in English. After publication of the Silent Traveller books, Chiang became friends with a number of British intellectuals and people involved in the arts. Ninette de Valois commissioned him to design the costumes for a performance of the ballet The Birds. People he knew in Britain included Dorothea Hosie, Basil Gray, Noel Carrington, John Laviers Wheatley, Elizabeth Longford, Gilbert Murray and Strickland Gibson. Commentary on his writing: 1933–1955 The books bring a fresh 'sideways look' to places perhaps unfamiliar at the time to a Chinese national: the author was struck by things the locals might not notice, such as beards, or the fact that the so-called Lion's Haunch on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is actually far more like a sleeping elephant. In his wartime books, Chiang Yee made it plain that he was fervently opposed to Nazism. His writings exude a feeling of positive curiosity. Some of his books have been re-issued in recent decades, at times with fresh introductions. Godfrey Hodgson noted Chiang Yee's irony and his comments on British racism. In The Silent Traveller in Oxford (1944), Chiang points out that Chinese people are not allowed to enter Trinity College, Oxford. He describes feeling homesick for China. He writes about the natural world, particularly flowers. 1955–1975: United States After living for some years in a small flat in London and being obliged, during the war, neither to travel nor to take part in the hostilities, on account of being classed as an 'alien', Chiang moved to the United States in 1955. He became a lecturer (and ultimately Emeritus Professor of Chinese) at Columbia University from 1955 to 1957, with an interlude in 1958 and 1959 during which he was Emerson Fellow in Poetry at Harvard University. He became a naturalized citizen in 1966. He illustrated all his books, including several for children, and he wrote a standard work on Chinese calligraphy. 1975–1977: China Chiang died in his seventies in China after spending over forty years away from his homeland, on a day variously recorded as 7 or 26 October 1977. His tomb is on the slopes of Mount Lu nearby his home town Jiujiang. Commemoration In June 2019, 40 years after Chiang's death, a blue plaque was unveiled at 28 Southmoor Road, Oxford where he rented two rooms from 1940 to 1955. The plaque honours his contribution to British and Chinese life. He is thought to be only