With his kindness and generosity, my grandfather has been the greatest inspiration to me. Of everything from the mundane decisions and the crucial decisions I have had to make in my life, I have always felt his presence. While living in Shanghai, he never once boasted about his accomplishment as the founding director of The School of Architecture in Tonji University. In the 1930s, while studying in Harvard School of Design, he became one of the first Chinese students of Walter Gropius- founder of Bauhaus School. As one of his stellar students and under his guidance my grandfather embraced the core concepts of Gropius’ Bauhaus School. When he returned to Shanghai, as he began teaching he emphasised functionalism and modernist ideas to his students in the architecture department of St. John’s University. His academic vigor and accomplishments enabled his founding of the School of Architecture in Tonji University 1952. My grandfather never talked much about this among his family, and I learned of this on a visit to his students in Shanghai all of whom are now emeritus professors of the university.>> Back to Many Faces
