Hu Dunfu (Chinese: 胡敦復; Wade–Giles: Hu Tun-fu; 1886 – December 1, 1978) was a Chinese mathematician and pioneer in higher education. He won a Qing government scholarship to study at Cornell University, and became the first dean of Tsinghua University at the age of 25. He was then briefly dean of Fudan University, before establishing Utopia University in 1912 and developing it into one of China's best private universities. He also served as head of the mathematics department of National Chiao Tung University and the first president of the Chinese Mathematical Society, which he co-founded in 1935.
Early life and education
Hu Dunfu was born in 1886 into a prominent family of scholar-officials in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, a descendant of the Song dynasty scholar and educator Hu Yuan (胡瑗; 993–1059).[1] When he was 11, he was accepted by the elementary school of Nanyang Public School (now Shanghai Jiao Tong University), and later attended its secondary school.[2] When his teacher Ma Xiangbo left Nanyang to establish Aurora University and later Fudan University, Hu, together with Huang Yanpei and others, followed Ma and became the first students at Aurora and then Fudan.[3]
In June 1907, Hu won a government scholarship to study in the United States, and entered Cornell University in September. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics in only two years, and returned to China in August 1909.[2]
Career in China
In April 1911, the U.S. government established Tsinghua College in Beijing, using part of the Boxer indemnity payment made by the Qing dynasty.[4] Hu Dunfu was hired as the first dean of Tsinghua, at the age of 25.[2][3] In summer, eleven Tsinghua faculty members established Lida Society to promote education in China, with Hu as its head.[1] In November 1911, during the Xinhai Revolution, the Lida Society members resigned from Tsinghua after disagreements with the college's American administrators, and left Beijing for Shanghai.[5] Hu was hired by Ma Xiangbo as dean of Fudan University, but soon left the school after a student strike.[1]
Utopia University, founded by Hu Dunfu in 1912
In March 1912, Hu and his colleagues of Lida Society founded Utopia School in Nanshi, Shanghai, with Hu as its first president.[1][5] Under his leadership, Utopia was certified as a university in 1922, and developed into one of the two most reputable private universities in China, the other being Nankai University in Tianjin.[1][5]
As the Chinese Communist Party defeated the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, Hu Dunfu followed the retreating Kuomintang government to Taiwan in 1949. The new Communist government of the People's Republic of China closed Utopia along with many other private schools in 1952, and its departments were split up and merged into six public universities in Shanghai.[5] Hu tried to re-establish Utopia University in Taiwan, but was ultimately unsuccessful.[1]
Later life in the United States
Hu later moved to the United States, where he taught at the University of Washington until his retirement in 1962. He died on December 1, 1978, in Seattle, at the age of 92.[2]
References
^ abcdefMa Xueqiang (19 November 2012). 中国知识分子创办的大同大学 [Utopia University, established by Chinese intellectuals]. Wen Hui Bao (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
^ abcdefZhang Youyu (August 2008). 中国现代数学家传 [Biographies of Modern Chinese Mathematicians] (in Chinese). Jiangsu Education Press. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
^ abShi Wen (21 April 2011). 胡敦复：复旦大学的开山弟子 [Hu Dunfu: the first student of Fudan University] (in Chinese). Tsinghua University. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
