After earning his doctorate, Hsu returned to start his academic career, fulfilling a promise to his mother, his alma mater National Taiwan University, and the Academia Sinica.
While working in Taiwan, Hsu and Herbert Ma [zh] recruited many humanities and social science scholars to train Taiwanese academics.
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.
Hsu recommended CCK Foundation grants to libraries to catalog rare Chinese books and to digitize historic maps of East Asia.