Rural Reconstruction Movement (GhRRM) was established.
1976
Dr.
Yen received the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest
award.
1978
Dr.
Yen was elected IIRR Board Chairman. Dr. Juan M. Flavier
succeeded him as the IIRR president.
1979
The
Indian Rural Reconstruction Movement (IRRM) was established.
1980
Alice
H. Yen died on August 18th in New York at the age
of 85.
1983
Dr.
Yen received the Eisenhower Medallion of the
People-to-People Foundation for his “exceptional
contributions to world peace and understanding.”
1985
Dr.
Yen visited China after an absence of 36 years at the
invitation of the National People’s Congress.
1986
IIRR
received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International
Understanding, the same award which Dr. Yen received 26
years earlier.
1987
Dr.
Yen visited China again to meet with senior officials and
lay the groundwork for renewed rural reconstruction efforts
in the country.
As
a result of Dr. Yen’s visit, IIRR has been able to
establish an exchange program with China’s State Education
Commission and various agricultural and environmental
institutes. This has, in turn, led to IIRR being invited to
assist in the development efforts being undertaken by the
Chinese Government in partnership with international bodies.
In
the same year, Dr. Yen received the Presidential End Hunger
Award for Lifetime Achievement From U.S. President Ronald
Reagan.
Later
in the year, Dr. Yen relinquished the chairmanship of the
IIRR Board to his long-time associate in the board, Mr.
James G. Johnson, Jr.
1990
Dr.
Yen died of pneumonia in New York City on January 17th.
He was 96.
In
accordance with his own wish, Dr. Yen ashes were interred in
the Memorial Garden in the IIRR World Center in Silang,
Cavite, the Philippines, to join those of his beloved wife
Alice, on August 18th, her tenth death
anniversary.
May
27-June 1: An international conference on Dr. Yen’s
thoughts on mass education and rural reconstruction was held
in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China. It was attended by
over 70 scholars and development workers from all over the
world.
1993
October
26: On the occasion of the centennial anniversary of his
birth, the IIRR campus was named the “Y.C. JAMES YEN
CENTER,” to honor in perpetuity the memory of the
“father of the Rural Reconstruction Movement” and
Founder of the International Institute of Rural
Reconstruction.
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