Chiang Yee, poet, author, painter, calligrapher. (Later Jiang Yi under the Pinyin spelling system) self-styled as "The Silent Traveller".

Born in Jiujiang, China, in 1903, Chiang wrote a number of books mostly entitled "The Silent Traveller in...." . These books included the following, possibly a complete list: The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh; London; Oxford; the Yorkshire Dales; Dublin; Paris; New York; San Francisco; Boston; Japan; The Silent Traveller in Wartime; and "The Silent Traveller: a Chinese Artist in Lakeland" (written from a journal of a fortnight in the English Lake District in August 1936). The earliest ones were published just before the Second World War, after he was exiled from China in 1933, leaving his wife and family behind. He had been a governor of several counties before that.

The books characteristically bring a fresh 'sideways look' in a peaceful and non-judgemental way to places perhaps unfamiliar at the time to a Chinese national: the author was struck by things the locals might not notice, such as beards, or the fact that the so-called Lion's Haunch on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is actually far more like a sleeping elephant. In his wartime books, Chiang Yee made it plain that he was fervently opposed to Nazism. His writings exude a feeling of positive curiosity, life-enhancing in a unique way. Some of his books have been re-issued in modern times, sometimes with fresh introductions.

After living for some years in a small flat in London and being obliged, during the war, neither to travel nor to take part in the hostilities, on account of being classed as an 'alien', he moved to the United States in 1955, where he became a lecturer (and ultimately Emeritus Professor of Chinese) at Columbia University and taught poetry at Harvard. He illustrated all his books, including several for children, and he wrote a standard tome on Chinese calligraphy. He died in 1977 in his seventies. He spent over forty years away from his homeland.

Bibliography

• Chiang Yee, The Chinese Eye: An Interpretation of Chinese Painting, (London: Methuen, 1935)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller: A Chinese Artist in Lakeland (London: Country Life, 1937 reprinted Mercat, 2004) ISBN 1841830674
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in London (London: Country Life, 1938 reprinted Signal, 2001) ISBN 1902669401
• Chiang Yee, Chin-Pao and the Giant Pandas, (London: Country Life, 1939)
• Chiang Yee, The Men of the Burma Road (London: Methuen, 1942)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Oxford (London: Methuen, 1944 reprinted Signal, 2003) ISBN 1902669681
• Chiang Yee, Dabbitse, (London: Transatlantic Arts, 1944) for children
• Chiang Yee, Yebbin: a Guest from the Wild (London: Methuen, 1947) ISBN 0908240872
• Chiang Yee, The Story of Ming, (London: Puffin, c. 1945)
• Chiang Yee, Lo Cheng The Boy Who Wouldn′t Keep Still, (London: Puffin, c. 1945)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh (London: Methuen, 1948 reprinted Mercat, 2003) ISBN 1841830488
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in New York, (London: Methuen, 1950)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Dublin, (London: Methuen, 1953)
• Chiang Yee, A Chinese Childhood (New York: John Day, 1953)
• Chiang Yee, Chinese Caligraphy, (London: Methuen, 1955)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Paris (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Boston (New York: W. W. Norton, 1959)
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in San Francisco (New York: W. W. Norton, 1963) ISBN 0393084221
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller in Japan (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972) ISBN 0393086429
• Chiang Yee, The Silent Traveller’s Hong Kong Zhuzhi Poems (1972)
• Chiang Yee, Some Chinese Words to be learnt without a teacher, (Privately published; date unknown)
• Chiang Yee, Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique (Harvard: University Press, 1973 3rd ed.) ISBN 0674122259
• Innes Herdan (tr.), 300 Tang Poems, (Far East Book Co., 2000) illustrated by Chiang Yee. ISBN 9576124719

• Da Zheng, 'The Traveling of Art and the Art of Traveling: Chiang Yee's Painting and Chinese Cultural Tradition',
• Da Zheng, 'Writing of Home and Home of Writing', Comparative American Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 488-505 (2003)