ch'ien wrote extensively on chinese classics, history and confucian thought. unlike many 20th-century chinese intellectuals influenced by the new culture movement of the 1910s who were fundamentally skeptical of traditional chinese thought and confucianism, he insisted on the importance of traditional values of chinese culture. by the time of his death in 1990, his objections to the rejection of tradition of confucianism had gained wider credence, partly through the influence of his student at new asia college, yu ying-shih.