This undated photo shows Chinese American businesswoman Shirley Young. (GAO TIANPEI / CHINA DAILY)
Shirley Young, a former vice-president of General Motors, has died at age 85. She is best known for her key role in the automaker's billion dollar investment in China's auto industry through the Shanghai SAIC-GM joint venture.
Young had just celebrated Christmas at home with her three sons, David, William and Douglas Hsieh, before passing away at a hospital in New York City on Saturday.
In her later years, Young became an ardent supporter of the arts. As an accomplished pianist, she believed she had the power to transcend ideological boundaries.
She worked closely with internationally renowned Chinese and Chinese American artists to foster cultural ties between her ancestral and adopted homes. Artists she worked with include pianist Lang Lang, composer Tan Dun, and Shen Wei－the dance choreographer behind the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
In recent years, despite the downturn of China-US relations, she continued to call for greater understanding between our two countries. Her passing is a loss to both China and the United States, and she will be remembered forever.
Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai extended his deepest condolences to Young's family on Monday, calling her "an outstanding lady, who not only had great business achievements, but also devoted her lifetime to advocating the interests of Chinese Americans and the mutual understanding between the Chinese and American people".
Cui said the Committee of 100, which Young co-founded in 1990, has been "an important bridge for China-US political, economic, cultural and educational exchanges".
"In recent years, despite the downturn of China-US relations, she continued to call for greater understanding between our two countries," he said. "Her passing is a loss to both China and the United States, and she will be remembered forever."
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Together with other prominent Chinese Americans including the late architect I.M. Pei, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and philanthropist Oscar Tang, Young helped establish the Committee of 100 and remained active in the organization for the rest of her life. She was also a founding member of the Committee of 200, an international organization of leading businesswomen.
Born in Shanghai on May 25, 1935, Young was the second daughter of Juliana Young Koo, a Shanghai socialite in the 1920s and one of the first women to graduate from the renowned Fudan University, and Clarence Kuangson Young, a Princeton University graduate and diplomat who represented China in a number of postings including London, Paris and Manila.
Shirley Young came to the US with her mother and sisters at the end of World War II from the Philippines, where her father was taken away from their home and later executed by the occupying Japanese during the war.
A graduate of Abbot Academy and Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Young became a trailblazer in marketing during her three decades at Grey Advertising, pioneering the use of psychographic research and brand character.
Business success
In the early 1990s, she became involved in GM's efforts to expand in China and was asked to move to Shanghai, where she was made vice-president for China Strategic Development and Asia Pacific counselor. Young worked to achieve GM's goals by understanding the needs of its Chinese counterparts and of the many entities that had a role in the auto industry and the joint venture approval process.
Young's business success led her to invitations to serve on the boards of many corporations, often as the first woman and the first Asian American. Corporate boards she served on include Bank of America, Bell Atlantic－now known as Verizon, and Holiday Inn/Promus/Harrah's. This included serving as the vice-chairman of the New York Stock Exchange's nominating committee.
READ MORE: Interview: Chinese market critical for GM's survival through financial crisis
She also served on the boards of many arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Lang Lang International Music Foundation and the National Dance Institute.
In 1997, she was instrumental in organizing a major concert to commemorate the return of Hong Kong to the motherland.
In a show of love to her birthplace, Young launched Dancing Into the Future, an initiative jointly sponsored by the National Dance Institute in New York, the China Welfare Institute Children's Palace and the Shanghai Minhang school district in 2012. The project has given more than 10,000 elementary and middle school students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds the opportunity to study dance.
In 2018 and 2019, Young produced an exhibition named Wellington Koo the Diplomat－A Life in Song in Shanghai and New York, paying tribute to her late stepfather V.K. Wellington Koo, a much revered Chinese diplomat who signed China into the United Nations on June 26, 1945, and later married Young's mother in 1959.
Speaking about her early education, Young once wrote, "… everything is connected; it ultimately doesn't matter whether it's art, or economics, or language, they're all connected. So if you can connect the dots, you really can make things happen."
A firm believer in the future of both the US and China, Young told China Daily in an interview in March, "China did a fantastic job not just for its people but for the whole world. But at the same time, I have faith in America to be able to deal with the current pandemic using its own strength."
At the time of her death, Young was completing a professional memoir titled From an Outsider to an Insider: Getting to Win-Win.
Young recalled answering a question during one interview from potential employers about her long-term goal. And to which she answered, "Making the world a better place.
Chen Yingqun in Beijing and Xinhua contributed to this story.
