Obituaries

In Memory of Wang Liu Pei Chang 王劉佩璋

Wang Liu Pei Chang passed away in the comfort of her home on November 16, 2017, due to complications from a recent stroke. She was 93 years old. She is predeceased by her husband, Wang Ke Cheng, and her daughter, Susan Wang Wade, and lovingly survived by her four children, twelve grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and countless dear friends and extended family members.

Pei Chang was born in Shanghai, China on April 14, 1924, the daughter of Liu Sien Shuen and Liu Wang Shien Sian. From the start, her zeal for life and fiercely independent streak were clear. While the custom of the time was for women to marry young to a carefully-selected suitor, Pei Chang defied the odds. Her graduation from Shanghai University signified this; she was the first woman in the Liu family to attend college. A skilled linguist who could switch seamlessly between Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese, German, and English depending on her audience, Pei Chang was a well-learned and articulate woman. Her nearly six-decades long marriage to husband Wang Ke Cheng proved she was more than capable of finding her own lifelong partner and charting their life together.

Together, Pei Chang and Ke Cheng celebrated life alongside their five children, daughters Judy (b. 1949), Susan (b. 1951, d. 2016), Jean (b. 1952), Eunice (b. 1954), and son John (b. 1955). After time in China, Hong Kong, and Germany, Pei Chang made a permanent home for herself in America.

A lifelong learner and dedicated artist, Pei Chang spent the latter decades of her robust life carefully honing her many talents. Singing traditional Beijing opera was a particular joy of Pei Chang’s, a passion that began in her midlife and continued in earnest well into her nineties. Never one to sit idly by, Pei Chang reveled in performing for others, starring in one-woman shows and competing in local pageants. Her companions at the Aegis Gardens assisted living facility noted that even the night before her stroke, she was singing karaoke in front of her peers, making them smile and laugh as she was known to do. She developed a wide array of fine arts skills over the past thirty years, becoming an avid painter skilled in several media including oil, watercolor, and traditional Chinese styles. Her canvases and cards now decorate the homes of her children and grandchildren. She also learned to play acoustic guitar as well as the traditional Chinese yueqin (moon guitar) and erhu (Chinese fiddle), performing with her local community-based band of senior citizens as well as partaking in weekly private lessons. More so than her many talents and skills, however, Pei Chang will be tenderly remembered as a loving, joyful, high-spirited, and independent mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Her inner spark and fidelity to her own ideas about what constitutes a healthy and fulfilling life have left an indelible mark on the lives of the many friends and family members she touched over the years. May she rest evermore in peace.

The family of Wang Liu Pei Chang will be arranging a private memorial at Fremont Chapel of the Roses. The service will be followed by burial at the Gates of Heaven Cemetery, located at 22555 Cristo Rey Drive, Los Altos, CA, 94024.