Hsu, Francis L. K., 1909-1999

Anthropologist Francis Lang Kwang Hsu was born on October 28, 1909 in the Chinese province of Liaoning. He received a B.A in sociology from the University of Shanghai and worked as a social worker in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital after graduation. In 1937 Hsu was awarded a Sino-British Boxer Indemnity Fund Scholarship which allowed him to study at the London School of Economics. Hsu studied under the renowned Bronislaw Malinowski and in 1940 he received a PhD in Anthropology. After receiving this degree Hsu returned to China to conduct fieldwork in Southwestern China and to teach at the National Yunnan University in Kunming, China.

Hsu came back to the United States in 1944 at the invitation of Columbia professor of anthropology Ralph Linton. Hsu was a lecturer at Columbia for one year (1944-1945) and an assistant professor at Cornell University for two years (1945-1947) before he joined the faculty at Northwestern University in 1947. Melville Herskovits offered Hsu the appointment and Hsu became the fifth member of the Anthropology Department. Hsu was the first Chinese faculty member at Northwestern and although the dean at the time told Herskovits that the school did not have confidence in a Chinese teaching college students in an American university, Herskovits supported Hsu because he had seen him present excellent lectures. Hsu proved the dean wrong and remained at Northwestern until his retirement in 1978. From 1957-1976 Hsu was the chair of the anthropology department and on his retirement was named Professor Emeritus.

...