Cai then proposed to the Shanghai Esperanto Association that they found an Esperanto library and a private university. The library would reveal to Chinese people the large amount of material available in the Esperanto language, while the university could be used for pilot studies to determine just how well courses in the social and natural sciences could be taught in Esperanto.
In 1917, Cai became the Director of Peking Universty where he founded an elective Esperanto course within the Faculty of Chinese Language Studies. In 1921 Esperanto became an approved course of study. Cai was very active in his support for Esperanto during that year. He attended the Seventh National Educational Conference in China and he was the Chinese delegate at the Pacific Educational Conference in Honolulu. At both conferences he succeeded in getting resolutions adopted agreeing to the introduction of Esperanto classes in schools. Nothing really came of these resolutions except to increase national and international awareness of Esperanto.
Cai's most effective initiative in 1921 was his inspired idea to bring the Russian poet Eroshenko to China to teach Esperanto at Peking University. I will have more to say about Eroshenko in my next article and will continue my summary of the work and achievements of Cai Yuanpei.
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