Pei Pu-yen (right) in 2010 (From National Taiwan University Library Newsletter website)

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) Pei Pu-yen (裴溥言), a renowned literary scholar in the Chinese-speaking world in the second half of the 20th century, died of a brain tumor in Los Angeles in the United States on Saturday (U.S. Pacific time) at the age of 96, according to writer Chi Chi (季季).

Pei, a native of Shandong Province born in 1921, studied at the National Women's Normal College in Sichuan Province during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) before moving to Taiwan at around the time when the Republic of China government was defeated by the Chinese Communists in 1949.

Pei, who taught at the Department of Chinese in National Taiwan University in Taipei, achieved fame for her study and teaching of the "Book of Odes" (詩經), which comprises 305 poems dating from the 11th to 7th centuries B.C.

Pei was diagnosed with a brain tumor in February and her daughter Mi Tai-li (糜黛麗) decided to put her into hospice care.

Pei's husband Mi Wen-kai (糜文開, 1908-1983) was an ROC diplomat who served in India, the Philippines and Thailand. Mi is famous for his translations of Indian literature, including works by Rabindranath Tagore.

(By Chang Shu-ling and Kuo Chung-han)
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