Wu Guozhen

Wu Guozhen

Wu Guozhen (1903-june 6, 1984) was born in Jianshi, Hubei Province. He was admitted to Tianjin Nankai Middle School in 1914. After graduating from Nankai, Wu Guozhen studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing. After graduating in 1921, he went to the United States to study. After receiving a master's degree in economics from Grinnell college, he received a doctor's degree in political science from Princeton University in 1926. After returning to China in 1926, he entered politics. On December 7, 1949, the Kuomintang regime moved to Taipei. In April 1953, he resigned as "provincial president" due to the "Wu Guozhen incident" and went to the United States with his wife. He was employed by the Chicago Tribune as a consultant on Far East issues. In 1966, Wu Guozhen was a professor at Armstrong University in Savannah, Georgia, until he retired. He was invited to visit the mainland on June 6, 1984, but failed to make the trip and died of illness.

Life of the characters

Wu Guozhen (1903-1984) was born in Jianshi, Hubei Province.

In his early years, he successively studied in Nankai Middle School and Tsinghua University. After graduation, he went to study in the United States and obtained a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University.

In 1926, after returning to China, he entered politics. He was the land director and finance director of Hankou city,

In 1928, he became the director of Finance Department of Hubei Province;

In 1932, he became mayor of Hankou.

In 1939, he became mayor of Chongqing.

In 1942, the Chongqing tunnel massacre occurred, Wu Guozhen was removed from office.

In 1943, he became the Vice Minister of administration of the Ministry of foreign affairs,

In 1945, he became the propaganda minister of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang.

He served as mayor of Shanghai from February 1946 to March 1949.

In April 1949, he went to Taiwan and successively served as the "chairman" and "Executive Yuan" of Taiwan Province.

On December 7, 1949, the Kuomintang regime moved to Taipei. On December 15, Wu Guozhen replaced Chen Cheng as "chairman of Taiwan Province" and "security commander" and "administrative member of the Executive Yuan".

In April 1953, he resigned as "provincial president" due to the "Wu Guozhen incident" and went to the United States with his wife. He was employed by the Chicago Tribune as a consultant on Far East issues.

In May 1953, because of his different political views with the Chiang family in Taiwan, he asked for leave to go to the United States to engage in education and writing.

In 1954, he was ordered by Chiang Kai Shek to remove his position as a member of the government affairs committee and expel him from the national party.

In 1966, Wu Guozhen was a professor at Armstrong University in Savannah, Georgia, until he retired.

In 1984, he was invited back to the mainland for sightseeing, but failed to make the trip. On June 6, Wu Guozhen died in the United States.

Early years

In 1903, Wu Guozhen was born in liangshuibu village, Hongyan Town, Jianshi County, Hubei Province (the former residence of Mr. Wu Guozhen and the private school Wu's ancestral hall that Mr. Wu Guozhen read are also being restored in 2009). His father, Wu Jingming, who was the director of military training of the army Department since childhood, lived in Beijing.

In 1914, at the age of 10, Wu Guozhen was admitted to Tianjin Nankai Middle School.

After graduating from Nankai, Wu Guozhen studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing. After graduating in 1921, he went to the United States to study. After receiving a master's degree in economics from Grinnell college, he received a doctor's degree in political science from Princeton University in 1926.

Nankai years

Wu Guozhen and his brother Wu guobing both studied in Nankai Middle School in Tianjin. At that time, Wu Guozhen was only ten years old and was the youngest student in Nankai Middle School. When principal Zhang Boling inspected the dormitory at night, he saw that he had kicked off the quilt and covered it for him.

In 1914, Wu Guozhen was admitted to Tianjin Nankai Middle School with excellent results. He soon became a close friend with Zhou Enlai, who was only 16 years old. He once joined the "jingyelequn Association" with Zhou Enlai as its president. The purpose of the association is: "to take intellectual education as the main body, and end up in morality, connect the feelings of students, and make up for the lack of teaching.". "Wu was then Minister of the children's Department of the society. After Zhou's death, Wu was very sad.

In 1982, his eldest son-in-law brought a picture of Zhou Enlai's brother-in-law from China. He felt it in his heart and wrote a poem: "seventy years, now I see it again.". He became a brother and later became a different Lord. The dragon is rising and the tiger is changing. Although there are different approaches, the purpose is the same. I will not pay, Jun Hua sprinkles soil. Life is impermanent, tears break Shapu. "He expressed his deep thoughts for his close friend who was a classmate more than 60 years ago and his lifelong regret for his failure to meet Zhou Enlai in his lifetime.

Zhou Enlai and Wu Guozhen are two Chinese figures in the 20th century. In the words of Huang Zhuoqun, Mrs. Wu Guozhen's wife, they are "classmates in different ways". "Classmate" refers to Zhou and Wu who were very good middle school classmates in Nankai. "Different ways" refers to their political separation.

Zhou Enlai doesn't have to say that if he opens a resume of Wu Guozhen: he graduated from Nankai and was admitted to Tsinghua University, and Tsinghua University graduated from North America.

