Early Years, 1920-1935

Mei Lanfang's 1930 Visit

From its beginnings, the University of Hawai'i's programs included content on the languages, cultures, and arts of Asia, helping to center these subjects in modern US higher education. UH benefited greatly from the support of members of the Hawai'i Chinese community, who advocated for the creation of the university, generously funded scholarships, and otherwise supported its academic programs. Hawai'i-born Chinese were also the largest group of students in UH Chinese language classes.

At the time when the field was being developed at UH in the 1920's, "China" was usually defined as the Republic of China, the most populous nation in the world, whose numerical majority ethnic group was Han. Taiwan was then a Japanese colony; Hong Kong was a British colony. Within a few decades significant research on linguistic and ethnic diversity in Asia was carried out, including by UH faculty; and war, decolonization, and political transformation redrew political maps more than once. The meaning of Chinese studies as an academic field has continued to evolve.

Establishing a University

View from the rear of Mānoa Valley towards Honolulu

What is now the University of Hawai'i began as a College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts in 1907 in downtown Honolulu. In 1912 the university moved to the mouth of the verdant Mānoa valley in Southwestern 'Oahu. Mānoa was a highly productive agricultural area. Under the stewardship of the Native Hawaiian people, the valley was home primarily to taro farms. As Chinese and Japanese families filled the valley, land use transitioned to vegetable and flower farms.

Hawai'i at that time was still largely rural, with half of all workers employed in the agricultural sector. The early university curriculum focused on technical subjects such as cement manufacturing, use of farm machinery, and sugar production technologies. Second language instruction included French and German, while the sciences were represented by bacteriology, entomology, and zoology. A dairy and other agricultural training units located on campus reflected Hawai'i's economy at that time.

During World War I, increasing trade across the Pacific, as well as rising sugar prices, led to higher appropriations of public funds for the College. By the end of the war, the College enrolled some 100 undergraduate students.

William Kwai Fong Yap 葉桂芳 (1873-1935)

Calligraphy by Dr. Hu Shih appeared in Yap's publication of the history of the university

The founding and development of the University of Hawai'i took place during an era when Hawai'i became first a US territory then a state. An independent nation whose sovereignty was never voluntarily relinquished, Hawai'i became a US territory after the violent overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. The US territorial system was the structure within which calls for a publicly funded university were implemented in the early decades of the 20th century.

In 1919, Honolulu-born William Kwai Fong Yap 葉桂芳 (1873-1935) petitioned the legislature to create a university that would offer both a Bachelor of Arts degree as well as graduate degrees. A father of over ten children, Yap believed that a public university in Hawai'i would provide an affordable and high-quality education. An outstanding university could also attract students from the continental United States and around the world, while offering an alternative to costly educations far from home. In 1920, a new university was inaugurated, including a new College of Arts and Sciences to include humanities fields.

Chinese studies began at the founding of the university. Undergraduates were required to take language classes, choosing from Chinese, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Spanish. All students took two years of a second language; for students studying Chinese or Japanese, the requirement was three years.

Some 15% of the UH student body was of Chinese ancestry (compared to c. 17% of Hawai'i's overall population), and they were the largest cohort taking Chinese language classes. Courses in Asian history and social sciences were also part of the university curriculum starting in 1921. Students could choose from either the History of Japan, Chinese History, and European Expansion in the Pacific Area.

In 1923, there were 32 students taking Chinese language and history classes; a decade later, there were over 105 students taking classes in Chinese language, in addition to 98 taking Chinese civilization, 65 taking Chinese history, 60 taking Asian religions, and 53 students studying Chinese literature taught in English.

UH also encouraged non-Asian heritage students to study Asian languages, "either on account of its cultural value or its practical economic usefulness." The university offered separate classes for Asian heritage learners, and for "haoles" or white non-Hawaiians. Courses were also offered in Modern Chinese Prose, Advanced Chinese Prose and Essays, and Contemporary Chinese Literature.

In university social life, students established sororities and fraternities as well as a branch of the national Chinese Students Alliance. Productions of traditional Chinese theater were held on campus. Chinese churches and social organizations, a varied periodical press, and Chinese-language radio and film programming made for a vibrant cultural environment. According to the Chinese Students Alliance, in 1933 some 20% of all Chinese students in American higher education were studying at the University of Hawai'i.

