The university was founded in 1879 as "St. John's College" by William Jones Boone and Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, by combining two preexisting Anglican colleges in Shanghai. The architect for the college's original quadrangle of buildings was Newark, New Jersey architect William Halsey Wood. The first president was Yen Yun-ching (Chinese: 顏永京, 1838–98).[1] During the early period of St. John's College, Lydia Mary Fay (1804–78), a missionary of the Protestant Episcopal China Mission (or the American Church Mission), helped to set up Duane Hall, a secondary school which later became part of St. John's College.[2]
St. John's began with 39 students and taught mainly in Chinese. In 1891, it changed to teaching with English as the main language. The courses began to focus on science and natural philosophy.
St. John's University in 1905A bookplate of the university library
In 1905, St. John's College became St. John's University and became registered in Washington D.C. in the United States. It thus had the status of a domestic university and American graduates of St. John's could proceed directly to graduate schools in the United States. As a result, the university attracted some of the brightest and wealthiest students in Shanghai at the time. It was the first institution to grant bachelor's degrees in China, starting in 1907.
The university was located at 188 Jessfield Road (now Wanhangdu Lu), on a bend of the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai and was designed to incorporate Chinese and Western architectural elements.
In 1925, some academics and students left St. John's and formed the Kwang Hua University. In 1951, Kwang Hua was incorporated into East China Normal University.
After the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, the surviving personnel of the original St. John's University Medical School administration decided to recognize the students who were mandated to transfer and subsequently graduated from Shanghai Second Medical College with a St. John's University Medical School degree; the diploma was signed by their original president of St. John's.
Rong Yiren (1916–2005), "Red Capitalist" founder of CITIC Group and vice president of the People's Republic of China between 1993 and 1998
Jiang Shaoji (1919–1995), internist and gastroenterologist in China
Jing Shuping (1918–2009, graduated 1939), businessman, founder of Minsheng Bank, China's first privately owned bank[4]
T. V. Soong (1894–1971), politician and businessman, premier of the Republic of China, brother of the Soong sisters
K. H. Ting (1915–2012), Anglican bishop and national leader of Protestants in the People's Republic of China
Tsai (Cai) Neng (1930–1996), psychiatrist of the Shanghai Mental Health Center and pioneer of Chinese psychopharmacology, geriatric psychiatry, and psychosomatic medicine
Yu Hung-chun (1898–1960), or O. K. Yui, premier of the Republic of China
Zhu Qizhen (1927–2014), deputy foreign minister, Chinese ambassador to the US, and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Peoples Congress of China
Francis Lister Hawks Pott, president of St. John's College 1888 to 1896, president of St. John's University from 1896 to 1941
William Z.L. (SiLiang) Sung was the vice president of St. John's University under Francis Lister Hawks Pott and later the first Chinese-born acting president during WWII. He was accused of collaboration with the Japanese after the war, imprisoned, and later acquitted. He was helped lead the first two delegations from China to the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. He emigrated to the US and became a priest in the Episcopal church, working as a chaplin with the Diocese of California. He was an undergraduate alumnus of St. John's.
William Payne Roberts, instructor and acting president in the absence of Pott (needs verification)
David Z.T. Yin, rector of the university, was a distinguished Chinese scholar who had represented the YMCA in Shanghai at the turn of the century.
Institutions with names that commemorate SJU[edit]
To keep the school's traditions alive, SJU alumni (called Johanneans) have founded three academic institutions bearing the same name:
^Wickeri, Philip L. (2015). Christian Encounters with Chinese Culture : Essays on Anglican and Episcopal History in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, HKU. ISBN9789888313259. OCLC911961991.
