Cochran to lecture on 'greatest Cornellian' Hu Shih

Hu Shih
Shih

Sherman Cochran, the Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History Emeritus, will deliver the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative’s inaugural lecture, “The Greatest Cornellian: Hu Shih, Class of 1914,” on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 5 p.m. in Howard and Abby Milstein Auditorium.

Cochran nominates the man for whom his professorship is named, Hu Shih (1891-1962), as his candidate for the title of the greatest Cornellian. Hu Shih went on to become the leader of China’s new culture movement (1919), the Chinese ambassador to the United States (1938-42), the chancellor of Peking University (1946-48) and president of the Academia Sinica (1957-62).

 Cochran will detail Hu Shih’s profound intellectual and personal awakenings during his days at Cornell and how these moments defined his life as a philosopher, critic, language reformer and international diplomat.

The Cornell Contemporary China Initiative (CCCI), established by the East Asia Program, is a forum for scholars, researchers and students with interests in contemporary China. CCCI will invite speakers to the university starting in the spring 2015 semester to give talks on a wide array of interdisciplinary issues, such as the contemporary Chinese economy, politics and society. This weekly seminar series will be made available to students as a one-credit undergraduate course.

For more information, email cornell-cci@cornell.edu or visit eap.einaudi.cornell.edu/contemporary_china_initiative.

Media Contact

Joe Schwartz