Echopedia

Dr. Hong-Yen Hsu (許鴻源博士)

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Dr. Hong-Yen Hsu (許鴻源博士)

Identity Snapshot

  • English: Dr. Hong-Yen Hsu
  • Chinese: 許鴻源博士
  • Era: 1917-1991
  • Geography: Changhua, Taiwan
  • Core roles: entrepreneur, scientist, professor, educator
  • Source: TAH Foundation Who’s Who

Timeline

(from his TAH profile — no external sources)

  • 1917–1991; from Changhua, Taiwan
  • 1937 — B.S., Pharmacy — Meiji Pharmaceutical Univ. (明治藥科大學); 1941 — M.S., Pharmacy — Tokyo Univ.; 1959 — Ph.D., Pharmacy — Kyoto Univ.
  • 1946 — founded Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co.; 1951 — Director, Taiwan Hygiene Laboratory
  • 1955 — Professor, Taipei Medical Univ.; 1971 — Director, Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare
  • Founded the American Hanfang Medical Research Institute; founded |Sun Ten Museum as a collector of Taiwanese art (see |museum history)
  • Wife |許林碖; children 許純真 (Melissa), 許照信, 許照義
  • Profiled in [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/senior-taiwanese-american-7||TAH senior profile #7]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/91-dr-hong-yen-hsu||TAH #91]]; autobiography in [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/1266-autobiography||TAH #1266]]

Education

  • Meiji Pharmaceutical Univ.(明治藥科大學) — 1937 — B.S., Pharmacy
  • Tokyo Univ. — 1941 — M.S., Pharmacy
  • Kyoto Univ. — 1959 — Ph.D., Pharmacy

Employment

  • Sun Ten Pharmaceutical Co. — Founder/Owner — (1946-) — Taiwan Hygiene Laboratory — Director — (1951-) — Taipei Medical Univ. — Professor — (1955-) — Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare — Director — (1971-) — Community — American Hanfang Medical Research Institute — Founder — Sun Ten Museum — Founder/Collector of Taiwanese art

Family

  • Wife: |許林碖
  • Daughter: Melissa (許純真)
  • Son: 許照信, 許照義

Sources

Connected in the Vault — 2026-09-10 deepen pass (vault-only)

  • Four TAH records for him are held in the vault: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/senior-taiwanese-american-7||TAH senior profile #7]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/91-dr-hong-yen-hsu||TAH #91]], [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/whos-who-808-hong-yen-hsu||TAH Who’s Who #808]], and his autobiography [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/1266-autobiography||TAH #1266]].
  • The Sun Ten Museum he founded also has its own vault pages: |Sun Ten Museum and |history of the museum; an additional encyclopedia record exists at [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/40-sun-ten-museum||TAH #40: Sun Ten Museum]].
  • Family links already recorded and verified as existing vault pages: wife |許林碖; children 許純真 (Melissa), 許照信, 許照義 (no vault pages yet).

Deepen pass 2026-09-14 (vault-only)

Additional vault records about him (existing pages, no new biography):

  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/pride19|TAH pride #19: Father of Scientific Oriental Medicine「科學中藥之父」/ Dr. Hong-yen Hsu 許鴻源博士]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/mystories612|TAH #612: 許鴻源博士的一生 / 陳飛龍 / 2017-12]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/685-my-stories|TAH #685: 收集美術畫 / 許鴻源博士 / 2019-06]] — his own account of art collecting
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/39-dr-hong-yen-hsu-memorial-fine-arts-center|TAH #39: Dr. Hong-Yen Hsu Memorial Fine Arts Center 許鴻源博士紀念美術館]]
  • [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/679-nami-yang-03-2019|TAH #679: 我所認識的許鴻源長老 / 李淑櫻 Nami Yang / 2019-03]] — memoir by |Nami Yang 李淑櫻

Role in the Community (deepen-x slice 09141300-2, corpus-absorbed)

