Famed Chinese literary figure Yang Jiang cremated

The body of Yang Jiang, renowned Chinese playwright, author and translator, was cremated Friday morning in Beijing.

Yang died at the age of 105 in Beijing at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday.

The funeral was simplified without a farewell ceremony according to Yang's wishes, an obituary released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) stated.

All the antiques, calligraphy and paintings collected by Yang and her husband, Qian Zhongshu, were donated to the National Museum of China before her death, the obituary said.

Books, manuscripts and other property owned by the couple were also donated, it added.

In 2001, Yang and Qian donated all their royalties to Tsinghua University and established a scholarship that has benefited more than 1,000 students.

Born Yang Jikang in Beijing, Yang studied at Soochow University and then Tsinghua University in the 1930s. She married Qian, a household name in China for his novel "Fortress Besieged," which depicted the lives of Chinese intellectuals in the 1930s. Qian died in 1998.

After studying in Britain and France together with Qian, Yang returned and became a foreign language professor at Tsinghua. She was a literature researcher with Peking University and the CASS foreign literature study center in the 1950s.

Fluent in English, French and Spanish, her translations of such classics as "Don Quixote" and French novel "Gil Blas" remain the definitive versions for Chinese readers.

Yang also penned numerous plays, novels and essays and is known for her plain but resonant style, including "We Three," a 2003 essay collection recalling her husband and daughter, who died of cancer, which became a hit both in China and overseas. Endi