Five years in North America, he received a Ph.D. from the Department of politics, Princeton University. After returning to China, he devoted himself to politics and joined the Kuomintang. He once served as secretary of Chiang Kai Shek's Chamberlain, and later as mayor of Hankou. When the Anti Japanese war broke out, he served as mayor of Chongqing. After the restoration, he was re elected Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang and mayor of Shanghai. After going to Taiwan, he paid homage to the "Chairman and security commander of Taiwan Province.". Such a "sesame blossom" curriculum vitae is naturally "different" from Zhou Enlai, one of the leaders of the Communist Party of China.

Although Wu Guozhen later (1953) and Chiang Kai Shek, who promoted him by himself, also cut their robes and went to the United States to expose the party state system of Chiang Kai Shek and his son in North America, it did not mean that he was against Chiang Kai Shek and agreed with Zhou. As a liberalist with the background of studying in the United States, his anti Chiang Kai Shek is anti autocracy. Therefore, from his whole life, he was anti Jiang (the latter half of his life) and anti communist (the whole life), but not anti Zhou. Not only is it true that "Tao is different" but "talk to each other", and personal friendship will last forever.

Study in the United States

After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1921, Wu Guozhen was recommended to study in the United States. He first studied at greenell University, majoring in economics and municipal engineering. In the graduation examination, Wu Guozhen got a in all subjects (the best), but got B + in Ideological and political course (second only to a). Coincidentally, Wu Guozhen spent most of his life as the chief executive of various provinces and cities, such as the mayor of Hankou in 1932, the mayor of Chongqing in 1939, and the mayor of Shanghai in 1946.

During his stay in the United States, he had a good friendship with Guo Taizhen, the younger brother of Guo Taiqi, the ambassador of the national government to the United Kingdom, and established a close relationship with Song Ziwen and Song Meiling, which laid an opportunity for him to return to China and engage in politics in the future. After going to Taiwan in his later years, Wu Guozhen, a civil servant, and sun Liren, a military general, were both suspected by Chiang Kai Shek and abandoned. Sun was under house arrest for Chiang Kai Shek all his life, but Wu went to the United States safely under the care of his wife. In his later years, he still called Mrs. Jiang "a very attractive and charming woman" and "Mrs. Jiang has always been very good to me and my wife.". During the war, there was even a rumor that Wu Guozhen had an affair with Song Meiling. Wu Guozhen and Song Ziwen were very close in the past. Even when there was a conflict between the Song family and Chiang Kai Shek, the Song family thought of asking Wu Guozhen to mediate.

In 1926, Wu Guozhen received his doctorate in political science from Princeton University and set out to return to China. Before long, Wu Guozhen entered the official career and began his 30-year career.

Academic career

Wu Guozhen first came to the United States and made a living by speaking and writing. He signed a three-year contract with the Chicago Tribune to write reviews for it, and he also traveled to the states of the United States to give lectures. Wu Guozhen hopes to teach in an institution of higher learning. In fact, with his education background, experience and talents, he should be the target of many institutions of higher learning. However, in the 1950s, many American universities discriminated against the Chinese. At the same time, some famous universities had some so-called "China experts" who controlled the forum, manipulated the publications and excluded Chinese scholars for their own survival. Hu Shi, who has more than 30 doctorates, came to the United States in April 1949. Originally, he planned to find a teaching position in the universities in the eastern part of the United States to make a living. Because of human factors, he was excluded from the University Forum. As a result, Hu Shi was forced to work as an administrator of Columbia University's gersted Oriental library, earning $300 a month. He was deeply aggrieved by his daily cataloguing and sorting of old papers.

In this context, Wu Guozhen's wish to find a teaching position in the university has not been realized. Until 1963, Wu Guozhen was invited to give a speech at Armstrong college in Georgia. Wu Guozhen's character, ethics, moral standards and profound knowledge have left a deep impression on the School President Henry ASIMO. Later, Armstrong changed from a three-year college to a four-year university. He was short of professors majoring in history and philosophy. President Henry warmly invited Wu Guozhen to teach at the school. In 1965, Wu Guozhen was invited to Armstrong University as a professor of oriental history and philosophy with an annual salary of more than US $4000.

written polemics

In his second year of teaching at Armstrong University, Wu Guozhen had a protracted lawsuit with the Journal of Asian studies. Asian Studies is the Journal of American Asian society. Its predecessor is far east quarterly founded by Fei Zhengqing and others. It is an authoritative journal on Asian and Chinese issues.

When Wu Guozhen read the books about the local government of Qing Dynasty published in the United States, he found that the contents of these books were not sufficient, and there were often fallacies. In order to clarify the nature, composition, functions and personnel system of local government in Qing Dynasty, Wu Guozhen wrote an article "local government in the era of Chinese monarchy" in English and posted it to "Asian Studies".

Wu Guozhen himself has been a local senior official for more than 20 years and has accumulated a lot of information on local government issues. He wrote in this article

Chinese PinYin : Wu Guo Zhen