Biographical Note
Herold J. Wiens was born in Shanghang, Fukien Province (China) on Dec. 26, 1912. His ancestors were Mennonites from the Netherlands. Mennonite migration brought the Wiens family to Russia, to the United States and then to China in 1910.
Herold Wiens was educated and lived in China until he was fourteen years old at which time his family moved to Reedley, California. During his formative years in China, Wiens developed a knowledge of Chinese culture, and became fluent in Mandarin Chinese and the Hakka dialect. He attended Reedley High School where he graduated in 1931. He received his undergraduate college education at the University of California (Berkeley).
In 1936, Wiens returned to China for advanced study and research at Yenching University in Beijing. There he studied with several of most noted China specialists from the United States. Before returning to the United States in 1940, Wiens worked at the U.S. Embassy in Hankou and Chungking for two years. During World War II he worked in the American Embassy in Chongqing, returning to the United States in 1946. His war-time correspondence and reports gave vivid accounts of the bombing and devastation in war-time China.
Wiens began graduate school in 1946 at the University of Michigan and completed M.A. and Ph.D. programs, graduating in 1949. His celebrated academic career included a nineteen year tenure at Yale University, three years at the University of Hawaii, and one year at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. He was awarded Fulbright Fellowships twice, once in 1961 and again in 1964, and he was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was one of the most accomplished China geographers of his generation and he educated many young scholars at the three universities where he taught. Professor Wiens died on September 15, 1971.
Herold Wiens’ biography can be found in Adina Wiens Robinson, China Beckoning (Oakland, Calif. : Positive Press, 1991); and Hao-jan Chu, “Biography of Herold J. Wiens,” in Biographical Literature, 19:6 (December, 1971), Taipei, Taiwan.
Publications
- Asia with focus on China / by Herold J. Wiens and Margaret Fisher Hertel. -- Grand Rapids : Fideler Co., [1964] 260 p. : ill., maps (part col.), ports, ; 25 cm. -- (Depth-study textbooks) Bibliography: p. 248.
- Atoll environment and ecology. New Haven, Yale University Press : 1962. xxii, 532 p. illus., maps, charts. 24 cm. (SIM report ; no. 27) Bibliography: p. 485-504.
- China.-- Grand Rapids, Fideler : [1962] 192 p. illus., maps. 28 cm. (Life in other lands)
- China [by] Herold J. Wiens. -- Grand Rapids : Fideler Co., 1965. 192 p. illus., maps. 28 cm. Summary: A textbook for the upper elementary grades. Describes the land, people, and life of Communist China, a country of nearly eight hundred million inhabitants.
- China.--Grand Rapids, Fideler Co. : 1966. 160 p. ill., maps. –(Life in other lands)
- China [by] Herold J. Wiens. Grand Rapids, Fideler Co. : [1967] 192 p. illus., maps. 28 cm.
- China. Kit.-- Grand Rapids, Mich. : Fideler Visual Teaching, c1970. 45 social studies pictures and visual teaching text. (A social studies picture program)
- [China's march into the tropics] China's march toward the tropics; a discussion of the southward penetration of China's culture, peoples, and political control in relation to the non-Han-Chinese peoples of south China and in the perspective of historical and cultural geography, by Herold J. Wiens. Hamden, Conn., Shoe String Press : [1954]. xv, 441 p. : illus., maps. 23 cm. First published in 1952 under title: China's march into the tropics. "Bibliographical references": p. [373]-389. "Bibliographical references in Chinese language": p. [391]-393.
- China's march into the tropics; a discussion of the southward penetration of China's culture, peoples, and political control in relation to the non-Han-Chinese peoples of South China and in the perspective of historical and cultural geography. Prepared under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research, United States Navy, Washington, 1952. iii, 221 p. ill., maps. 28 cm. Includes bibliographies.
- [China's march into the tropics] Han Chinese expansion in South China, by Herold J. Wiens. [Hamden, Conn.] : Shoe String Press, 1967 [c1954] xv, 441 p. illus., maps. 22 cm. "Originally published under the title: China's march toward the tropics"--T.p. verso.
- China's march into the tropics [microform] : a discussion of the southward penetration of China's culture, peoples, and political control in relation to the non-Han-Chinese peoples of South China and in the perspective of historical and cultural geography / Prepared under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research, United States Navy, by Herold J. Wiens. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Office of Technical Services, 1952. iii, 221 p., 34 leaves of plates : maps. Bibliography: p. 217-219. Microfilm. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service, 1954. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. Low reduction.
