Researching Cho-yun Hsu

Hsu's scholarly works have been largely on Chinese history, emphasizing on cultural history, socio-economic history and ancient Chinese history. He was noted for his utilization of scientific methods and theories from social sciences. His major works include Western Chou Civilization (1990 Yale University Press), Ancient China in Transition (1965 Stanford University Press), and Han Agriculture (1980 University of Washington Press). His work in Chinese Wangu jianghe (2009 Echo), translated into English as China: A New Cultural History (2012 Columbia University Press), narrates the full course of development of Chinese culture in the perspective of globalization.

Hsu is also known for his advocacy and advisory work during the democratic transition in Taiwan. He is an Emeritus Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh where he taught from 1970 until his retirement in 1998, and has served in honorary positions in several universities including Duke University, Nanjing University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Hsu is a contributing columnist for Chinese newspapers including China Times, United Daily News in Taiwan and Southern City News System in China．

Hsu is one of the founding members of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and has served as chair of its North American Committee since 1989. During the 1990s, he was instrumental in providing funding to a number of universities and colleges to establish teaching positions on Chinese studies. He oversaw a gradual shift in the Foundation's grants from established scholars to young scholars. Hsu recommended CCK Foundation grants to libraries to catalog rare Chinese books and to digitize historic maps of East Asia.