George Clement Shen, renaissance man of Chinese culture, dies in San Francisco at 90
- Shen was one of the last literati in an old Chinese tradition, enjoying a glittering career as author, newspaper man, broadcaster and economist
With the passing of George Clement Shen, one of the last literati in the grand old Chinese tradition has been lost.
Shen – newspaper editor, economist, author, film producer, broadcaster, music critic, actor – died peacefully in a San Francisco hospital on March 20 after fighting lung cancer for years. He was 90 and is survived by his wife Jane, a son and a daughter, and grandchildren.
“He was cured and relapsed a few times, but he and Jane had a great attitude towards life. Once he got over the relapse, they would call and arrange dinner gatherings,” said family friend and cultural scholar Sonia Ng, calling Shen “a legendary man of letters for the ages”.
Born in Shanghai in 1929, Shen was the only child in an intellectual family who learned Peking Opera from his father, a University of Chicago alumnus, and piano and calligraphy through his mother, a guqin grandmaster.
As the war with Japan escalated, the family left for Hong Kong in 1938 but were forced to move back to Shanghai after the city fell in 1941. When they arrived in Hong Kong for a second time in 1949, Shen was among the last graduates of the now-defunct St John University.
