Yan Yangchu’s contribution and influence

Yan Yangchu has been committed to civilian education for more than 70 years since the 1920s. He is known as the "Father of the World Civilian Education Movement". Together with Mr. Tao Xingzhi, he is also known as "Yan from the South and the North". His civilian education practice in Dingxian, Hebei from the 1920s to the 1930s left a large amount of tangible and intangible property for Dingxian and even Hebei. According to statistics in the 1980s, Dingzhou (i.e. Dingxian) was the only country without illiteracy in Hebei Province. County; the improved cotton, apple, poplar and other crops introduced by Yan Yangchu in the 1920s and the improved chickens introduced and bred are still widely welcomed by local farmers; in addition, the "barefoot doctors" and related training programs that were common in rural China in the 1970s were all inherited from The contents of Yan Yangchu’s experiments in Dingxian County and the pilot political system reforms such as the direct election of village officials implemented in some rural areas in mainland China in the late 1990s were all repeating the experience of Dingxian County that year. After the Nationalist Government moved to Taiwan in 1949, it drew heavily on Yan Yangchu's experience in establishing counties in rural construction. The progress of rural areas became an important foundation for Taiwan's economic development in the future.

To this day, there is a comprehensive state-run senior high school named after Mr. Yan Yangchu in Dongting Town, Dingzhou City, Hebei Province. The school was founded in 1995 and is located 500 meters east of Dongting Village, Dongting Town, Dingzhou City. Soon after Yan Yangchu left mainland China, he left Taiwan for the United States, where he assisted developing countries in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia in promoting civilian education movements.

In 1956, with the help of Yan Yangchu, the Philippines established the International Rural Renovation Institute and realized a truly democratically elected parliament. The International Rural Renovation Institute has been in operation to this day, specializing in promoting Yan Yangchu’s ideas on civilian education to third world countries and assisting third world countries in training civilian education teachers.

After Yan Yangchu immigrated to the United States, he devoted himself to promoting his rural education concept to the world and served as a consultant to UNESCO. With his assistance, less developed countries such as the Philippines, Ghana, and Colombia have implemented similar plans. In 1917, when Yan Yangchu was elected president of the Yale Chinese Association, he met Xu Yali, the daughter of Xu Qin, a Chinese pastor in New York. Xu Yali came to Shanghai in 1920 and taught at the Women's Physical Education Normal College. On September 23, 1921, Yan Yangchu and Xu Yali got married. Xu Yali died suddenly of a heart attack on August 8, 1980. Treatment failed.

In Yan Yangchu’s later years, at the invitation of Zhou Gucheng, then Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress, he regained the opportunity to return to mainland China. In 1985, he was allowed to visit Dingxian County, Hebei Province, and met with some relatives, colleagues and alumni. , and was received by Deng Yingchao, then Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In 1987, he returned to visit China again. Yan Yangchu died of illness in the United States on January 17, 1990.

In 1993, Yan Yangchu’s eldest daughter Yan Qunying sent part of his ashes back to Bazhong for burial in accordance with his will. In 1997, Yan Yangchu's mausoleum was built in Tazi Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Badada.