Background
Mr. C. Z. Waung was born at Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 1888.
Mr. C. Z. Waung was born at Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 1888.
Mr. Waung was educated at St. John’s University at Shanghai in 1900-1907. He left China for Great Britain in October 1907 and entered the University of London in March 1908. He studied economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and received the degree of Bachelor of Science (Economics) from the University of London at the end of 1911 with honors.
After the graduation Mr. Waung returned to China in February 1912 and joined the Ministry of Finance of the Provisional government of the Republic of China at Nanjing. After the unification of the North and the South he went to Peking and continued to serve at the Ministry of Finance. When the Bureau of Auditing of Finance was formed in the summer of 1912 he was appointed an assistant auditor. After the abolition of the bureau he was appointed senior clerk of the Ministry of Finance. In the winter of 1913 he was delegated by the Ministry to be a member of the Financial Commission of the Cabinet.
In the summer of 1915 Mr. Waung was appointed by the Ministry as a member of the Taxation Reform Commission. From 1913 to 1919 he was also connected with the Peking Government University as professor of economic history.
When the Bureau of Currency Reform was formed at the end of 1917 Mr. Waung was transferred to that bureau. In November 1919 he was appointed by the Bureau of Currency Reform to proceed to Europe to investigate the currency condition in Europe and America since the Great War. At the same time he was appointed by the Chinese Associated Trading Company to act as its representative in Europe. The trading company was the first Chinese importing and exporting firm carrying on direct trade with Europe and America.
After Mr. Waung finished his mission in Europe he returned to Peking in November 1920 and again joined the Ministry of Finance. In the summer of 1921 he organized with a number of his friends the Chinese Women’s Commercial and Savings Bank in Peking. At the first general meeting of the shareholders, in September 1921, he was elected the general manager. This was the first bank in China which had a staff of women officers and the organizers expect to open up a new sphere of activity for educated Chinese women.
Socially Mr. Waung was for a long time an active member of the Anglo-Chinese Society at Peking. From 1913 to 1919, he served as the treasurer of this society. He was also an active member of the Peking Y. M. C. A. and for several years he served for a committee of its educational department.