Sheng Xuanhuai
In 1901, Sheng Xuanhuai, the first president of the school, also the Minister of Transportation responsible for proposing the idea to Guangxu Emperor, then founded the predecessor of today's Shanghai Nanyang Model High School as an elementary school affiliated to the growing Nanyang Public School, which has now become Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a prestigious school renowned as one of the oldest and most selective universities in China.