People · diplomat, Shanghai circuit intendant, businessman
Yang Cheng
杨晟Yáng Chéng · b. 1867
Cantonese diplomat and official who studied in Germany, served as minister to Austria and Germany, and held the Shanghai-Haiyang circuit post in 1914-1915.
Yang Cheng (杨晟, Yáng Chéng) was a Cantonese official and diplomat who held the senior Chinese post at Shanghai in 1914-1915.
Born in Dongguan, he studied briefly in Japan before entering the Tongwen Guan in Beijing, then read law at Leipzig, taking a master’s degree. Back in China in 1894 he taught German at the Imperial University and worked for the Grand Council and the Board of Works. In 1900 he was invited to help manage foreign affairs and mines in Shandong. He became Qing minister to Austria in 1903, moved to Germany in September 1904 and returned to China in 1907.
After the 1911 Revolution he held several posts in Shandong and was a Foreign Ministry commissioner in Jiangsu. In May 1914 he became circuit intendant of Shanghai-Haiyang (沪海道尹), the successor to the Shanghai daotai, and resigned in October 1915. He then went into industry and commerce in Shanghai, heading associations promoting Chinese-made goods, and in later life led the Guangdong native-place association. In 1921 he was sent to study conditions among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.