Studies: Writing, Research, and Commentary. Pull-
man: Washington State University Press, 1989.
Catherine FungLi, Ling Ai (1908–?)
Born in Honolulu, Li Ling Ai was nothing short of
a Renaissance woman. Under the earlier tutelage
of her Chinese immigrant parents—the famous
doctors Tae Heong Kong Li (her mother) and
Khai Fai Li (her father)—Miss Li, as she liked to be
called according to one interview, learned Chinese
and English and deeply respected the cultural tra-
ditions of China, Hawaii, and America. Li is best
remembered now for producing Kukan, the 1941
Academy Award–winning documentary about the
bitter struggle for Chinese independence.
Aside from this work, Li Ling Ai was an actor,
dancer, playwright, writer, and teacher of dance
and the theatrical arts. She was formally trained in
the theater at the University of Hawaii, where she
earned her B.A. degree in theater. In 1930 Li trav-
eled to Beijing to study classical Chinese theater
and dance. She later directed and wrote plays for
the Fine Arts Institute in China.
Upon returning from China after the Japanese
invasion prior to World War II, Li made it her per-
sonal mission to raise money and educate Ameri-
cans about China’s past, its philosophies, and its
struggles. Miss Li became such an advocate for
China’s struggle that she later became the director
of the Far Eastern Department of Robert Ripley’s
famous radio show Believe It or Not. Following
the success of Kukan, Li gave lectures throughout
the United States speaking on behalf of China and
her Chinese-American heritage. At a time when
women—and especially women of color—were not
outspoken, Li was considered by many critics and
observers as witty, intelligent, and entertaining.
Li considered her success to be a direct result
of her upbringing by her parents. She wrote Life
Is for a Long Time: A Chinese Hawaiian Memoir
(1972) to chronicle her parents’ incredible story of
struggle, survival, and success both in China and
the United States. In writing the book, she hoped
that in today’s society, “with its jagged patterns of
human dissensions and disruptions, resentments
and hates, perhaps the simple story of [her] par-
ents, two Chinese in Hawaii, might help those
among us who are trying to live with quiet cour-
age—seeking to make life tolerable in an almost
intolerable world.” Life Is for a Long Time is a well-
written and unique memoir of a successful Asian-
American experience.
Matthew L. MillerLim, Shirley Geok-lin (1944– )
Writer, critic, university professor and activist Shir-
ley Geok-lin Lim was born in the historic British
colony of Malacca. She received her bachelor’s de-
gree from the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,
in 1967, and became a part-time lecturer in the
same university (1967–69). In 1969 she came to the
United States as a Fulbright and Wien scholar. She
received her master’s degree in 1971 and a Ph.D. in
English and American studies in 1973, both from
Brandeis University, Massachusetts.
In 1972–73 she was a teaching fellow at Queens
College, City University of New York, and in
1973–76 an assistant professor at Hostos Commu-
nity College, City University of New York. Between
1976 and 1990 she was an associate professor at
Westchester Community College, State University
of New York, before moving to California, where
she has been teaching Asian American Studies,
English, and Women’s Studies since 1990 at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. She also
taught in the English Department at the Univer-
sity of Hong Kong (1999–2001). She has received
many grants and travel awards, for example, from
the British Council and National Women’s Studies
Association, both in 1989.
Published in 1980, Lim’s first poetry collection
entitled Crossing the Peninsula and Other Poems
won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, just after
her son Gershom Kean was born from her mar-
riage with Charles Bazerman, professor of educa-
tion at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Five more poetry collections followed: No Man’s
Grove and Other Poems (1985), Modern Secrets:
New and Selected Poems (1989), Monsoon History:170 Li, Ling Ai