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St. John's University, Shanghai

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St John's University
聖約翰大學
Motto
學而不思则罔
思而不學則殆
Motto in English
Light and Truth
TypePrivate university
Active1879–1952
AffiliationAnglican
PresidentFrancis Lister Hawks Pott
Location
Shanghai
,
China
Websitewww.sjuaa.org
St. John's University, Shanghai
Traditional Chinese聖約翰大學
Simplified Chinese圣约翰大学
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShèng Yuēhàn Dàxué
Wade–GilesSheng Yüeh-han Ta-hsüeh
IPA[ʂə̂ŋ ɥéxân tâɕɥě]
St. John's College on Jessfield Road

St. John's University (SJU) was an Anglican university in Shanghai. Founded in 1879 by American missionaries, it was one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China, often regarded as the Harvard of China.[1]

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist government closed the university in 1952 and its departments were merged into various other universities in Shanghai. Its campus was taken over by the newly established East China Institute of Politics and Law.

To keep the school's traditions alive, SJU alumni (called Johanneans) funded three academic institutions around the world bearing the name of St. John's:

History

The university was founded in 1879 as "St. John's College" by William Jones Boone and Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, by combining two pre-existing Anglican colleges in Shanghai. The architect for the college's original quadrangle of buildings was Newark, New Jersey architect William Halsey Wood.

St. John's began with 39 students and taught mainly in Chinese. In 1891 it changed to teaching with English as the main language. The courses began to focus on science and natural philosophy.

In 1905, St. John's College became St. John's University, and became registered in Washington D.C. in the United States. It thus had the status of a domestic university and American graduates of St. John's could proceed directly to graduate schools in the United States. As a result, the university attracted some of the brightest and wealthiest students in Shanghai at the time. It was the first institution to grant bachelor's degrees in China, starting in 1907.

The university was located at 188 Jessfield Road (now Wanhangdu Lu), on a bend of the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai, and was designed to incorporate Chinese and Western architectural elements.

In 1925, some academics and students fled from the St. John's University, later forming the Kwang Hua University. In 1951, Kwang Hua University was incorporated into East China Normal University.

The university survived World War II and the Chinese Civil War. However, in 1952 the Communist government adopted a policy of creating specialist universities in the Soviet style of the time. Under this policy, St Johns was broken up. Most of its faculties were incorporated into the East China Normal University. The medical school was incorporated into Shanghai Second Medical College, which became the School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2005. The campus became the site of the East China University of Politics and Law.

Notable alumni

Administration

  • Francis Lister Hawks Pott, President of St. John's College 1888 to 1896, President of St. John's University from 1896 to 1941
  • William Z.L. (SiLiang) Sung was the Vice President of St. John's University under Francis Lister Hawks Pott and later the first Chinese born Acting president during WWII. He was accused of collaboration with the Japanese after the war, imprisoned, and later acquitted. He was helped lead the first two delegations from China to the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. He emigrated to the USA and became a priest in the Episcopal church working as a Chaplin with the Diocese of California.
  • William Payne Roberts, instructor and acting president in the absence of Pott (needs verification)
  • David Z.T. Yin, Rector of the University, was a distinguished Chinese scholar who had represented the YMCA in Shanghai at the turn of the century.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Yang Wu. "Founding of SJC". University of British Columbia. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  2. ^ Newsletter, SJUAA
  3. ^ Hevesi, Dennis. "Dr. Thomas Dao, Expert on Treatment of Breast Cancer, Dies at 88", The New York Times, July 25, 2009. Accessed July 26, 2009.
  4. ^ a b "Founder of China's private Minsheng Bank dies". Reuters. 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2009-09-21.

Further reading

  • Seeds From The West : St John's Medical School, Shanghai, 1880-1952. Chen, Kaiyi; Imprint Publications, Chicago, 2001. ISBN 1879176386
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