John B. Tsu

John B.Tsu
Born (1924-12-01)1 December 1924
Jilin Province, China
Died 26 February 2005(2005-02-26) (aged 80)
Daly City, California[1]
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zu.

John B. Tsu (Chinese: 祖炳民; pinyin: Zu Bingmin, 1 December 1924 – 26 February 2005) was a Chinese academic and lobbyist for Asians in the United States.

Tsu was born in Jilin Province, in north-east China. He studied law at Tokyo University in Japan, and graduated in 1946.[1] In 1949 he took a master's degree in political science at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and in 1954 completed a PhD in the same subject at Fordham University in New York City.[1]

Tsu taught for nineteen years at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He was chairman of the Asian studies department, and director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the university.[2] While there, he realized the shortage of adequate teaching supplies, and in 1961 commissioned John DeFrancis to write his popular series of Mandarin Chinese textbooks.[3] From 1977 he taught at the University of San Francisco.[1] He was later regent of John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California.[1]

In 2001 Tsu was appointed chairman of the Advisory Committee on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the administration of George W. Bush.[1] He was president of the Asian American Political Education Foundation in San Francisco.[2]

He died of heart failure in Daly City, California, on 26 February 2005.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Joe Garofoli (11 March 2005). Professor John Tsu – educator, advocate for Asian Americans. SFGate. Accessed May 2015.
  2. 1 2 Phil Tajitsu Nash (25 May 2005). Washington Journal: Heritage Month Beltway Bashes. AsianWeek. (subscription required).
  3. Edward Wong (January 15, 2009). "John DeFrancis, Chinese Language Scholar, Is Dead at 97". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-05-20.


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