蔡公椿 (???-???)
Kung Chun (K. C.) Tsai was born in Fujian province, China. While attending Tsing Hua, he participated in the students’ demonstrations during the May Fourth Movement in 1919, and was detained, alongside other Tsing Hua students, on the campus of Peking University for six days by the government.
After arriving at Grinnell College in 1922, together with fellow Tsing Hua alumni J. P. Shen, T. H. Cheng, and S. Y. Liu, Tsai continued to engage in political activism. For instance, in August 1923 he joined the Big River Association (Dajiang Hui 大江會) organized by fellow Tsing Hua alum Wen Yiduo, who was studying at the University of Chicago. Association members vowed to “adopt a spirit of constant striving, a sincere and faithful attitude, and proactive and collaborative methods to reform our country” (Wen)—in other words, to fight against Western colonialism for Chinese rejuvenation.
Tsai was equally active on the Grinnell campus. He joined in the Chinese students’ celebration of the founding of the Republic of China in October 1922 and gave a speech that reviewed China’s history and its current political situation in a program organized by the Chinese students and open to the public in the Alumni Recitation Hall auditorium (SB 10/11/1922). He also participated in their New Year’s celebration in February 1924 (SB 02/06/1924). Most remarkably, he served as a reporter of Chinese students’ lives at Grinnell, penning two articles for the Tsing Hua student journal Tsing Hua Weekly in 1923 and 1924, leaving behind valuable records of Chinese students’ experiences in real time. We learn not just practical details, such as how much they paid for room and board and what classes they took, but also the feelings, impressions, and opinions of Tsai and others.
Tsai graduated from Grinnell with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business administration in 1924. He later attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an M.B.A. there in 1925. He certainly put to good use his knowledge of economics and finance after returning to China, working as Manager of China Commercial Press in Guangzhou and Shanghai, and later as Chief Auditor of the Bank of China. He is also credited with having participated in reforming the operation of the Bank of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1940s. We do not know when he passed away.
Tsai Kung Chun (K. C.). “Liu Mei tongxun” (Letter from the US). In Jiang Yunzhong, He Yu, and Zhao Wenxuan, ed. Yiyu huixiang: Tsing Hua Zhoukan liumei tongxun jilu (Echoes from Foreign Land: Collections of Letters from the US Published in Tsing Hua Weekly). Beijing: Tsing Hua University Press, 2021. Vol. 1, 200-202.
Tsai Kung Chun. “Ge Cheng (Grinnell)’s Tsing Hua tongxue yilan” (A Survey of Tsing Hua alumni in Grinnell). In Jiang Yunzhong, He Yu, and Zhao Wenxuan, ed. Yiyu huixiang: Tsing Hua Zhoukan liumei tongxun jilu (Echoes from Foreign Land: Collections of Letters from the US Published in Tsing Hua Weekly). Beijing: Tsing Hua University Press, 2021. Vol. 2, 666-667.
Wen Liming. “Wen Yiduo yu ‘Dajiang Hui’” (Wen Yiduo and the “Big River Association”). Accessed February 27, 2026, http://jds.cssn.cn/ztlm/wydyjtx/201605/t20160506_5256461.shtml