Lin Ruheng

Lin Ru‑heng (1907 – 15 January 1959), courtesy name Bicheng, was a Chinese government official who served both the Republic of China and the Wang Jingwei regime, and later became a businessman and lyricist.

Biography

Lin graduated from Lingnan University in Guangzhou and then studied at Columbia University in the United States.

He served as Secretary to the Executive Yuan of the Nationalist Government. On 2 April 1932 he was appointed a member of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. On 16 December 1933 he became Secretary to the National Economic Commission. On 24 November 1938 he was appointed Counsellor in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Later he joined the Wang Jingwei regime, becoming a Central Committee member on 1939, and on 24 April 1940 was appointed Education Minister of the Guangdong Provincial Government under Japanese occupation. On 3 February 1943 he joined the New National Movement Advancement Committee, and on 7 April 1943 was appointed Political Counsellor to the puppet government. In May 1944 he became a member of the Central Research Academy of the Wang Jingwei regime.

After World War II Lin lived in Shanghai in seclusion. In 1947 he moved with his wife to Tianjin, where he began studying ci poetry. Early in 1948 he emigrated to Hong Kong, settling on Chatham Road, Kowloon; his wife remained temporarily in Tianjin. In 1949 he sent his younger son Chun‑Chia Lin to Harvard University in the United States.

In the 1950s Lin co‑founded Tai Loong Construction in Hong Kong together with Edward T.T. Chan, Chan Tsang‑hei, and members of the Kang family. He was also a member of the prominent ci poetry society “Jianshe.”

Lin died of cancer in Boston in 1959; his ashes were returned to Hong Kong and interred on 2 March 1959.

Family

In 1927 Lin married Wu Jian. They had three children: their elder son Meng‑hsi Lin (1928–2006), daughter Man‑hua Lin (1929–2021), and younger son Chun‑Chia Lin.