Honoring the achievements of China’s first female architect one hundred years later

2024-06-24T17:38:00-04:00

On May 18, 2024, the University of Pennsylvania awarded Lin Huiyin (林徽因) with an architecture degree, exactly 100 years after they refused to admit her into their undergraduate program because she was a woman. [...] With the news of Lin’s belated degree quickly going viral on Chinese social media, her name is again in the public eye. It is therefore a good opportunity to revisit her legacy and correct the prejudice and stereotypes that have overshadowed Lin’s story.

Lin Huiyin’s story was included in the Weitzman School’s 2022 exhibition ‘Building in China: A Century of Dialogues on Modern Architecture,’ which examined her and her classmates' influence in China after 1920. Often detracting from it are accounts of her personal life and relationship with Liang Sicheng. Lin’s stellar academic coursework went unrewarded even after UPenn’s decision to grant credit to female Bachelor of Architecture students after 1934. Her granddaughter, Yu Kui, accepted the diploma on her behalf at the school's commencement ceremonies last month.

On the evening of May 18th, local time in the United States, at the graduation ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, Lin Huiyin's granddaughter, Yu Kui, accepted the long-delayed degree certificate on behalf of Lin Huiyin from the dean of… pic.twitter.com/TZBPIsARUF
— Hola Fujian (@HolaFujian) May 19, 2024

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Honoring the achievements of China’s first female architect one hundred years later