In recent history, there have been many foreigners who have helped China, and Stuart Leiden had a very high reputation and prestige in the country at that time, even more famous than Bethune.
For some special reasons, he finally left China in a disgraceful way, but his contribution to China's education should not be forgotten.
Son of a missionary
Born in Hangzhou in 1876, Stuart's parents were missionaries and had come to China very early, and they not only spread the faith of the church, but also did some good things for the Chinese.
In Hangzhou, a special girls' middle school has also been built, and the female students who attend school can not only waive tuition fees, but even provide them with food and accommodation.
For students in school, in addition to passing on religious beliefs, they will also teach them some advanced ideas.
It is recommended that women should no longer tie their feet and do not obey arranged marriages of the family, which has also made a certain contribution to women's liberation.
After his birth, Stuart Redden lived in the country, and was sent to the United States at the age of 11 to study in Virginia.
Later, he also inherited the mantle of his parents, was admitted to the seminary, and became a priest.
In 1904, he returned to Hangzhou with his newly married wife. Two years later, his son was also born in Hangzhou.
In 1908, he went to Jinling Theological Seminary in Nanjing as a professor of Greek.
Before he followed his father to many places in China, he was very fond of this oriental country, and he was bent on using his ability to change the status quo in China.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, he served as a special correspondent for the United States in Nanjing.
In 1918, he received orders from the church to organize a new comprehensive university, which was Yenching University.
Yenching University
At that time, there were already two schools in Beijing, these two schools were called Huiwen University and Xiehe University.
They have a long history, but the number of students is not very large, and they have thought about merging before, but because of the disagreement between them, they have not been successful.
It was not until 1918 that it was decided to merge the two schools, but they did not give in to each other, and neither of them wanted anyone from the other school to serve as the principal.
So he wanted to find someone who had nothing to do with both sides, and finally chose Stuart Layden.
In 1919, Stuart Redden met with the heads of two schools, and after some deliberation, the two schools were finally merged into a new university and named "Yenching University".
Stuart Also became the first Headmaster.
The school had only 94 students at the time, and it was not very famous at all, and there was no outstanding teaching staff.
After Stuart took office, he began to use his personal influence to return to the United States 10 times and gathered donations and materials in the United States.
By 1937, he had secured $2.5 million in donations to the school!
Obtained funds to expand the campus, and then returned to China, looking around in the Beijing area, and finally found a prince's abandoned garden in the west of Tsinghua Garden.
And buy it here to build Yenching University, an area of about 40 hectares.
After years of construction, the new campus was officially put into use in 1929.
In addition to strengthening the hardware facilities of the campus, he also attaches great importance to the school's teaching staff.
He hired first-class teachers at home and abroad, and gave a lot of loose treatment.
Stuart Redden himself is a priest, and strictly speaking, Yenching University can also be regarded as a church school.
Church schools also have certain restrictions on teachers, such as teachers who teach must believe in religion, and students must also take church courses.
Stuart Layden knew that in this special country of China, it was impossible to educate students in full accordance with the requirements of the Church.
So he relaxed the church's policies and hired a large number of excellent teachers with high salaries.
The emergence of famous teachers, coupled with the generous scholarship system, has also attracted a large number of people of insight on campus.
The school was closed in 1952 and has trained more than 10,000 students in the 33 years of its existence, all of whom have become leaders in various industries after graduation, including 42 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Because of his work as a journalist, he also founded the Department of Journalism at Yenching University, which was also the first university in China to open this major.
During World War II, the schools trained journalism students and almost monopolized the mainland news commissioner industry around the world.
At that time, a rich man in the United States left a huge inheritance, saying that part of the inheritance would be used to study Chinese culture.
I hope to select a Chinese university and an American university to form a joint institution.
Stuart Redden learned the news and returned to the United States again,
After consultation, Yenching University and Harvard University cooperated to establish an institution and won a $1.5 million scholarship for the school.
Support students to be patriotic
Although Stuart Was an American, he was also very sympathetic to the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese students and supported them many times.
After the 9/18 incident, he personally took students to the streets to protest and demonstrate!
In 1934, many domestic university students went on strike and prepared to form a delegation to Nanjing to petition, when Stuart Redden had just returned from the United States and was interviewed by reporters after disembarking.
The first question he asked was: Did Yenching University students strike?
After receiving a positive reply, he put his mind at ease and said: If the students of Yenching University did not participate in the petition, it would be a failure of Yenching University's education.
After the Japanese occupied Peiping, Stuart Leiden used his American status to travel back and forth to the US embassy many times and hung the American flag on campus to ensure the safety of students.
He was also very supportive of the students who took to the streets and participated in the demonstrations, and even after they were arrested, he found the Japanese and rescued the students.
The Japanese did not dare to be too embarrassed because of his status, but at that time they also made a request, hoping that Yenching University could accept Japanese youth as students.
Stuart Redden did not refuse, he said that as long as he passed the entrance exam, he could study at school.
Unfortunately, these Japanese youths have not been able to pass the exam, so there have been no Japanese students on campus.
Stuart Redden did his best to protect his students, but he did not want them, as if they were in a paradise.
He also told the students: We must not only care about reading and studying, but also pay more attention to external affairs and national affairs!
Arrested and imprisoned
In December 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States, and it no longer had any scruples about the United States.
Stuart Layden, who was collecting money for the school in Tianjin, was soon captured by the Japanese and imprisoned.
He was released after the next level for 4 years, until Japan surrendered.
The first thing he did after his release was to reopen Yenching University and continue to enroll students.
If you look at these alone, Stuart Redden was a very good educator who made great contributions to China's education, but he was also involved in politics.
In 1945, Stuart Washiden was appointed U.S. Ambassador to China.
He stayed in Nanjing, where he was trying to end the civil war and form a coalition government.
But his lobbying failed, civil war broke out, and Stuart Felt He had betrayed Chinese trust in him.
After the Liberation War, Stuart Leiden was reluctant to retreat with the Nationalist government, and at that time Chairman Mao Zhou and others wrote a letter hoping that he would meet in Beijing.
But his application was rejected by the United States, and ordered him to return to the United States immediately.
After that, Stuart Leiden had no choice but to leave China, and when he left, he also wrote a statement supporting the government led by the Ccp.
But the U.S. side did not make the statement public.
Later life
Stuart Leiden stayed in China for 45 years, and his wife stayed in China forever.
After returning to China, he was silenced by the U.S. government, and because of his support for China, he was repeatedly harassed by some extremists in the United States, and later suffered from partial loss and aphasia.
In 1962, he died of a heart attack in Washington, D.C., at the age of 86.
The last words of his death are to return to China and be buried with his wife.
However, due to the special circumstances at that time, his dying requirements could not be satisfied.
It was not until 2008, with the help of old alumni of Yenching University, that Stuart Leiden finally returned to Hangzhou, China, and was buried in Hangzhou Mid-Levels Anxian Garden.