Ginling College
University in China
Ginling College (simplified Chinese: 金陵女子大学; traditional Chinese: 金陵女子大學), also known by its pinyin romanization as Jinling College or Jinling Women's College, is a women's college of Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing, China. It offers both bachelor's and master's degrees. It offers six undergraduate majors: applied English, accounting, financial management, labor and social welfare, food science and engineering, and food quality and safety. Master's degrees are offered in food science, agricultural products processing, and storage, and women's education.
Ginling College traces its roots to the Christian college of the same name founded in 1913, which started operations in 1915 and was the first institution to grant bachelor's degrees to female students in China. The school was closed from 1951 to 1987, when it was reestablished on its previous site.
American architect and art historian Talbot Hamlin designed some of the buildings that were constructed in the 1919 to 1925 period.
Wu Yi-Fang, who was one of Ginling's first five graduates and earned a doctorate degree from the University of Michigan in 1928, became the first Chinese woman to head a college in China, heading Jinling College from 1928-51 until it merged with the University of Nanking in 1951. Wu, who became a powerful figure in the People's Republic of China as a patriotic woman educator, worked tirelessly to reopen the school. However, it did not ultimately reopen until 1987, two years after her death.
The public source identifies “Ginling College” as university in China. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ginling, College and University.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ginling College”, the useful work is to connect “university in China” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4570201. VIAF identifies the subject as 173736192. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 1915, 1951 and 1987.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ginling College”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ginling College primary sources, Ginling College archive and Ginling research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ginling College”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ginling College” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.