Kuo Ping-Wen

Kuo Ping-Wen or Guo Bingwen (; 1880–1969), courtesy name Hongsheng (鴻聲), was an influential Chinese educator.

Biography Kuo was born in Shanghai, Jiangsu province, and his father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He attended Lowrie Institute (The Pure Heart Academy, Qingxin Shuyuan 清心書院), which was connected with the First Presbyterian Church in Shanghai where he received his M.A. degree in 1912 and his Ph.D. in 1914. which was later renamed National Central University (Guoli Zhongyang Daxue 国立中央大学) in 1928 and Nanjing University (Nanjing Daxue 南京大学) in 1949, and his ideas exerted a broad influence in Chinese educational circles. In 1921, he became the first chancellor of the Shanghai College of Commerce (Shanghai Shangke Daxue上海商科大学), which in 1917 had emerged from the program in commerce at Nanjing Higher Normal School. The Shanghai College of Commerce was the forerunner of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE) (Shanghai Caijing Daxue 上海财经大学). Kuo was the president of National Nanjing Higher Normal School from 1919-1923 and National Southeastern University from 1921-1925. in New York City, and also its director, 1926-1930. In the last decade of his life, he was President of the Sino-American Cultural Society in Washington, D.C., an organization he founded in 1958. dealing with Kuo's contributions to higher education in China and to Sino-Cultural institutions and affairs in the United States. Scholars from the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China and the United States contributed papers and participated in discussions on Kuo's career and its significance. In March, 2016, the book Kuo Ping Wen: Scholar, Reformer, Statesman, a collection of essays on Kuo as educator, statesman, and cultural ambassador, edited by Ryan Allen and Ji Liu, was published by Long River Press, and in October, 2016 a book-signing symposium was held at the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University.

Since his academic background was shaped at liberal arts institutions, Kuo believed that a well-rounded education in both the sciences and the humanities was essential. Moreover, since his undergraduate experience at the University of Wooster was co-educational, he was a strong supporter of women's education in China. It was at the University of Wooster that Kuo changed his plan to study law and focused instead on issues of educational reform, which became the basis for his career once he returned to China. His educational philosophy embraced a strategy based on Four Balances: the balance between well-rounded education and specialized education, the balance between humanistic education and scientific education, the balance between investment in teaching faculty and investment in teaching facilities, and the balance between national and international learning. Kuo felt that China could learn much from the study of Western accomplishments in science, just as the West could learn much from China about the philosophy of life, and he was a strong supporter of the expansion of Chinese studies at American colleges and universities. In furthering interactions between East and West through education, Kuo Ping-wen contributed to building the Sino-American relationship that flourishes today.