ABSTRACT
John Leighton Stuart has always been a controversial figure in China. Especially after Mao Tse-tung wrote the commentary "Farewell, Leighton Stuart" for the Xinhua News Agency on August 18, 1949, Stuart was regarded as a symbol of American imperialism until the reform and opening up era. When the 1911 Revolution broke out, Stuart was an American missionary in China. Being the special correspondent of the Associated Press, he became the first person who reported the Revolution to the world and praised it as "China's War of Independence". Besides, Stuart was the first President of Yenching University who made significant contributions to building Yenching into a first-class university that was as famous as Peking University and Tsinghua University. Stuart's cremains were buried in Hangzhou. It can be said that his soul returned home as he was born, grew up, and worked in this city.
