Zhang Yunhe
Zhang Yunhe (July 25, 1909 – August 14, 2002) was a Chinese writer and scholar of kunqu, a traditional Chinese opera. She was the wife of linguist Zhou Youguang.
She was born in Hefei, Anhui, to educator Zhang Wuling and Lu Ying. Her family was from Suzhou, where her father started local schools. She had many siblings; her elder sister Zhang Yuanhe was a kunqu scholar, her younger sister Zhang Zhaohe was a writer who married Shen Congwen, and her youngest sister Zhang Chonghe was a poet and kunqu singer. Zhang Yunhe had heart disease from a young age.
In 1933 she married Zhou Youguang, and they had a son, Zhou Xiaoping, in 1934. Their daughter Zhou Xiaohe died of appendicitis at age six. During the Cultural Revolution she studied Mao Zedong’s writings at a cadre school, examining the various language versions of Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
In 1996 she revived her family’s publication Water (水) and became editor-in-chief. After 1998 she published several works, including Passionate people are immortal, The last scholarly lady, and Old stories of Zhang family, and prepared Kunqu Diary.
She died on August 14, 2002, from heart disease at age 93.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:44 (CET).