Wu Teh Yao

Wu Teh Yao (Template:Zh, 1915–17 April 1994) was a Chinese political scientist. He was an educator and a specialist in Confucianism and political science.

Education

Wu completed his senior school certificate at the Anglo-Chinese School in Penang at the age of seventeen. He was accepted into the Chung Ling High School, a well-known bilingual institution teaching in both Chinese and English, despite not knowing any Chinese, after an interview with the principal David Chen.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After his graduation from Chung Ling in 1936, he was admitted to Nanking University (now known as Nanjing University) for a course of a Bachelor of Arts programs under Chen's recommendation.<ref name=":0">Chung Ling High School Old Boys' (Singapore) Association: 40th Anniversary Souvenir Magazine 1965-2005; p35. 2005.</ref> He later obtained a Master of Arts degree from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a doctoral degree in political science from Harvard University in 1946.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He was an active athlete during his secondary school years. Furthermore, he represented Malayan Chinese at the National Sports Carnival, Shanghai, China, during the inter-war years.<ref name=":0" />

Career

Academia

Wu joined the United Nations after obtaining his doctorate and participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1951, he co-authored the Fenn-Wu Report on the Chinese education system in Malaysia.<ref name=":0" />

He was President of Tunghai University in Taiwan between 1957 and 1971. From then until 1975 he was the head of the Political Science Department, University of Singapore. He was a Professor and the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies of Nanyang University from 1975 to 1980, and was acting vice-chancellor from 1976 to 1977. When Nanyang University and University of Singapore merged in 1980 to form the National University of Singapore, he was appointed Professor of Political Science.<ref name=":1" /> He retired in 1981.<ref name=":0" />

Offices

Professor Wu was a founding director of the Institute of East Asian Philosophies, which was established by Goh Keng Swee in 1983 in the interest of studying Confucianism.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Retirement and death

After his retirement, Professor Wu, a modest person, lived in an HDB apartment in Jurong East, Singapore, and used taxis as his main form of transportation.<ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He died on 17 April 1994 in Taipei, Taiwan, and a memorial service was held for him at the Presbyterian Church in Orchard Road, Singapore.<ref name=":3" /> A memorial lecture series was started in his name the following year, with the inaugural lecture delivered by the Confucian scholar Tu Weiming.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

References

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