A century of love for China

（People's Daily Online）  08:03, December 18, 2012

Edited and Translated by Zhu Rui, People's Daily Online

Canadian Isabel Crook, a professor of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), has just celebrated her 97th birthday on Dec. 15, 2012.

She is a pioneer of English teaching in new China, spending nearly 70 years in cultivating talents in fields of diplomacy and English teaching. From a young lady to a graceful senior woman, her precious time has been devoted to development of China.

Isabel Crook was born in Chengdu, capital city of southwest China’s Sichuan province. Her childhood was spent in China and Canada.

In 1938, she went back to Chengdu after obtaining the Master in Canada and met an English man David Crook who became her husband later.

In order to write a book on China’s social reform and rural economy, Isabel Crook and David Crook returned to China and conducted social investigations in north China’s Hebei province in 1947.

After that, the couple has been living in China and teaching English in BFSU.

“I’m glad that I spent most of my life in China, which gives me a hard-won opportunity to experience many historic moments in person. If I had been in Canada, I wouldn’t have been able to witness tremendous changes in China,” Isabel Crook said.