In August of 1976 in Oxford, I bought a secondhand book entitled "Vital Factors in China's Problems" (1971 reprint, first edition was Shanghai,1927), edited by Lee Teng-Hwee, Litt.D. This was eleven years before Lee Teng-hui (李登輝, born Jan 15, 1923; PhD in Agricultural Economics, Cornell 1968) became the President of Taiwan in January 1988.
Only in the new millennium did I notice the similarity of the names, Lee Teng-Hwee and Lee Teng-hui. Clearly, from chronology, they are different people. But who is Lee Teng-Hwee?
Google, Wikipedia and WWW have answered my question two years ago. Lee Teng-Hwee and Lee Teng-hui share the identical Chinese name, 李登輝. They are both remarkable figures.
Lee Teng-Hwee (Li Denghui, 1873-1947) (English Wikipedia article, Chinese Wikipedia article) was born in West Java, educated at the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore in 1888-1891, and graduated with BA from Yale University in 1899. He was the founding President (1917-1937) of the prominent Fudan University (复旦大学) in Shanghai.
For more details, see this article on Li Denghui, by Earnest Lau, the archivist of The Methodist Church in Singapore (and this similar article).
For greater depth, read (in Chinese) "过去的大学" (武汉长江文艺出版社,2005年12月), 钟叔河,朱纯编, p247-260. (ISBN 7-5354-3142-9)
ps. Another prominent scholar (in sociology and history) and educator in China with a Singapore background is Chen Xujing (陈序经,1903–1967). (English Wikipedia, Chinese Wikipedia, Chinese Baidu). He was a student at the Primary Section (育英小学), Yock Eng High School (now Yuying Secondary School) (1913?-1918?) and, for only days, The Chinese High School (华侨中学) in Singapore, and earned a PhD in Political Science, with a dissertation on sovereignty, at the University of Illinois in 1928. He was the president or vice president at several universities in China.
A brief biography in Chinese:
陈序经(1903-1967),广东(今海南)文昌县人,现代著名的社会文化学大师,社会历史学家、教育家。他出生于华侨商人家庭,早年先后就学于海南文昌致远小学、新加坡育英小学、广东岭南中学、上海沪江大学生物系和复旦大学社会学系。1925年发表《读志随笔》,同年赴美国伊利诺大学攻读政治学和社会学,1926年获硕士学位,1927年获博士学位,博士论文是:“Recent Theories of Sovereignty”(《现代主权论》)。1928年学成回国任教于广州岭南大学社会学系。1929年与岭南大学教育学系毕业班学生黄素芬女士在新加坡结婚,后同赴德国继续深造,先在柏林大学研究政治学、主权论及社会学,后转到基尔大学世界经济研究院研究国际公法。为了便于广泛的搜集资料,深入开展研究工作,除已精通的英文外,这期间又学习掌握了德文、法文和拉丁文。原计划在德国的研究工作告一段落以后,继续到英国、法国及其他欧洲国家学习考察,因1913年父亲病重,放弃在欧洲的研究考察工作,回国继续任教于岭南大学,兼领中山大学的教席。 陈序经1934年接受南开大学经济研究所的聘请,任研究教授主持该所研究部工作。抗日战争爆发后,先参与筹建北大、清华、南开联合建立的长沙临时大学,不久又随校到昆明任西南联合大学教授兼法商学院院长,同时还兼领已内迁到达重庆北碚的南开经济研究所的研究工作,直到1946年8月联大结束,北大、清华、南开三校复校为止。其间1944年8月到1945年8月应邀赴美讲学一年,前半年到美国各地讲中美关系和国共合作,后半年在耶鲁大学主将主权论。1946年8月,返回天津任南开大学教务长兼经济学院院长及经济研究所研究主任,主持复校后的教学与研究工作。1948年8月出任岭南大学校长。但每年仍回南开从事三四个月的研究工作。 1952年院系调整时,岭南大学与中山大学合并,陈序经任中山大学筹委会主任。1954年任中山大学历史系教授,主持筹建中山大学东南亚研究室,1956年被任命为中山大学副校长,1962年暨南大学在广州复校后兼任该校校长。1964年8月调任南开大学副校长。1967年2月19日因心脏病突发在南开大学逝世,享年64岁。
pps. Gu Hongming (辜鴻銘, July 18, 1857 - April 30, 1928) is also noteworthy.
Here appear occasional jottings of my random musings. Profound or jejune, they reveal the contours of my mental universe, with world history, intellectual history, civilizations, philosophy, religion, society, knowledge, and books as some major themes. Since May 2011, this blog has been exclusively focused on Singapore. All my other reflections are now posted in "Notes from Noosphere" (see link under "Miscellany" on the right margin).
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The other 李登辉 (Li Denghui), Singapore-educated founding President of Fudan University (复旦大学)
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