A.J. RaoErie Times-News
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By the time Shuhua Wang moved to Erie in 2021, she had had the pleasure of knowing her adult children had taken to heart her most powerful lesson: to study well.
Wang, who died Nov. 6 at the age of 95, had every reason to be a pessimist, raising her children amid the political chaos of 20th century China.
Obituary:Shuhua Wang, 95
But Wang was anything but a complainer. And her single-minded focus on education helped her children defy incredible odds and set the stage for a family legacy of excellence that perhaps only she could envision.
"There was no hope for kids at that time in China," said Yimin Fang, 62, Wang's second daughter. "My mom just believed in one thing: we had to study well. She didn't want us to be stuck there forever."
Generosity and compassion during dark days of revolution
Hope was a tall order for Wang.
She was born in the northeastern Jiangsu Province in China in 1927 and married into a wealthy family in 1945. But circ*mstances took a turn in the mid-1960s, when the Cultural Revolution began.
The sociopolitical movement, which sought to preserve communism in China and purge society of capitalist elements, unleashed years of violence, persecution and unrest.
Wang's husband had family members with anti-Communist ties, marking husband and wife as potential enemies of communism.
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It didn't help that the couple had already moved to a remote mining town in the southern Yunnan Province in the 1950s, as the economic landscape of the country fluctuated under political stress.
There, the couple would raise their five children — four daughters and a son — as living conditions grew difficult and food became scarce.
"We lived in a mountainous area," said Yiwen Fang, 54, Wang's youngest daughter. "There was not enough food for the family, so my mom started to plant vegetables and potatoes and raise chickens at home."
Though Wang worked as a grocer and her husband as an accountant, their meager salaries didn't go far. Yimin Fang said her mother would sometimes skip meals to ensure her children didn't go hungry.
"It was very difficult. She suffered a lot," Yimin Fang said of her mother. "But my mom always had a nice heart even during miserable conditions."
Yimin Fang described how her mother would buy food for others suffering in the area, including a blind man who didn't have money to celebrate the Chinese New Year with his children. Wang also once spent half of her salary to help a co-worker's sick child see a doctor. The child recovered.
Wang also donated clothes to other families in need and learned how to sew and knit to make new clothes for her children.
"She didn't complain. She just did whatever she could," said Yiwen Fang.
Prioritizing her children's education for a better future
Despite Wang's ability to adapt and survive under difficult conditions, she realized her children didn't have much of a future in such a remote location.
Born into an educated family, Wang knew how to read and write and understood how education could provide much-needed opportunities.
"My mom was really the realistic one," said Yiwen Fang. "When she saw this mining town, she didn't want any of us to stay there. And the only way that she could get us out of that place was for us go to college. That's why she encouraged us to read and to do well in school."
Studies became a priority. And books became life, too.
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"My mom and dad always tried to buy books for us," Yiwen Fang said. "We had children's books. The classics. We had a closet of books. Books were a luxury in our home. We did not have any toys or anything, but we had books."
Yiwen Fang said her parents prioritized going to school and always helped with homework if necessary.
The hard work paid off.
Four of Wang's five children would finish high school and attend college following the end of the revolution in the late 1970s. Her eldest daughter married and was unable to attend college due to restrictions still in place. She became a certified public accountant, however.
Yimin Fang attended college in China and earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees in natural sciences. She later earned a doctorate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaignand is now a research scientist in Erie, married to Dr. Steven Wang, chief medical physicist at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.
Yiwen Fang also earned her doctorate in the U.S. and is now a professor of biology at California State University.
Wang's other daughter became a college professor in China and her son an engineer, also in China.
Building a lasting legacy
Yimin Fang said her mother was so proud of her children and even the success of her grandchildren.
Yimin Fang said her oldest son graduated from New York University's Business School and earned a master's degree from Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her younger son graduated from Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has been admitted to medical school at the University of Chicago.
Wang helped to raise both.
In 1996, Wang and her husband immigrated to the United States to help Yimin Fang take care of her children while she studied and while her husband, Dr. Steven Wang, did his residency in Chicago.
Dr. Steven Wang said he affectionately called Wang "Grandma" and was grateful for her support.
"Even in her senior age, she still wanted to help," he said. "She just couldn't stop helping. Any friends that would stop by, she would chat with them and cook something for them, even strangers."
After Dr. Steven Wang got a job in Erie, Wang moved to the Flagship City. Wang's husband of 68 years died in 2013.
Yimin Fang said her mother enjoyed her final years in Erie, especially walks, sunsets and Presque Isle Bay, and welcome tranquility after a lifetime of toil and sacrifice.
"My mom was an optimist," Yimin Fang said. "She was very strong even when she was very weak. That was my mom's attitude toward life. No matter the conditions, she was strong enough to face this world."
A.J. Rao can be reached atarao@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter@ETNRao.
