Victor Kwonglee Kwong

Victor Kwonglee Kwong (1906–1979) was born at Cairns, Queensland. In 1919, he was Dux of the Lower School of Scotch College, Melbourne, and attended the Upper School for a year. From September 1922 to June 1924 he was a student at St. John’s University in Shanghai. In September, 1925 he applied to Harvard to be admitted as a transfer student but was advised to attend a local college and then reapply. He attended Boston University September 1925–January 1927. During this time he was a member of the Boston University debating team, gave public lectures on China, and became president of the Chinese Student Christian Association of Greater Boston.

In February 1927, he was admitted to Harvard College as a provisional sophomore concentrating in economics. In March, he obtained a one-year loan of $150 from Harvard to pay his college bill. He did not register for the Fall semester and was granted leave of absence in October. Permission for late registration was given in March 1928 subject to ‘satisfactory financial arrangements’ but his request for a scholarship was turned down. In August, he paid the interest on his first loan from Harvard and had the loan extended for another year then took out a second loan from Harvard in October 1928 for an additional $104 to pay his College Bills.

Victor Kwong had given a number of talks to the Rotary Club at Leominster. As a consequence, the mayor of Leominster, Bernard W. Doyle, underwrote a loan for $1000 (November 19, 1928) to allow him to complete his senior year at Harvard. He appears to have used part of this money to pay off his Harvard debt and on November 26 he petitioned to withdraw from Harvard College to attend a university in California. The request was granted the following day. After correspondence with Mr. Doyle, the Dean and Administrative Board concluded that Kwong had obtained the $1000 loan under false pretenses and that he had acted in a manner to bring discredit on the College. The University of California at Berkeley, where Kwong, had applied was informed that he should not be admitted on account of the loan. In his letter to Berkeley, Dean Hanford wrote “Kwong’s record and conduct has been otherwise good although there has always been a certain glibness and lack of frankness in his action. This latter may be due to the difficulty of understanding the oriental mind.” Unable to enroll at Berkeley, Kwong found work as a journalist reporting on Chinatown for the San Francisco Bulletin.

In January 1930, Kwong applied for readmittance to Harvard College but was rejected on a vote of the Adminstrative Board. The following month he was a member of the Chinese student debating team that defeated Harvard. The Crimson report of the debate noted that “As a debater at Harvard, Kwong had an especially brilliant record, his efforts being a major factor in the Harvard success in 1927 and 1928 when the University won the Intercollegiate Debating League championship.”

During 1930–1932, Kwong worked as an editor for Young China in San Francisco after which he moved briefly to China. He returned in 1934 as a member of the Chinese consulate in San Francisco and was able to pay off his debt to B. W. Doyle. By 1939, he was an Intelligence Officer connected with the Chinese Embassy in Washington. He served as an attache at the Embassy during the Second World War. He joined the World Bank in 1946 before working for the United Nations. In 1974, he received a doctorate from Arizona State University.

Victor Kwonglee Kwong was the younger half-brother of Kwang Lim Kwong.