Figure: Sir Arthur Currie, taken from Zheng, "Chinese Studies."

Sir Arthur Currie, the president of McGill University since 1920 established the Chinese Studies Department in 1930. He wanted the department of Chinese to be headed by a scholar capable of bringing to Westerners a new appreciation of the oldest civilization and who is also worthy of McGill and enhance its good name. Currie had many challenges in finding the most suitable candidate until Dr. Kiang Kang Hu (Zheng, 2013, 73).

Kiang was recognized as being both intelligent and knowledgeable in the field of Chinese studies and Currie was gratified to have been able to recruit him. Kiang was, however, a controversial figure in the political history of modern China and Currie was worried that his political background might be problematic. Gest (founder of Gest Chinese library) had also brought to Currie’s attention that Kiang was a prominent supporter of the Kuomintang Party, had been to Moscow and at times viewed as slightly Communistic. Kiang was politically active and he was considered the first person to introduce socialism to China. It was believed that Mao Zedong first learned about socialism from Kiang when he was in college. His party was banned in 1913 and an arrest warrant was sent out for Kiang. To this concern, Kiang had said that he had gone to Moscow to study Communism for himself and came to learn that it would not do for China (Zheng, 2013, 75-76).