Following secondary school, John first enrolled at Fu Jen Catholic University (辅仁大学), one of the most respected Catholic universities in China, before transferring to Yenching University in 1947. Like the missionary schools he had attended earlier, both institutions were deeply connected to international intellectual networks and represented some of the most prestigious centers of higher education in Republican China. Yet by the late 1940s, university life unfolded against the backdrop of mounting instability as the Chinese Civil War intensified and Communist victory appeared increasingly likely.