The Chinese philosopher Hu Shih (1891-1962) was in the literary and intellectual avant-garde during the New Thought movement of 1915-1919. As the premier Chinese disciple of John Dewey, he applied the principles of instrumentalism to scholarship and politics.

Hu Shih was born in Shanghai, where his father, a literatus from Anhwei, was serving as a government official. When Hu Shih was 4 years old, his father died. By this time the child prodigy already knew 1,000 Chinese characters. While in primary school, Hu received an education in the Chinese classics and was an avid reader of vernacular fiction.

Determined to obtain a modern education, Hu spent 4 years studying English, mathematics, and science, as well as traditional subjects, at several schools in Shanghai. From 1906 to 1908 he was enrolled at the China National Institute, where he edited a student newspaper. In 1908 he found himself financially unable to continue his schooling but remained...