Background
Mr. Bin Yuan Chu was born in 1894 in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.
Mr. Bin Yuan Chu was born in 1894 in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.
Mr. Chu received his elementary education from the Minteh Primary and Middle schools promoted by the General Woong Hsin, a noted leader of the first revolution. In 1910 he was sent by the provincial government after a competitive examination to study in the then newly founded Tsinghua College.
When the Revolution broke out, Chu returned to Changsha and for some time was student at the Yale College. Later he rejoined Tsinghua and was sent by that institution in 1916 to study finance arid banking in America. He first attended Wesleyan University, Middleton from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1918.
In the fall of 1919 Mr. Chu joined Columbia University, taking post-graduate work in the School of Business and in the Department of Social Sciences, from which he obtained the degree of Master of Arts in 1920. The subject of his thesis was “Investment Banking in the United States.” During that year, he was successful competitor in the essay contests held by the American Asiatic Association and the Chinese Educational Mission. On both occasions he secured the first prize. The subjects of his essays were “Plans and Possibilities for Currency Reforms in China” and “Advantages for the Investment of American Capital in China”.
After graduation Mr. Chu joined the banking firm of Brown Bros, & Co., New York as a member of the foreign department. During the same time he took many business courses in the evening school of New York University at Wall Street. He helped to organize the Chinese Students’ Banking Club of which he was one time secretary and later president. He was also made circulation manager of the Chinese Students’ Quarterly, published in America.
Mr. Chu joined the Wah Chang Trading Corporation in New York shortly after his post-graduate work in Columbia. In 1921 he was sent to the Shanghai office of the same company as assistant secretary. Later in the year he joined the Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank, Ltd. as assistant manager. In 1923 he was transferred to the head office of the bank as secretary. In 1924 he resigned from the bank to become Professor of Economics and Commercial Sciences in Tsing Hua College.
Mr. Chu contributed to the China Weekly Review having had written an article based on his experience in banking entitled “Some Aspects of Foreign Exchange and Silver” as appeared in issues of the Review, Volume XXIX, No. 3 to 13.