Yenching University 1934 - 1937

My father was sent to study first in Shanghai and then later in Beijing because he was a fairly good student according to his teachers, foremostly his own maternal uncle, Chong Jin Bok and his aunt, Mrs. JB Chong.

Rev James Hoover was very supportive of him and had encouraged my grandfather to send his eldest son, my father, to study in China.

According to my grand aunt, Rev Hoover wrote a few letters of introduction and so did Lau Kah Tii, the Chinese Foochow Headman. My grandfather was very fair to his first three sons, so my father and his two brothers started to study in Shanghai  in a Christian college. There were also other boys from Sibu studying in Shanghai, like Lau Kah Tii's sons.

In 1934 my father was enrolled in the Yenching university, Peking (in those days) when he qualified. The other student from Sibu who qualified was Wong Cheng Ang, from Sg. Merah. The two have been the best of friends from their younger days.

The Yenching university had a unique history because of John Leighton Stuart who was appointed as the Principal of the University in 1919. He had taught Greek in Nanking Theological Seminary 金陵神學院 (where Rev Ling Kai Cheng studied)



This photo is from the Yenching University Year book, 1937





This photo is from Wikipedia.

He raised funds to build the Yenching University and Charles Martin Hall, an American gave an endowment. Stuart bought the royal gardens of a Qing Dynasty Prince and he built a scenic campus. He is known as the Father of Yenching University.

Theology, Law and Medicine were the main schools with Arts and Science studies as minors.

John Leighton Stuart was a missionary educator, the first President of Yenching University and later United States ambassador to China. He was a towering figure in U.S.-Chinese relations in the first half of the 20th century, a man TIME magazine called "perhaps the most respected American in China." Wikipedia