By Thomas Hsiang
Dr. Chun-Shan Shen, a multi-time US go champion, passed away on September 12 at the age of 86. Dr. Shen was born in 1932; received his B.S. degree in physics from the National Taiwan University in 1955 and Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Maryland in 1961. He worked briefly at Princeton University, then NASA, before taking a teaching position at Purdue University. In 1973 Dr. Shen returned to Taiwan and joined the faculty of Tsinghua University. In 1988 he became a Minister Without Portfolio in the Taiwanese government. In 1989 he returned to Tsinghua as the Dean of Science and became Tsinghua’s President in 1994 until his retirement in 1997.
Dr. Shen was well-known for his deep and broad knowledge in many topics. He famously delivered many lectures bringing astrophysics and space science to the general audience, both in US and in Taiwan. He was a prolific writer, authoring hundreds of articles on educational policies, politics, and literature, with many deep insights, some of which changed history. For example, he is credited with suggesting the use of “one country, two systems” policy that eventually peacefully resolved the China-Taiwan and China-Hong Kong quandaries. Another famous example was how he eased the bloodshed during the 1980 “Formosa Incident”. That year, a group of Taiwanese took to the street to seek political freedom. When the protest turned violent, many people were arrested. Then-president Chiang Ching-Kuo had wanted to severely punish the protestors, including executing a couple of the leaders. Dr. Shen took upon himself to dissuade Chiang, defending the protestors as patriotic and intelligent young people. Chiang yielded, bringing a potentially violent episode to a peaceful closure.
Dr. Shen published a number of books, including the three famous autobiographies “Three Chapters of a Floating Life”, “Another Chapter”, and “An ‘After’ Chapter”. In them he first described the three important parts of his life: science, go and Bridge, and literature; followed by a discussion of his view on the politics in Taiwan; ending with an honest, almost cutting, look into his relationships with the women in his life and a discussion on life and legacy.
During Shen’s earlier life in US, he was among the top go players. AGA old-timers will remember his many battles with Takao Matsuda in the 1960’s for the “US Honinbo” title, predating the current “US Open Championship”. His last visit to an AGA event was in 1997, when he came to the Lancaster Congress and won every game he played. None of them counted because he did not register in the US Open. Still, he cheerfully crowned himself the “Off-Stage Champion”!
In addition to go, Dr. Shen was a top-notch Bridge player. He joined the Taiwanese team that won second place in the 1969 and 1970 Bermuda Cup, the only world championship at that time, finishing only to the legendary Italian Blue team.
Most of all, to many who have interacted with him, Chun-Shan was a fun, humorous, honest, and devoted friend. He was never pretentious, never aloof; his great intellect was never overbearing. He will be greatly missed.
