Gulangyu called home by famed intellectuals

Islanders of note

Lin Yutang (1895-1976), who migrated to the island at the age of 10, is a famous writer, linguist and translator.

The work to compile Lin's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage was undertaken at the then newly founded Chinese University of Hong Kong. The vast index was published in 1972.

His many works represent an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between the East and the West. Lin was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1940 and 1950

Lin Qiaozhi (1901-1983) was China's top obstetrician and gynecologist. She revolutionized the modern field in China and blazed new trails for the country. Her research achievements are still honored by China's obstetrics and gynecology circles to this day.

Ma Yuehan (1882-1966) was China's founder of modern sports theory and a professor at Tsinghua University.

Lu Hanzhang (1854-1928) was the founder of China's pinyin system, which is the official phonetic system for transcribing Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabets on the mainland, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is often used to teach standard Chinese in classrooms across China.

Gulangyu is the birthplace of Zheng Nankun and Zhu Xiaoping, just two of the many noted Chinese scholars at the United Kingdom's Cambridge University.

Thanks to its reputation as an island of music, the island has produced world-level pianists.