Jerome Chih-jang Ch'en (; October 2, 1919 – June 17, 2019) was a Chinese-Canadian historian.

Early life and education

Ch'en was born as Ch'en Chih-jang in Chengdu, Sichuan, Republic of China in October 1919. He was educated at Tianjin Nankai University, National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming during the Second Sino-Japanese War and at the London School of Economics (LSE), which he attended funded by a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship and where he studied under Friedrich Hayek.

Academic career

In the 1950s, Ch'en worked for the Chinese Service of the BBC. Before emigrating to Canada he was a Reader in history at the University of Leeds for a number of years. He was Professor of Chinese History at York University in Toronto, Canada from 1971 to 1987. He was the director of the University of Toronto/York University Joint Centre of Asia Pacific Studies (JCAPS) from 1983 to 1985.

Honours

Ch'en was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1981. In 1984, he was named Distinguished Research Professor at York.

Death

Ch'en died in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in June 2019 at the age of 99.

Selected publications

  • Yuan Shih-ka̕i, 1859-1916: Brutus Assumes the Purple (George Allen & Unwin, 1961).
  • The Highlanders of Central China: a History 1895 – 1937
  • Mao and the Chinese Revolution
  • The Military-Gentry coalition—the Warlords Period in Modern Chinese History
  • China and the West: Society and Culture 1815 – 1937 (Hutchinson, 1979)

Ch'en also edited:

  • Great Lives Observed: Mao

Some of his works have been translated into Chinese or Japanese.

References

Further reading

  • Lary, Diana. "Jerome Ch’en obituary: Historian of modern China, cut off from his roots, who rued the rise of the military and the Communist conquest" The Guardian 18 July 2019. online
  • Jerome Ch'en archives at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario
  • Jerome Ch'en Resource Centre for East Asian Studies