Huizhou Celebrity --- Hu Shi
Hu Shi was the father of Chinese Renaissance. He even was the teacher of Chairman Mao, because he agreed to allow young Chairman Mao to enter Peking University as an auditor. He was the greatest philosopher, historian, literature master, educationist, diplomatic ambassador, social reformist, and the leader and thought provider of May-fourth Movement in China. He was the multi-cultural learner. In 1910, he entered America for study as a foreign student; totally he studied in Cornell University and Colombia University. He learned from the philosophical master and educationist John Dewey and Hu became Dewey's translator and a lifelong advocate of pragmatic evolutionary change. He returned to lecture in Peking University. During his tenure there, he received support from Chen Duxiu, editor of the influential journal New Youth, quickly gaining much attention and influence. Hu soon became one of the leading and influential intellectuals during the May Fourth Movement and later the New Culture Movement. He led China’s thought and elite reform for widely using the colloquial language instead of the classical language. He appealed to writing the modern poem rather than classical poem. Many of his students successively acted as the backbones of China’s politics, academics, education, and military leaders. Many later scholars or master are all his students. During his time, Peking University was in the golden time for its development.
He was very young when he was invited to be the professor of Peking University by Cai Yuanpei , who was another greatest educationist in modern China. Later he experienced the anti-Japanese war in China during the world war two, during this time he was assigned directly by Chiang-Kaishek to be Chinese ambassador in America for getting the governmental support of America. He did a great contribution to China-US diplomatic relationship. After Japan failed in 1945, he was appointed to be the president of Peking University. He took the pragmatism as his academic maxim or doctrine and in 1962 he died in Taiwan at the age of 71.
