Dr. Hsu, a leading authority on the history of modern China, was born on May 6, in Ningpo (Zhejiang) China, and grew up in Shanghai, China. After graduating from Yenching University in 1946, he spent two years in Japan as part of the official Chinese delegation in Tokyo. He came to U.S., 1949, and naturalized in 1962 . He completed M.A. at the University of Minnesota 1950 and Ph.D. in modern diplomatic history at Harvard University:1954.
Dr. was awarded a Harvard Yenching Fellowship (1950-54) and was appointed a Research Fellow at Harvard's East Asian Research Center (1955-58). Professor Hsu began his distinguished scholarly career at University of California Santa Barbara 1959 and continued teaching until his retirement in 1991 as professor emeritus. In 1962 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. During the following year he and his wife, Dolores M. Hsu, Professor of Music at UCSB, traveled in Europe and Asia lecturing and visiting research institutes in Germany, Italy, London, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
His publications include Intellectual Trends in the Ch'ing Period (1959); China's Entrance into the Family of Nations: The Diplomatic Phase, 1858-1880 (1960); The Iii Crisis: A Study of Sino-Russian Diplomacy, 1871-1881 (1965); and The Rise of Modern China (1970). A unique and prize-winning study of the development of the Chinese nation from the Ming dynasty to the present, The Rise of Modern China is now in its sixth edition and has been translated into several foreign languages including Chinese. An enthusiastic music lover, Dr. Hsu was a devoted student of the violin, playing and collecting instruments throughout his life. Throughout the years he and his wife traveled extensively, enjoying the pleasures of collecting Chinese art and furniture.
Dr. Hsu died at his Santa Barbara home October 24, 2005 of complications due to heart failure. He was 82. Dr. Hsu is survived by his wife, Dolores Menstell, married on April 14, 1962; his son, Vadim; daughter-in-law, Carmen; and three grandchildren, Sofia Allegra, Alexander Francis (Sasha), and John Philip Pablo.