Fonds MG4025 - Kiang Kang-Hu Fonds

Educator and author Kiang Kang-Hu (as he preferred to be identified in English) was born in Kiangsi, China. After completing the classical Chinese literary education, he held posts in the imperial ministries of justice and education (1900-1910), edited a newspaper in Tientsin (1904-1905), taught Japanese language and Chinese history at Peking University (1905-1910), was superintendent of Peking public schools (1905-1910), and founded the Chinese Social-Democratic Party (1912). From 1914 to 1920 he taught Chinese language and civilization at the University of California. Kiang returned to China in 1922 to teach at Nanking and Nan Feng universities, and to work on various constitutional committees for the republican government. He came back to America as Chinese consultant for the Library of Congress in 1928, and was appointed Chairman of the Department of Chinese Studies at McGill in 1930. Owing to the financial situation, the Department was closed in 1934. At that time Kiang was on leave of absence in China, where his political activities were beginning to lead him into difficulties. All trace of him was lost after 1939, and he is believed to have died at the end of World War II. Kiang wrote a number of books on Chinese history, culture and politics in Chinese, Japanese and English, and collaborated with the American poet Witter Bynner on Jade Mountain, a volume of translations of Chinese poems.