Background
He was born in Mao-ming hsien in southwestern Kwangtung.
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Ting Ying
Edit ProfileEducation
Ting graduated from the Agricultural College of Tokyo Imperial University in 1924 and returned to Kwangtung in the same year. He spent the next 25 years teaching agronomy in institutes of higher learning in south China, most notably at Kwangtung University in Canton (known after 1926 as Sun Yat-sen University). Much of his time during these years was spent in attempts to improve rice yields, and by 1936 he had developed over 60 improved strains.
Career
In 1952 Ting was appointed president of the newly formed South China Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Canton; he was reappointed to the presidency three years later when this institute was merged with the agricultural colleges of both Sun Yat-sen and Ling-nan universities to form the South China Agricultural College. He continued to hold this position until his death in 1964. He received his first post in the national government when he was elected as a deputy from Kwangtung to the First NPC (1954-1959). He was re-elected to the Second NPC (1959-1964) and again to the Third NPC, his last election coining just one month before his death. When the Department of Biology, Geology, and Geography was formed in May-June 1955 under the Academy of Sciences, Ting was named as a standing committee member. Most important, however, was his appointment to the presidency of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Formed in March 1957, the Academy was assigned the task of coordinating the work of over 200 institutes and experimental stations engaged in agricultural work, as well as the agricultural institutes that had been under the Academy of Sciences and 27 agricultural colleges throughout China. This was his most important assignment in the PRC and the one which occupied much of his time until his death.
In 1960 Ting moved from Canton to Peking in order to be closer to the work of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. However, despite his advanced age, he continued to travel widely throughout the country, often to attend provincial agricultural conferences. In January 1963 he was credited with having had a major role in the establishment of experimental stations in Hainan Island, Canton, Kunming, Changsha, Nanking, Tientsin, Urumchi, and Kirin. In addition to contributing to such professional journals as Chung- kuo Nung-pao (Agricultural bulletin), he also wrote for the Party press two of his articles appeared in the Party’s most important journal, Hung-ch'i (Red flag, issues of July 1, 1961, and October 16, 1962). In collaboration with a team of experts, he also edited a large volume entitled Chung-kuo shui-tao ts'ai-p'i-hsueh (Rice cultivation in China), a work published in 1961 and described as “one of the most significant theoretical works on the subject in recent times.’’
Ting Ying died in Peking on October 14, 1964, at the age of 76. He was praised for his implementation of Party agricultural policies and was described as having made important contributions to the theory and practice of the origin and ecology of various types of rice in China, the cultivation of new strains and techniques for high yields." The Communists claim that his studies of the origins of rice in China had taken him into the fields of history, philology, archaeology, paleontology, botany, and geography.
Politics
In his capacity as an agronomist, Ting made three trips abroad for the PRC. In October 1955 he visited East Germany as a member of an agricultural research delegation and while there was made a corresponding academician of the East German Agricultural Sciences Academy. In Moscow, in January 1958, he negotiated and signed an agreement related to scientific and technical cooperation between the Chinese and Soviet Academies of Agricultural Sciences. Ting was the deputy leader of a delegation to the Sixth Congress of the Communist-dominated World Federation of Scientific Workers, held in Warsaw in September 1959. Before returning home he served as a member of the Chinese delegation, led by science administrator Nieh Jung-chen to celebrations in Germany commemorating the 10th anniversary of the East German government (October). Ting then went to Prague where he negotiated and signed an agreement (December) similar to that signed with the Russians in 1958. He was also given a special citation for his work by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Together with a number of intellectuals, Ting became a member of the CCP in 1956 at a time when the Party admitted a number of important intellectuals. In view of his advanced age, it is clear that the move had little specific political importance, rather, it can be regarded as one of the Party’s continuing efforts to gain the cooperation of the Chinese intelligentsia. Although he was already a Party member, Ting sharply criticized Party agricultural policies during the Hundred Flowers period in the spring of 1957. Speaking before a nationwide conference of the Academy of Sciences in May, he complained of the lack of coordination between agricultural theories and practices and cautioned against grandiose plans to expand agricultural production before the basic research had been completed. Unlike many other Party critics at this time, there are no indications that he was penalized for his criticisms. On the contrary, as suggested above, he continued to be an active contributor to the press. His activities in this connection continued until his death. In fact, his last article, an essay on rice production, appeared in the JMJP just a few days after his death.
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Born
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Died
1964 (aged 76) -
Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
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Political Party
Chinese Communist Party
Education
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1924
Career
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1952