Princess Der Ling (Yu Der Ling)

Princess Der Ling (1886–1944), born Yu Der Ling, was a Chinese-American woman writer and daughter of the late Qing diplomat Yu Geng. In 1903 she entered the palace and served as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Dowager Cixi; after marrying in 1907 she went to the United States, where she wrote in English such Qing court works as Two Years in the Forbidden City, Old Buddha, and Imperial Incense, published under the name “Princess Der Ling.” She died in a car accident in Canada in 1944. Her Qing court writing carries an eyewitness perspective, recording people and events as well as institutional details of palace life, and combines historical recollection with literary narrative. The works collected here range across youth literature, time-travel and alternate-history fiction, classical literature, wuxia and social novels, and prose miscellany, showing that her writings have been placed in diverse categories in later editions and that readers' interest extends beyond her Qing court memoirs.