DR. SHU-CHUANG KUAN

1919 - 2012

Kuan, Dr. Shu-chuang
Of Liaoning, China and long-time resident of Cambridge, Mass., passed away at age 93 on November 6, 2012. Born into a Manchu extended family opposed to female education, she excelled in her studies and was accepted to Tsinghua Univ. in 1936 and graduated first in her class at Yenching Univ. in 1940. On a full scholarship, she became the first Asian woman to earn a PhD in Economics from Harvard-Radcliffe. Advised by legendary economists Joseph Schumpeter, Wassily Leontief and Alvin Hansen, her 1948 dissertation originated an "income norm hypothesis" of consumption theory, among the earliest hypotheses of its kind. She served as an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Secretariat, 1948-56, before returning to China in 1957, hoping to help construct an internationally recognized National Accounts System of economic indicators for her homeland, but political persecution and illness suspended her work. The first woman promoted to Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, she was one of China's early delegates at international economics meetings, and was instrumental in facilitating the emerging scholarly exchanges between China and the West. In 1986 Dr. Kuan returned to the US as a Visiting Professor of Economics at the Univ. of Maryland and won a Teaching Excellence award, while a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. She resided again in Cambridge with her family from 1988 until her passing. Dr. Kuan was married to eminent linguist Sheng-shu Ding (1909-1989), pioneering General Editor of the Modern Chinese Dictionary. Survived by daughter Yen and granddaughter Chinnie Si-Qin, Dr. Kuan will be missed for her love for the world, penetrating intelligence, originality, generosity and mirth.