Princess Der Ling

(1885 - 1944)

The daughter of a mixed-heritage Chinese nobleman who served as a minister, first to Japan and then to France, Princess Der Ling was educated in Paris, where she studied dance with Isadora Duncan, before serving as first lady-in-waiting to the Empress Dowager Cixi. She was not a true princess—the title was conferred by Cixi, who had been effectively deposed in 1898—and was valid only at the palace, which Der Ling left in 1905. She moved to Berkeley in 1942 to teach Chinese language and died there after being hit by a grocery delivery truck at the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph.