Stephen Yang was born in 1911 in
Chongqing,
Sichuan, and raised by parents of the
Quaker faith (Religious Society of Friends). In 1922, he lived at the Friends Middle School on the campus of the
West China Union University in
Chengdu, cofounded by
American Baptist Foreign Mission Society,
American Methodist Episcopal Mission,
Canadian Methodist Mission, and
Friends' Foreign Mission Association. After graduating from the Union University in 1938 with a medical degree, he became a teacher at its
College of Medicine while continuing his medical training. In 1942, Yang married Ruth Dsang, daughter of Lincoln L. G. Dsang, second president of West China Union University. The wedding took place in Chengdu. Dsang converted to
Quakerism from
Methodism upon marriage. In the late 1940s, the couple traveled to
Washington, D.C. and
Philadelphia for their
residency training, where they spent several days at
Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation with
Anna and
Howard Brinton, who had visited them in Sichuan in 1944. They also toured hospitals in the United States and Canada. Yang spent one year (1970–1971) in prison during the
Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s, after his "
rehabilitation", he attended several international meetings and was involved in the
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. After retiring from the
West China Medical University, he had continued working as a mentor to English teachers sent by
British Quakers to teach at the university. == See also ==