Liao Deshan (; was a Chinese educator of the early 20th century. He was a close friend and advisor of Sun Yat-sen and revolutionaries held meetings at his home. Liao's family played an instrumental role in the modernisation of education in China and in 1890 he also founded Pui Ching Middle Schools 培正中学.
Birth and family background
Liao Deshan was born in Canton in 1866.
His father Liao Xin Tiangong 廖莘田公 and his elder brother were orphans in the mid 19th century. They roamed the streets of Guangzhou, where some Christian proselytizers had set up feeding stations for the hordes of suffering humanity displaced by war and misrule of the Manchus. At age 14, he converted to Christianity. He was self-educated. He became a doctor of Chinese medicine, a Baptist minister fluent in English, and an admirer of democracy.
Education years
Liao Deshan became also a Baptist minister and earned the license of Christian practice as a medical doctor from the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner of the University of Hong Kong) in 1892. There he met Sun Yat-sen. Notably, of their class of 12 students, he and Sun were the only two who graduated. Sun Yat-sen played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and was appointed to serve as Provisional President of the Republic of China, when it was founded in 1912. When Liao Deshan and Sun Yat-sen returned to Guangzhou, Liao's home became a meeting place for the revolutionaries and Liao became one of the founders of Kuomintang. Liao Deshan believed in universal suffrage, advocated the equality of the sexes, education of women, unbinding women's feet, and abolishing polygamy. He, along with Sun and others, went into exile in Japan in 1908, when the Manchus came after them. In 1890 he found the Pui Ching Middle Schools 培正中学 which is still a thriving institution in Hong Kong and Macau, which insisted on excellence in both Chinese and Math, way ahead of his time. Two Nobel Prize winners in physics were students there. He, unusual in his time, or any time, actually practiced what he preached. When he was a young doctor during the 1880s and 1890s, he went from village to village, offering medical care. When the peasants couldn't pay him, they often asked what they could do for him. He asked if they would allow him to unbind their daughters' feet. Quite often, the peasants allowed him; even though it was dangerous to go against age-old customs, because he had saved lives and spared them pain. When his eldest daughter asked why he was so adamant in unbinding women's feet, he replied: "Because women pass their pains onto their children." Liao Deshan originated the slogan: 'Save China through education'.
Family life
Liao Deshan had one wife, and 10 children. Three sons and seven daughters, none of the girls had bound feet, which was rare during the last days of the Qing dynasty. He was employed at Lingnan as a doctor and physiology professor. in exchange for his services he asked his children to be studying there for free. Then, through his connection with the churches in New England, he managed to have almost all his children (his last daughter reached maturity after the passing of her father so was not able to do further studies) to be university educated.
All his children were outstanding people who dedicated their lives to 'Change through education' and all studied at Lingnan University (Guangzhou), (the number in parentheses after their name indicates the order of birth):
廖奉献 (Liao Fengxian) (1) was educated at the College of Wooster and at Wellesley College got a Master in education at Columbia University and was one of the earliest women who went to graduate school. She was instrumental in opening up Chinese universities to women. After she came back to China she served as first dean of the Women's College of Lingnan University.
廖奉恩 (Liao Fengen) (2) was the first Chinese woman who went to Smith College and also got a Master in education from Columbia University. When she returned to Guangzhou she served as Soong Ching-ling (Madame Sun Yat-Sen)'s English secretary; then she served as vice-principal of 广州执信中学 Zhixin High School in 1924 and principal from 1937. She served also on the board of directors of Lingnan University from 1926. Liao Fengen helped translating the famous Baháʼí journalist Martha Root in her visit to Canton in 1924. On 11 April 1924 she wrote to Martha Root: