China’s Great Liberal of the 20th Centur

Doctor Hu Shih was the most remarkable Chinese intellectual of the 20th century. He was the leading pioneer of vernacular, rather than classical, Chinese. It was widely adopted by schools and the media during the 1920s. His lectures at Beijing University and elsewhere, books and articles influenced tens of thousands of Chinese. From 1938-1942, he served as China’s ambassador in Washington DC and played a key role in persuading President Franklin Roosevelt to enter World War Two on the Chinese side.

Introduction
Chapter One – From Anhui village to Ivy League
Chapter Two – Cornell University — Enlightenment in the New World
Chapter Three – Columbia University — A Life Mentor and a Soul-Mate
Chapter Four – Transforming China
Chapter Five – The 1920s — Political Chaos, but Rich Output
Chapter Six – “If a world war breaks out, both China and Japan will perish”
Chapter Seven – Saving China
Chapter Eight – 1946-49: Despair and Exile
Chapter Nine – Exile & Leading Academia Sinica
Chapter Ten – Legacy — Vernacular as Written Language

Mark O’Neill was born in London, England and educated at Marlborough College and New College, Oxford. He worked in Washington, DC, Manchester and Belfast before coming to Hong Kong in 1978. He has lived and worked in Asia ever since. He has written 13 books on Chinese history and society. Nine have editions in Chinese, simplified and traditional, as well as English. This is the 13th.

“Hu Shi is one of the unacknowledged founders of Modern China. In this accessible, affectionate biography, Mark O’Neill explains why Hu was such a towering figure in Chinese history and — just as importantly – why his legacy has been neglected and at times suppressed.”
–Graham Hutchings, Associate, Oxford University China Centre, and author of China 1949: Year of Revolution

“Hu Shih’s life was extraordinary. Educator, ambassador, linguistic pioneer – Hu Shih’s life encompasses the contradictions and possibilities of modernity in China, as well as reminding us that liberalism was a powerful strand in the shaping of Chinese thought. In Mark O’Neill’s compelling telling, the detail and significance of this thinker comes alive.”
–Rana Mitter
Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, University of Oxford