  • Southern California Taiwanese senior-care institution builder. Our own community memoir 鶴園老人公寓及台灣長輩會館建設記 (English: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys173-eng|Our Journeys #173]]) records that in 1984 the Taiwanese American Seniors Association of Southern California (TASA), then homeless after three office relocations, resolved under third president An-Su Gao Lai to build a senior center and apartments. TASA immediately retained 許鴻源 among a consultant group of about twenty community leaders (with Kenjohn Wang 王桂榮, Ming-chung Zhuo 卓敏忠, Symeon Woo 吳西面, Charles Ting 丁昭昇 and others) plus legal advisers Mao-ching Huang, Chung-yuan Liao and R. S. Wu. The group purchased a 60,000 sq ft site in El Monte in 1986; construction began 1987-03-17 and the Flamingo Garden Senior Apartments and Taiwanese Senior Center opened 1988-03-05 before the mayor and 500 community members — described in the memoir as the first milestone of Taiwanese American immigrant history in Southern California. (The ZH memoir inconsistently prints 許鴻原 once vs 許鴻源; same person per context.)
  • Educator of the next generation of pharmaceutical researchers. TAHS-affiliated memoirist 鄭炳全’s 旅美五十周年 memoir (taiwanjustice.net record) recalls 許鴻源 as director of the Institute of Medicinal Plants at the Chinese Culture College (中國文化學院藥用植物研究所所長) in the mid-1960s, where the memoirist studied before moving to the U.S. in 1970.
  • Art-collecting diplomacy with painters. A press record held in the vault (許鴻源和畫家搏感情，李梅樹感動買一送一, 2021) documents that he collected some 670 works by Taiwanese artists and related to painters as more than buyer: knowing pioneer painter 李梅樹 suffered from stomach illness, he repeatedly sent him medicinal materials, moving Li to paint portraits of the Hsu couple — which Li, seeking perfection, painted twice, so both versions now hang side-by-side at the National Museum of Fine Arts’ 海外存珍—順天美術館藏品歸鄉展. This corroborates his own account of collecting in [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/685-my-stories|TAH #685: 收集美術畫]].
  • Additional encyclopedia record in-vault: [[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ff280|TAH #280: Dr. Hong-yen Hsu 許鴻源博士 / Father of Scientific Oriental Medicine「科學中藥之父」]] — a second encyclopedia entry alongside the already-linked pride #19 record of the same title.

Deepen pass 2026-10-10 (deepen-x slice 10081100-25, corpus re-grep)

Fresh ZH+EN+variant (許鴻源/許鴻原/Hong-Yen Hsu) grep across all five corpus dirs returned the same hit set as prior passes; two records not previously cited add corroboration only, no new biography:

  • Corroborates the institute directorship date. The 2024 vault record of 鄭炳全’s 旅美五十周年 memoir (taiwanjustice.net 2024 record) — the same memoir as the 2025 record already cited above — dates it precisely: the memoirist graduated from 台北醫學大學 in 1965, then entered the 中國文化學院藥用植物研究所 whose director (所長) was 許鴻源博士, before 那琦 returned from Kyoto to 北醫 about a year later. This places the directorship at circa 1965–1966, consistent with the mid-1960s wording already held.
  • Collecting record indexed in the art-history stream. The taiwanjustice culture/art-history category index (台灣美術史, 2021) lists 「許鴻源和畫家搏感情，李梅樹感動買一送一」 among its 台灣美術史 entries — i.e. his collecting is being treated as part of the published Taiwan art-historical record, not just a profile piece.
  • No conflicts found; the 許鴻原/許鴻源 spelling variance in ourjourneys173 was already flagged in the prior pass and is unchanged.

Deepen pass 2026-10-11 (deepen-x slice 10100849-5, corpus re-grep)

Fresh ZH+EN+variant grep across all five corpus dirs returned the same hit set as prior passes; one detail not previously cited on this page:

  • Full 1988 builder roster in the English translation. The English text of the same memoir ([[works/taiwaneseamericanhistory-org/ourjourneys173-eng|Our Journeys #173 ENG]]) names the 1988 Flamingo Garden/Taiwanese Senior Center group as community leaders An-Su Gao Lai 賴高安賜, Kenjohn Wang 王桂榮, Charles Ting 丁昭昇, Ming-chung Zhuo 卓敏忠, Hong-yen Hsu 許鴻源, Cheng-tsung Chang 張正宗, Chia-yu Yang 楊嘉猷 and Symeon Woo 吳西面 — 張正宗 and 楊嘉猷 were not previously listed on this page’s Role section, which named only five of the consultants. The ZH original’s 許鴻原 vs 許鴻源 variance (flagged in prior passes) is unchanged.
  • No new biography, no conflicts found.

Deepen pass 2026-10-12 (deepen-x slice 10110500-5, corpus re-grep)

Fresh ZH+EN+variant (許鴻源/許鴻原/Hong-Yen Hsu/hong-yen-hsu) grep across all five corpus dirs returned the identical hit set as prior passes — every hit is already cited on this page (ourjourneys173 ±ENG, mystories612, 679-nami-yang, ff280, pride19, 39-memorial-center, 91/808/1266/senior-7, the 2021 李梅樹 press record, both 鄭炳全 memoir records); the remaining hits are index/manifest files. mystories612 and 679-nami-yang are bibliographic stubs (full text stays in the vault), so no absorbable prose. Corpus is exhausted for this page; no new biography, no conflicts found.

Deepen pass 2026-10-13 (deepen-x slice 10120700-22, corpus re-grep)

Fresh ZH+EN+variant (許鴻源/許鴻原/Hong-Yen Hsu/Hong-yen Hsu/hong-yen-hsu) grep across all five corpus dirs returned the identical hit set as prior passes — every substantive hit is already cited on this page (ourjourneys173 ±ENG, mystories612, 679-nami-yang, ff280, pride19, 39-memorial-center, 91/808/1266/senior-7/685, the 2021 李梅樹 press record, both 鄭炳全 memoir records); the remaining hits are index/manifest files. mystories612 and 679-nami-yang remain bibliographic stubs (full text stays in the vault), so no absorbable prose. Corpus remains exhausted for this page; no new biography, no conflicts found.

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