Chinese Educational Mission

The Chinese Educational Mission (1872–1881) was a pioneering attempt by reform-minded officials of the Qing dynasty to help modernize China through the education of 120 Chinese students in the United States.

History

The 1868 Burlingame Treaty between China and the United States included a provision that granted Chinese in the United States the same rights as other foreigners.^: 150 This allowed Chinese to enroll in American schools and universities,^: 150 thus facilitating China's first central-government sponsored study abroad program, the Chinese Educational Mission.^: 150

In 1871, Yung Wing, the first Chinese to graduate from an American university (Yale, class of 1854), persuaded the Chinese government to send supervised groups of young Chinese boys to the United States to study Western science and engineering. The stated intent behind the initiative was to contribute to China's modernization and "Self-Strengthening" efforts at a time when China had become severely weakened by foreign imperialism and internal conflicts.

With the government's approval, Yung Wing became Commissioner of the Chinese Educational Mission, under which 120 boys, some under the age of ten, were selected to study in the New England region of the United States beginning in 1872. The mission based its headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut, partly on account of Yung Wing's friendship with the Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, a supporter of the mission and a close friend of Mark Twain.

The students arrived in four detachments (1872, 1873, 1874 and 1875). Placed with American host families in Hartford and other New England towns, they were enrolled in select schools in preparation for subsequent studies in college. These schools included Williston Seminary, Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Academy Exeter, Hartford Public High School, Holyoke High School, and Somerville High School.

After graduating from secondary school, the boys would go on to study at various universities, including Yale, MIT and Columbia University.

A decade into the mission, however, internal disagreements between Yung Wing and senior Qing officials over how the boys' activities and conduct should be managed intensified to the point where the future of the mission itself was called into question.

Furthermore, external pressures such as rising anti-Chinese sentiment in the US (which led to the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882) and the US government's refusal in 1878 to allow Chinese students into the Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, in contravention of the Burlingame Treaty, antagonized diplomatic relations between the US and China.

When the fourth and final Commissioner Wu Jiashan arrived from China in 1879, he found that the students had become too Americanized and felt they were neglecting their Chinese heritage and becoming "denationalized".

The influential official Huang Zunxian wrote a poem which admitted that the students had lived luxurious lives and become Americanized, but lamented the lost opportunity:

Unfortunately, in the Imperial Academy

The curriculum has not included Western learning.

Withal, on the promotion of science

Now depends the future of the nation.

A decade's effort in training youths

Will lay the foundation for a century's wealth and strength.

Despite a spirited campaign to save the mission, including an overture to Ulysses Grant by Mark Twain, the Qing government terminated the mission in June 1881, ordering all students to return to China. At the time of the announcement, 43 students, including 20 at Yale, were enrolled in college and had to abandon their studies.

Of the mission's original 120 students, about 100 returned to China.

Many of the students who returned went on to make significant contributions to their country in government, industry, engineering, and the sciences. They included Liang Cheng, Tang Shaoyi, Hong Yen Chang, Cai Tinggan, Zhan Tianyou and Shouson Chow.

Among the students who attended Natchaug School in Willimantic, Connecticut and MIT was Sung Mun Wai (宋文翙), who later became a Vice Admiral in the Chinese Navy.

List of students

Note: The following names are in each person's own way of transcription used during their studies in USA instead of pinyin.

See also

• Chen Lanbin
• Zeng Laishun

References

Further reading

• Bieler, Stacey. "Patriots" or "Traitors"? A History of American-Educated Chinese Students. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. xv, 527p. ISBN 0-7656-1186-4
• Lee, Yan Phoo. "When I Was a Boy in China." Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, 1887. https://archive.org/details/wheniwasboyinchi00leey
• Leibovitz, Liel and Miller, Matthew I. Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization. New York: Norton, 2011. ISBN 978-0-393-07004-0.
• Rhoads, Edward J.M. Stepping Forth into the World the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872–81. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. ISBN 9789888028863
• Teller, Rick. The First Chinese Students at Williston, December 6, 2020.
• Yung Wing. My Life in China and America. New York: Holt, 1909. 286p. ISBN
• Xi, Lian (2015). "Returning to the Middle Kingdom: Yung Wing and the Recalled Students of the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States". Modern Asian Studies. 49 (1): 150–176. doi:10.1017/S0026749X12000911. S2CID 145609146.

External links

• The Yung Wing Project contains the transcribed text of Yung Wing's memoir My Life in China and America.
• CEM Connections presents short bios and photos of the 120 students of the Chinese Educational Mission.
• Connecticut Museum – Virtual Exhibition: Journeys 旅途: Boys of the Chinese Educational Mission
• Chinese Students at Andover
• China Comes to MIT
• Columbia and China in History
• Thomas La Fargue Collection, Washington State University