Curriculum and Faculty

In 1928, the University of Hawai'i established a department of Oriental Studies, which combined the faculty in both Chinese and Japanese language instruction. Offering advanced study in Asian languages was a way to support the future professional competitiveness of UH students, many of whom were of Asian ancestry. It was also hoped to address racial prejudice by exposing people to ways of thinking among groups unlike themselves. Already in the 1920's, the idea of Hawai'i as a place of particularly peaceable relations among different racial groups led to phrases like "the Geneva of the Pacific." Although racial prejudice shaped public life in Hawai'i in important ways, the territory was celebrated as a model of egalitarianism and lack of racial prejudice, especially in comparison to the continental US, where Jim Crow laws barred African Americans, Asians, and people of many other racial and ethnic groups from employment, education, housing, and freedom of marriage.

King Kahehameha (c. 1758-1819) in the 1929 Ka Palapala yearbook

From the first year of the teaching of Arts and Sciences at the University, the curriculum included both Chinese and Japanese language. The first Chinese instructor was Tien Mu Wang or Wang Tianmu 王天木 (above), who was a well known intellectual with a diverse educational background including a law degree from Tokyo. The quality of the university was a source of pride for local students, who included a note on UH being the "Oxford of the Pacific" in the 1930 yearbook.

Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1868-1940), seated, with colleagues including Tien Mu Wang (standing, second from right), part of a delegation to a conference on Pacific education, held in Honolulu, 1921

In 1922, UH hired Shao Chang Lee 李照昌 (1891-1977), a Presbyterian minister and specialist in Chinese literature and philosophy. Lee was educated at Lingnan and Qinghua Universities, Yale, and Columbia. After working for the YMCA in San Francisco, where he met his wife, Nora Chi-Oi Wong 黃芝愛 , he moved to Honolulu to serve as pastor of a Chinatown branch of the First Chinese Church of Honolulu (below, the main branch building in the late 1920's), where Nationalist Party leader and one-time Provisional President Sun Yat-sen 孫中山 (1866-1925) had also worshipped. Lee remained at UH for twenty years, until he was hired by Michigan State University.

Shao Chang Lee's wife, Guangdong-born Nora Chi-Oi Wong, attended the private Christian Biola University in Los Angeles before moving to Honolulu. She was a popular hostess who entertained students and other faculty wives.

Shao Chang Lee often hosted students for teas and other events at home. He built a special rock garden as a tool to teach students about literati culture.

Extension courses offered by Shao Chang Lee and other faculty provided community members with an opportunity to learn Chinese language and learn more about Chinese history, philosophy, and current affairs

Shao Chang Lee published Chinese-language teaching materials in the local paper, like this explanation of the zhuyin zimu 注音字母 phonetic system, first developed in 1912 and still used in Taiwan.

Students and Community Life

Student Associations

Starting in the 1880's, Chinese immigration to Hawai'i was severely constrained by the Chinese Exclusion Acts, with the result that the majority of local people of Chinese heritage were born in the territory. Although a slightly smaller group at UH than their representation in the general population, students at UH of Chinese heritage were highly active in campus life. Students founded a branch of the Chinese Students' Alliance, fraternities and sororities (at that time often aligned with ethnic groups), and literature and drama societies, and joined organizations like the ROTC.

Chinese Art at the Honolulu Museum

The Honolulu Museum (previously the Honolulu Academy of Art) was founded by art collectors and scholars with deep interests in Asian art, including the art and architecture of China. Catharine Elizabeth Bean Cox (1865–1964), known in local society by her married name Mrs. Isaac Cox, received a BA from Bryn Mawr College in 1889 and moved to Hawai'i soon after her marriage. A Punahou School instructor, she helped museum founder Anna Rice Cooke research and catalog her art collection, and served as director of the museum from 1927 to 1928. She also lectured at UH on the history and philosophy of Chinese art.

In addition to its collections of Asian art, the Honolulu Museum features the Joanna Lau Sullivan Chinese Courtyard, an homage to Chinese literati courtyard gardens which was built with the museum's original construction in 1926.

Mei Lanfang's 1930 Visit

Advertisement for Mei Lanfang performances, Liberty Theater, Honolulu

P.C. Chang speaks to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1930

Mei Lanfang entertained by the Footlights, a local theater group, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 24, 1930

In summer 1930, Honolulu hosted the Peking Opera superstar Mei Lanfang 梅蘭芳 (1894-1961). Honolulu was the last stop of Mei's US tour, which was organized by Nanking University philosopher P.C. Chang (Zhang Pengchun 張彭春, 1892-1957), who later taught briefly at the University of Hawai'i.

