Wu Sing-Yung is a Chinese American medical professor and historian.
Wu Sing-Yung (Wu Xing-Yong) is the son of General and Mrs. Songqing Wu, natives of Zhenghai County of Zhejiang Province. He was born in Sichuan in 1939 and moved to Taiwan in 1949, eleven days before People’s Liberation Army (PLA) took over Shanghai.
In Taipei, he entered the Primary School for Families Associated with the Chinese Air Force as a 5th grader. Following graduation from the Affiliated High School of
the Provincial Normal College, he completed his undergraduate study at the National Taiwan University (Taida) in 1963. After serving one year as a Military
Reserve Officer in the Chinese Nationalist Army, he came to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies. He obtained a Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1969 and a Medical Doctor’s degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1972. He completed his postgraduate medical training at the Universities of Chicago, Washington (Seattle) and California Los Angeles. He then settled at the University of California, Irvine in 1977, and was promoted to full professor in Radiological Sciences and Medicine in 1990.
His research and clinical interest were in thyroid hormone metabolism and the management of thyroid diseases. He has authored and contributed to medical book chapters and over a hundred peer-reviewed medical papers as well as edited two books on Thyroid Hormone Metabolism. He has also organized 5 international conferences in Taipei and Los Angeles on clinical applications and basic research in Thyroid Hormone Metabolism especially in peripheral metabolism and alternate pathways. He has a long-term interest in the research on the development of a novel fetal thyroid function marker (W-compound) that may help to better manage congenital hypothyroidism.
His Thyroid Laboratory at Long Beach VA Medical Center, in collaboration with professors Delbert A. Fisher at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Theo Visser at
Erasmus Medical Center of Netherlands, has found that sulfo-conjugation is the major pathway for thyroid hormone metabolism in the mammalian fetus. This
sulfation pathway for thyroid hormone metabolism that dominates in the developing mammals has been a major physiological finding in the thyroid hormone metabolism.
Normal thyroid state in the fetus is essential for normal development and maturation for the central nervous system including brain. The suboptimal thyroid hormone state in human fetuses results in subnormal IQ and may lead to ADD/ADHD, autism and other abnormalities in children. W-compound, a sulfated thyroid hormone analog, found in fetuses and pregnant mothers was discovered and named by Dr. Wu. W-compound could be used as a non-invasive fetal thyroid function marker which Dr. Wu has received a U.S. patent award.
In addition to medical studies, Dr. Wu has an interest in modern Chinese history. He has been the author and editor of five books (in Chinese) about the facts involving the “secret gold shipments” from Shanghai to Taiwan in 1948-49 near the end of the Chinese Civil War. These events were of critical importance on the Republic of China retreat to Taiwan (Wikipedia). According to his studies, about 4 million oz. gold and some one hundred million pieces of silver dollars were transferred from Shanghai's state treasury in multiple shipments by air and sea to Taiwan and Xiamen from December 1, 1948, to May 18, 1949. The major portion of the gold (80% or 6.28 million oz.) had originally been sent from the United States during and after WWII as part of U.S. aid to China to fight inflation.
Nearly all the silver dollars, including 30 million minted in U.S. in 1949, and one million oz of gold in Xiamen were used to support the Nationalist army in fighting against the rapidly advancing PLA from April to December 1949 when inflation had flooded the area under Nationalist control and rendered paper money worthless.
The rest of the gold, nearly 3 million oz., played a pivotal role in stabilizing the economy of the Nationalist regime (Republic of China) in Taiwan from 1949 to 1950 until the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950.
Without the gold from the Chinese Mainland, Taiwan would certainly have been destabilized by a precipitate currency devaluation, which would have invited a PLA invasion across the Taiwan Strait, leading to its unification with the People's Republic of China in 1950 -1951.
To English readers and American-born Chinese (ABC), Dr. Wu has an English book “Father’s Gold Secret” in press in 2021 to discuss his father’s secret role involving the gold as the Chief of Finance in the Nationalist Army. His father, General Samuel Song-qing Wu (吳嵩慶) had handled most of the gold and silver during the Civil War as military expenditure to purchase essential supplies including provisions and uniforms, as well as salaries for the Nationalist troops. This English book also explains how American gold played an essential role in creating such a free land in Taiwan, the Republic of China or Free China.
