A monoplane designed by Chieh Chien Chang and Yin Wenyou. Tsinghua University’s Grand Auditorum is in the background. Courtesy of Tsinghua University

In 1931, the city of Beiping had established its reputation as the epicenter of modern education in China. A dozen top universities thrived there, including the most important Catholic university in modern Chinese history, Fu Jen, which was founded in 1925 at the request of Pope Pius XI. The university closest to American hearts was arguably Tsinghua, whose funds came directly from a strategic decision of President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1909, Roosevelt convinced Congress to reduce an indemnity payment resulting from the Boxer Uprising by $10.8 million and turn it into scholarships for Chinese students planning to study in the United States. He hoped the scholarship would help foster a generation of Chinese leaders familiar with and friendly to American values. One of the outcomes was the world-class university of Tsinghua that employed Chang in 1934 (six years after it became a public university). There, he started to develop a lifelong interest in the field of aerodynamics.

When he walked on the campus of Tsinghua University as a young assistant lecturer, Chang must have been impressed by the Grand Auditorium at the university mall. Designed by a Chinese architect, the Jeffersonian building resembles the famous Rotunda at the University of Virginia. For three years, he passed by this landmark of Americanism on Chinese soil, worked with American professors, and built one of the first Chinese monoplanes with his Chinese colleagues. He also met with future mentor von Karman and friend Qian Xuesen there.