Dr. Chang's comments at the time of Mei Lanfang's tour, specifically during his stop in Honolulu, are characteristic of some of the rhetoric of the time regarding Chinese modernization. "Our aim is to become creatively modern, and yet remain Chinese," Dr. Chang was quoted in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The vision of a China deliberately adapting in response to Western institutions was a counterpart to the idea, embodied by the UH curriculum, of incorporating Chinese studies as a way to move past a Eurocentric view of art, philosophy, literature, and history.

Drama performed on the UH campus, 1938

Alumni

The University of Hawai'i has educated many students who went on to distinguished careers in science, education, service, business, and the arts. Chinese American alumni and community members continue to demonstrate significant support for the work of the university and its programs.

Ruth Lu Tet Yap (1902-1981) earned a BA in mathematics from UH in 1923 before earning an MA from Columbia University. She returned to UH to teach mathematics.

Hiram Leong Fong (born Yau Leong Fong 鄺友良 , 1906 – 2004), BA '30, was the first person of Chinese descent elected to the US Congress. He served as a senator from 1959-1977.

Daniel Kahikina Akaka (1924 –2018, Chinese name Li Shuo 李碩 ), BA '52, MA '66, served as a United States Senator from 1990-2013.

Wah Kau Kong 江華九 (1919-1944) graduated from UH with a bachelors degree in Chemistry in 1940 before joining the US armed forces. He became the first Chinese American fighter pilot.

Honolulu-born Li Ling Ai, or Gladys Li 李靈愛 (1908-2003), UH '30, was a pilot, actress, and film producer. After studying drama at the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, in 1941 she produced the feature film Kukan about China's wartime struggle against Japanese invasion. Kukan won an Academy Award, the first documentary film to do so. Independent filmmaker Robin Lung has made Finding Kukan (2016) about Li's film and its significance (see Resources page).

Li Ling Ai yearbook photo

Li Ling Ai in Ka Palapala, the UH yearbook

Poster for Kukan

Li Ling Ai's memoirs

Dr. Kalfred Dip Lum 林叠 (1889-1979)

The establishment of the University of Hawai'i was regarded by its early graduates as a momentous event. "This University is a living thing, for any real university is alive," wrote Honolulu-born Dr. Kalfred Dip Lum 林叠 (1889-1979), BA '22, who was said to be the first person of Chinese ancestry to earn a BA from the university.

Lum went on to earn a MA from Columbia and a PhD from NYU, before returning to Hawai'i to teach Political Science at UH. In addition to his academic work, he served the Nationalist Government in a number of positions.

Lum wrote that UH "is a thing of life and of a life which consists of the purest and loftiest ideals. With it we can accomplish great things for Hawai'i, for the peace of the Pacific Area, and for the cause of enlightenment among mankind."

Left: Lum as a Columbia student, c. 1924-25, and in the Oakland Tribune, 1938

Dr. Dai Ho Chun 陳帝河 (1905-1994)

Dai Ho Chun 陳帝河 (1905-1994, UH class of 1931), born in Waipio on Hawai'i Island, was an Air Force veteran who served at the rank of lieutenant colonel in World War II.

In peacetime he became an educator, working first as a public school teacher and then joining the UH Mānoa College of Education as faculty. He later became director of the International Cooperative Center, a forerunner of the East-West Center, where he served for 14 years.

Dr. Chun and his family generously established the Dai Ho Chun Chair in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the Dai Ho Chun Distinguished Chair in Educational Leadership in the College of Education.

Left: Dr. Chun's 1931 yearbook photo.

Hung Wo Ching 程慶和 (1912-1996)

Hung Wo Ching 程慶和 (1912-1996) only spent a year as an undergraduate at UH in 1931, but made an outsized contribution to the University.

After graduating from McKinley High School in 1931, he spent a year at Yenching University before completing his BA at Utah State University and a doctorate at Cornell. He was an early investor in Aloha Airlines and sat on the boards of corporate, educational, and charitable institutions in Hawai'i and nationally.

Starting in 1964, he raised funds from the Hawai'i business community to support the East-West Philosophers' Conference. For three decades, he raised funds to underwrite the travel expenses of hundreds of scholars who attended the conference.

In addition, his participation in the conference as a person of considerable academic accomplishment and professional success was greatly welcomed by participants. He was particularly admired for his commitment, according to philosophers Eliot Deutsch and Roger Ames, to "deep commonalities among all human beings," the "recognition and the knowledge of which could enrich considerably human understanding."

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