Hu Shih

Hu Shih, also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese philosopher, diplomat, and educator who was born in Shanghai in 1891. He studied at Cornell University and Columbia University in the United States, where he was influenced by John Dewey and pragmatism. He returned to China in 1917 and became a professor of philosophy at Peking University. He was a leader of the May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement, which advocated for the use of vernacular Chinese in literature and education, as well as for the reform of Chinese culture and society. He wrote many essays and books on Chinese philosophy, history, and literature, such as The History of Chinese Philosophy, The Chinese Renaissance, and The Development of the Logical Method in Ancient China. He also translated works by Western philosophers and writers, such as Bertrand Russell, Immanuel Kant, and George Bernard Shaw. He was a supporter of democracy and liberalism, and opposed communism and totalitarianism. He served as the Chinese ambassador to the United States from 1938 to 1942, and as the president of the Academia Sinica from 1957 to 1962. He died of a heart attack in Taipei, Taiwan in 1962. He was regarded as one of the most influential and respected intellectuals of modern China.