Li Yih-yuan

Li Yih-yuan (Chinese: 李亦園; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí E̍k-oân; 20 August 1931 – 18 April 2017) was a Taiwanese anthropologist.

A native of Quanzhou, Fujian, born in 1931, Li moved to Taiwan in 1948 and graduated from National Taiwan University in 1953.[1][2] Two years later, he began working at Academia Sinica.[1][2] In 1960, Li earned his master's degree from Harvard University.[1][2] He was elected to membership within Academia Sinica in 1984.[1][2] That same year, he founded the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at National Tsing Hua University,[1][2] serving as dean of the college until 1990.[1][3] Li remained on the faculty until 1999,[1] a year after he had retired from Academia Sinica.[2] He later taught at National Taiwan University as an adjunct professor.[4] Li was founding president of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation from 1989 to 2001, when he assumed the foundation chairmanship, yielding the latter position in 2010.[1][3]

In later life, Li was diagnosed with heart disease.[2] He fell ill with pneumonia in 2017, and died on 18 April that year, aged 85, while seeking treatment at the Taipei Medical University Hospital.[1][3] The Academia Sinica held a memorial service for Li in September 2017.[5] Subsequently, in November 2018, the Academia Sinica invited P. Steven Sangren to give the inaugural Li Yih-yuan Memorial Lecture.[6]