Ling Daoyang Explained

Ling Daoyang (; 1888–1993) was a Chinese educator, forester and agronomist.

Born on 18 December 1888 in what is now Buji Subdistrict, and then located within Xin'an County, Ling earned bachelor's of science in agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, followed by a master's degree in forestry at Yale University in the United States.^[1] In 1915, he proposed to the Beiyang government that it commemorate Arbor Day.^{[2] [3]} The Nationalist government moved the date of Arbor Day in 1929, but continued to observe it in China until 1949.^[4] Ling was the principal of Chung Chi College from 1955 to 1960, and principal of United College from 1960 to 1963. He was also one of the founders of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.^[5] Ling moved to the United States in 1980, and died at the age of 105 on 2 August 1993.^{[2] [6]}

Daoyang Road (道揚道) in Hong Kong was named after him.^[7]

In 2022, Ling Guoqiang, Ling Daoyang's descendant in Shenzhen, donated RMB 150 million to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen to establish the Ling College in name of him.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Swislocki . Mark . Seeing the Forest for the Village, Nation, and Province: Forestry Policy and Environmental Management in Early-Twentieth-Century Yunnan . Twentieth-Century China . 2014 . 39 . 3 . 195–215 . 10.1179/1521538514Z.00000000045.
2. The Chronicle of LING Dao-yang: The Commemoration on the 130th Anniversary of Mr. LING Dao-yang's Birthday . Wang . Xi-qun . Journal of Beijing Forestry University . 2018 . 17 . 1 . 10.13931/j.cnki.bjfuss.2017080.
3. News: Commemoration of the 130th Anniversary of the Birth of Daoyang Lin cum Academic Symposium held at CUHK-Shenzhen . 5 April 2020 . Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen . 20 December 2018.
4. Pitts . Larissa . Unity in the trees: Arbor Day and Republican China, 1915–1927 . Journal of Modern Chinese History . 2019 . 13 . 2 . 296–318 . 10.1080/17535654.2019.1688958.
5. News: 港中大拓荒者：校园所在地原名"马料水". 2015-01-22. 教备网.
6. News: 刘 . 中国 . 凌道扬：中国近代林业科学先驱 . 6 April 2020 . 晶报.
7. Web site: Pang . Diana . Foreign influence Part 1: Lost in translation, Hong Kong's weird and wonderful street names . Hong Kong Free Press HKFP . 25 December 2022.
8. News: 百合控股集团向香港中文大学（深圳）捐赠1.5亿 成立道扬书院. 2022-07-24. 香港中文大學（深圳）. 2023-07-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20230724155529/https://www.cuhk.edu.cn/zh-hans/article/8003. live.