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K. C. Wu

Chinese politician and historian (1903-1984)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ1530440 ↗
Source-derived summary

Wu Kuo-chen (Chinese: 吳國楨; Wade–Giles: Wu2 Kuo2-chên1; October 21, 1903 – June 6, 1984), also known as K. C. Wu, was a Chinese political figure and writer. Among other offices, he served as Mayor of Shanghai and as Chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government.

Early life

Wu was born in Jianshi County, Hubei, and grew up in Beijing, where his father served in the military. He studied at both Tianjin Nankai High School, where Zhou Enlai was a classmate, and at Tsinghua University. In 1923, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Grinnell College and, in 1926, a doctoral degree in political science from Princeton University.

Early career

After returning to China in 1926, Wu began a career in government service, first as a tax collector in Hankou, today part of Wuhan, for the local warlord Xia Douyin. In 1931, he married Edith Huang, daughter of Gene T. Huang. They eventually had four children: Eileen, Edith, Kuo-chen, and Sherman. In 1932, he became mayor of Hankou. When the Yangtze River appeared ready to flood in 1936, Wu oversaw the construction of a huge dike system which saved the city.

Editorial summary

“K. C. Wu” enters the record as chinese politician and historian (1903-1984). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chinese, politician and historian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1903, 1984, 1923, 1926—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1903-10-21. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Chinese, politician and historian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“K. C. Wu” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Chinese, politician and historian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1530440. VIAF identifies the subject as 92922365. The Library of Congress control number is n81007226. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1903, 1984, 1923 and 1926.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “K. C. Wu”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow K. C. Wu primary sources, K. C. Wu archive and Chinese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “K. C. Wu”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “K. C. Wu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.