- China's march toward the tropics; a discussion of the southward penetration of China's culture, peoples, and political control in relation to the non-Han- Chinese peoples of south China and in the perspective of historical and cultural geography. Hamden, Conn. : Shoe String Press [1954]. xv, 441 p. : illus., maps. 23 cm. First published in 1952 under title: China's march into the tropics. "Bibliographical references": p. [373]-389. "Bibliographical references in Chinese language": p. [391]-393.
- China's march toward the tropics : a discussion of the southward penetration of China's culture, peoples, and political control in relation to the non-Han- Chinese peoples of south China and in the perspective of historical and cultural geography / by Herold J. Wiens. Hamden, Conn. : Shoe String Press, c1954. xv, 441 p. : ill., maps. ; 23 cm. First published in 1952 under title: China's march into the tropics. Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Field notes on atolls visited in the Marshalls, 1956 / by Herold J. Wiens. Washington, D.C. : Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences-- National Research Council, 1957. 23 p. ; 28 cm. (Atoll research bulletin ; no. 54)
- The geography of Kapingamarangi atoll in the eastern Carolines. New Haven, Conn. : Yale University, 1955. ii, 86 [8] p. illus., maps (part fold.) (Scientific Investigations in Micronesia. Report, no. 21) Bibliography: p.[94]
- The geographical environment of the Narragansett Bay Region / Herold J. Wiens. 1953. 25 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.–(Technical memorandum no. 16; (ESL:421:Serial 2)), 27 April 1953. Edwards Street Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut." TM 16, NR-238-001. Contract Nonr-609(02)" Includes bibliographical references.
- The geography of Kapingamarangi Atoll in the Eastern Carolines. Washington, D.C. : National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Pacific science board, June 30, 1956. ii, [92] p. tables. 27 cm.–(Atoll research bulletin, no. 48)
- The geography of Kapingamarangi atoll in the eastern Carolines. New Haven, Conn. : Yale University, 1955. ii, 86 [8] p. ill., maps (part fold.)–(Scientific Investigations in Micronesia. Report, no. 21) Bibliography: p.[94]
- Han Chinese expansion in South China, by Herold J. Wiens.--[Hamden, Conn.] : Shoe String Press, 1967 [c1954] xv, 441 p. ill., maps. 22 cm. Reprint of the 1954 ed. which was a revision of a work first published in 1952 under title: China's march into the tropics. Includes bibliographies.
- Mongolia, by Herold J. Wiens. [Prepared with the co-operation of the American Geographical Society. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1967] 63 p. ill. (part col.), col. maps, col. plates. 21 cm. (Around the world program)
- Pacific island bastions of the United States. Princeton, N.J. : Van Nostrand, [1962] iv, 127 p. ill. 20 cm. (Van Nostrand searchlight books, #4)
- Pacific island bastions of the United States / by Herold J. Wiens. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1984, c1962. iv, 127 p. : maps ; 23 cm. Reprint. Originally published: Princeton, N.J. : Van Nostrand, c1962. Bibliography: p. 123-124. Includes index. ISBN 0313243883 (lib. bdg.)
- Pacific island bastions of the United States. Princeton, N.J. : Van Nostrand [1962] 127 p. illus. (Van Nostrand searchlight books, #4)
- The Shu Tao, or the road to Szechuan; a study of the development and significance of Shensi-Szechuan road communication in West China. 1948. 200 leaves, fold. map in pocket at back.-- Reproduced from typewritten copy. Thesis, University of Michigan. Bibliography: leaves 194-200.
- The Shu Tao, or, The road to Szechuan [microform] : a study of the development of Sheni-Szechuan road communication in west China. -- Ann Arbor, MI : University Microfilms, 1948. Microfilm copy of typewritten ms. Made in 1948 by University Microflims (Publication no. 1122) Positive. Collation of the original: 200 leaves, ill., maps (part folded) 30 cm. Thesis--University of Michigan. Abstracted in Dissertation abstracts, v. 9 (1949) no. 1, p. 116-117. Bibliography: leaves 194-200.
- Some effects of geographic location upon land utilization in the coral atolls of Micronesia / Herold J. Wiens.--[s.l. : s.n.], 1963. p. 157-162. 26 cm. Bibliography: p. 162.