Jump to content

Talk:Ruth Mulan Chu Chao

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Untitled

[edit]

Fyi this page is supposed To be details on the Harvard Business School building NOT A REDIRECT TO A PERSON

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Hhebert01 (talkcontribs) 16:58, 9 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't the first sentence of the article just be a general statement on the person, not just quoting what harvard says?

Sources and article content

[edit]

I'm concerned that this article doesn't have much in the way of independent sources. Out of eighteen references:

  • 7 are published by Harvard, in relation to a Harvard Business School building paid for by Chao's family years after her death. Four of these are published by the business school itself as thanks.
  • 2 are published by the Foremost Group, a company founded by Chao's husband.
  • 3 are personal obituaries.

Every single citation in the "Personal life" section comes from one of these non-independent sources. No sources, affiliated or independent, were published during Chao's lifetime. In addition, the seven remaining sources consist of:

  • A news story covering the death of Ruth's independently notable daughter, Angela. Ruth is not mentioned once in this article.
  • A news story about Ruth's other daughter, Elaine, commenting on Gov. Charlie Baker's transportation policy. Ruth *is* mentioned here, only once: "[Elaine] graduated from Harvard Business School, which is now home to the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, named after her late mother."
  • Another article about the building. This one does talk about Ruth a bit, but as it speaks mostly of her character and love for her family, as opposed to any actions during her life, doesn't really establish notability in my opinion.
  • A press release from 2015 honoring the foundation posthumously named after Ruth Chao, as well as her family, for philanthropic donations. Ruth is never mentioned independently in this press release - every mention of her is either the name of the foundation or as "Dr. and Mrs. Chao".
  • Yet another article about the building. The only mention of Chao herself reads:
"The center will be named after [James Chao's] late wife, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao.
"My mother was an incredibly inspiring person," Elaine Chao said. "She was a positive, optimistic person who believed in the transformational power of education regardless of gender in developing leaders for the world. Throughout our formative years, she always emphasized our responsibility to contribute to society and being kind and generous to others."
"[My mother] believed that men and women should be treated equally, and she and my father made sure her six daughters were equipped with the tools they needed to realize their dreams".

It seems to me that the building is notable - in fact, it already has its own WP article. However, I don't know if these sources can establish notability for Ruth herself, and considering that the bulk of the article seems to be about people other than Ruth, I wonder if parts of this might be better merged into that article. I'm also open to other suggestions for improvement in this article.

Per WP:Independent sources, "Reliable third-party sources should verify enough facts to write a non-stub article about the subject, including a statement explaining its significance". Currently, if we only use those statements that cite reliable, third-party sources (references 2, 4, 15, and 16), the article would read, in its entirety, as follows:

Ruth Mulan Chu Chao (Chinese: 趙朱木蘭; pinyin: Zhào Zhū Mùlán; March 19, 1930 – August 2, 2007) was the matriarch of a Chinese-American philanthropic family. In 2016, Harvard Business School dedicated the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center in her honor, making it the first building at the business school named for a woman and an Asian American. Four of Chao's six daughters attended the business school, including former United States Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao and former Foremost Group CEO Angela Chao.
In 2012, the Chao family donated US$40 million to Harvard Business School, supporting the US$35 million construction of the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center and US$5 million to endow a scholarship fund, the Ruth Mulan Chu and James Si-Cheng Chao Family Fellowship Fund, for students of Chinese heritage.At the dedication, Elaine Chao said that her mother "believed that men and women should be treated equally, and she and my father made sure her six daughters were equipped with the tools they needed to realize their dreams...We hope that people will be inspired by the life and spirit of an ordinary yet extraordinary woman."

Thesixthstaff (talk) 16:32, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]