(Courtesy of Dr. Wu Sing-Yung)
1987, Dr. Wu, Sing-Yung and wife Dr. Yvonne Yan-Chiu and daughters Elizabeth, Elaine with father General Samuel Song-qing Wu (center)
吳興鏞教授全家與父親吳嵩慶合影 （1987 年）。
吳興鏞是加州大學（爾灣校區）的醫學教授，也是位中國近代史研究者與作者。
他抗戰時生在四川，祖籍是浙江鎮海，祖父吳吉三先生是位秀才，在家鄉毀家興學，賣掉祖產沙船得六千銀元，興辦小學，七星延陵學校。吳興鏞戰後隨著其父吳嵩慶的工作，由蜀轉武漢、南京，最後在共軍進上海的 11 天前，到台灣。初到台北，進空軍子弟小學，中學在師大附中，1963 年畢業於國立台灣大學，當完預備軍官一年後，得助教獎學金來美，1969年於西雅圖華盛頓大學完成實驗病理學哲學博士，1972 年於巴爾的摩約翰·霍普金斯大學獲得醫學博士學位，他的臨床教育在芝加哥大學、西雅圖華大及洛杉磯加大完成。
1977 年，吳興鏞任職美國爾灣加州大學榮民教學醫院，1990 年升為內科及放射學科正教授。他從 1980年代起從事甲狀腺素代謝研究，有專書及論文多份，為中華民國內分泌學會榮譽會員、擔任國防醫學院，三軍總醫院訪問教授及台北榮民總醫院名譽顧問多年，曾在洛杉磯，台北與長堤主持五次甲狀腺素代謝國際會議（1989-2012 年）。也受邀參與 1975 年的國建會議。
他的甲狀腺素的研究，導引他與其合作者，洛杉磯加大的費雪教授 （Delbert A. Fisher）及荷蘭維瑟教授（Theo Visser），發現胎兒的甲狀腺素代謝以硫酸化徑路為主，同時一部分硫酸化甲狀腺素由胎兒轉到母親，成為吳教授命名的 W-複合物（W-Compound），可作為胎兒甲狀腺功能指標並獲得美國的專利。而胎兒正常甲狀腺功能對腦的發育是不可缺的，甲狀腺功能不足，會影響未來的智商及其他腦功能，會有長遠的後遺症如 IQ 低下、兒童注意力缺乏／注意力缺乏與過動症及自閉症等等，此一重要研究，在世界新冠病毒肆虐之際，吳教授有後繼無人之感。
吳興鏞業餘研究在 1948-1949 年之間發生的中華民國國庫黃金運送台灣行動，為近代史提供大量資料與證據。他的研究發現，黃金分六批運往台灣，共約四百萬兩，為新臺幣發行及韓戰爆發前的台海局勢的穩定，作出無法估量的貢獻。他的研究成果——《黃金秘檔：1949 年大陸黃金運台始末》一書，2009 年底於南京首發，也揭開了國共內戰中最神秘的一頁，尤其是下野的蔣介石隱藏在廈門鼓浪嶼的秘密軍費黃金（由吳興鏞父親吳嵩慶，國軍財務及軍需署長，負責管理）。除了在大陸出版的《黃金秘檔》外，在台北
也出版了《黃金檔案》（2007 年）及《黃金往事》（2013年）兩書。在 2019 年，他注釋其父《吳嵩慶戰時軍費日記》在北京社會科學院出版，為研究內戰軍費，提供第一手資料。此外他也提議以當前剩餘運台黃金，約有 108 萬兩，儲存在台北近郊的文園國庫，所滋生的利息設立「中華世紀黃金教育基金」，以促進兩岸教育發展及自由思想的交流，為未來中國大陸的去共產化 （decommunization） 提供條件。
吳教授於 2021 年，在美國以英語發表《父之黃金秘密》，提供給第二代華人子弟及英語閱讀者的中國近代史讀物，促進歐美人士對自由中國 （台灣的中華民國）的了解：自由世界為何失去中國大陸。也希望能對大陸的未來有正面的影響。（吳興鏞教授提供）