Y. C. James Yen
Y. C. James Yen (traditional Chinese: 晏陽初; simplified Chinese: 晏阳初; pinyin: Yàn Yángchū; Wade–Giles: Yen Yang-chʽu, October 16, 1890/1893 – January 17, 1990), known to his many English speaking friends as "Jimmy," was a Chinese educator and organizer known for his work in mass literacy and rural reconstruction, first in China, then in many countries. After working with Chinese laborers in France during World War I, in the 1920s Yen first organized the Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement to bring literacy to the Chinese masses, then turned to the villages of China to organize Rural Reconstruction, most famously at Ding Xian, (or, in the spelling of the time, Ting Hsien), a county in Hebei, from 1926-1937.