Biography
C. K. Yen was born in Wuxian (吳縣; modern day Xiangcheng and Wuzhong districts) in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He came of the Suzhou prestigious family, Dongshan Yan Family (東山嚴氏). He graduated from St. John's University in Shanghai with a degree in chemistry.
Yen previously served as Minister of Economic Affairs, minister of finance, and Governor of Taiwan Province. He became premier on December 15, 1963. In 1966 the National Assembly elected Yen as Vice President and re-elected him in 1972. He became the second President following the death of Chiang Kai-shek and was later succeeded by Chiang's son, Premier Chiang Ching-kuo. After his presidency, Yen served as Chairman of the Council on Chinese Cultural Renaissance and Chairman of Board of the National Palace Museum until 1991.
Yen died in Taipei City at the age of 88. He was buried at the Wuchih Mountain Military Cemetery in New Taipei City.
Read more about this topic: Yen Chia-kan
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)