Abstract
Ginling College (“Ginling”) was the first institution of higher learning in China to grant bachelor’s degrees to women. Located in Nanking (now Nanjing) and founded in 1915 by western missionaries, Ginling had already graduated nearly 1,000 women when it merged with the University of Nanking in 1951 to become National Ginling University.

The University of Michigan (“Michigan”) has had a long history of exchange with Ginling. During Ginling’s first 36 years of operation, Michigan graduates and faculty taught Chinese women at Ginling, and Ginlingers furthered their studies at Michigan through the Barbour Scholarship. This paper highlights the connection between Ginling and Michigan by profiling some of the significant people and events that shaped this unique relationship. It begins by introducing six Michigan graduates and faculty who taught at Ginling. Next we look at the 21 Ginlingers who studied at Michigan through the Barbour Scholarship (including 8 Barbour Scholars from Ginling who were awarded doctorate degrees), and their status after returning to China. Finally, we consider the lives of prominent Chinese women scholars from Ginling who changed China, such as Dr. Wu Yi-fang, a member of Ginling’s first graduating class and, later, its second president; and Miss Wu Ching-yi, who witnessed the brutality of the Rape of Nanking and later worked with Miss Minnie Vautrin to help refugees in Ginling Refugee Camp.

Between 2015 and 2017, Ginling College celebrates the centennial anniversary of its founding; and the University of Michigan marks both its bicentennial and the hundredth anniversary of the Barbour Gift, the source of the Barbour Scholarship. The present discussion seeks to provide context for the anniversaries of these extraordinary institutions and the inspiring relationship between them that has endured for a century.

Keywords: Jinling College, Jinling nüzi daxue 金陵女子大學, Nanjing 南京, Nanking, Christian colleges, Jiangsu 江蘇, female education, women's colleges, Presbyterian mission, Wu Yifang 吳貽芳.

Author preface:
"The Seven Sisters colleges (“the Seven Sisters”) was a consortium of seven liberal arts colleges for women located in Northeastern United States, founded between 1837 and 1894: Mount Holyoke College, Vassar College, Wellesley College, Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and Radcliffe College. (Radcliffe and Vassar are no longer part of the consortium.)
Ginling College (“Ginling”), located in Nanking (now Nanjing), China and founded in 1915 by Western missionaries, was the first institution of higher learning to grant bachelor’s degrees to women in China. It had already graduated 999 women when it merged with the University of Nanking in 1951 to become National Ginling University.
This paper sheds light on the connection between the Seven Sisters and Ginling by profiling some of the significant people and events that shaped this special relationship, with an emphasis on the connection between scholars from Smith and Ginling. Each chapter begins by introducing Seven Sisters graduates or faculty who went to China to teach at Ginling, especially two prominent ones: Mrs. Thurston from Mount Holyoke, the first president of Ginling; and Dr. Ruth M. Chester from Smith, who was the longest serving faculty member from the West at Ginling.
The paper also profiles thirty-one Ginling alumnae who studied at the Seven Sisters, including what became of them after returning to China, with a focus on three well-known Ginlingers: Dr. Hu Siu-ying, Ms. Yen Tsai-yun, and Ms. Hwang Li-ming."