Rulan Chao Pian (1922–2013)

Although born in Cambridge and eventually educated at Radcliffe College, Professor Rulan Chao Pian spent much of her childhood and part of her high school years in China. This enabled her, with some training, to undertake a Chinese language teaching position, while studying Musicology in the Music vis mere Department at Harvard-Radcliffe. Her interest in the musical culture of China had thus led to the exploration of Chinese musical sources, Next she went further into the investigation of broader musical fields such as the Chinese dramatic and narrative music, for which she did much field work and published numerous articles. In 1974 she was appointed Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Music at Harvard until her retirement in 1992. In 1990 she was elected a member of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan vis mindre