Professor Yu Ying-Shih is an alumnus of New Asia College. After obtaining his PhD from Harvard University, he was appointed as a professor of Chinese history at the same university. In 1973, Professor Yu returned to the Chinese University of Hong Kong to serve as the Head of New Asia College and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the university. Two years later, he resumed teaching at Harvard.
Professor Yu wrote extensively about the history of China’s intellectual class. He pays particular attention to the scholarship and demeanour of individual intellectuals, such as Fang Yizhi in late Ming dynasty, Dai Zhen and Zhang Xuecheng in the early Qing dynasty, and Hu Shi and Gu Jiegang in the republican period. His works include dozens of books, such as Scholars and Chinese Culture, Ethics of Religion and Business Spirit in Modern China, Zhu Xi’s Historical World, Late Life of Fang Yizhi, and On Dai Zhen and Zhang Xuecheng. In 2006, Professor Yu became the first ethnic Chinese to win the John W. Kluge Prize.
