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Many of you may have heard or read about the little known story of the Imperial Students (also known as the Chinese Boy Students) whom the Manchu Qing government of China sent to America to study in 1870s, supposedly for a period of 15 years, so that when they returned home, they would have acquired the knowledge of technology in military administration, mathematics, manufacturing, and engineering sciences that they would be acquainted with to modernize China. The first group of the Boy Students set sail from Shanghai in 1872.

China was then under absolute control of Empress Dowager Cixi whose son Tongzhi (born Apr 1856) ascended the throne at age five after his father ‘s death. Tongzhi (reigned 1861-1875) in turn died at age 18 from a skin disease. Empress Cixi appointed her 4-year old nephew, Guangxu (born 1871) as the next emperor in 1875 and adopted him as her son, but power was still wielded by Empress Cixi.

The Boy Students were suddenly recalled back to China in 1881, 9 years after the Chinese Education Mission first went into operation. Altogether, 120 Boy Students (70% from Quangdong province) were sent to America to study and none of the Manchu aristocratic children applied.

Empress Cixi once told her nephew, Emperor Guangxu: “I have always been a supporter of reforms. I took the advice of Zeng Guofan to send kids children to study abroad in expectation of a richer and stronger China. But we must never turn against our ancestors by converting to the Western order.” Some years later, after the defeat in a war with Japan in 1984, she had a complete change of mind about sending students abroad, but it was too late. Empress Cixi had instituted a decree that called for the noble clans to apply for studying abroad, and children of high birth began scrambling for a chance to go abroad, each with their own retinue of servants. This group of 13 students from the noble clans embarked on their journey to Japan in 1986.

In June 1898, Guangxu (reigned 1875-1908) began a series of sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing China with the help of more progressive mandarins. But his reforms were too sudden for China and they also came into conflict with Empress Cixi. He was double-crossed by Yang Shikai whom he had sought help from to overthrow the Empress, and was arrested in September 1898. Guangxu died under house arrest in November 1908 at a young age of 38, a day before Empress Dowager Cixi’s death. In the last 30 years of the Manchu Qing dynasty under Empress Cixi, China was literally slippering down the drain.

If Emperor Guangxu had succeeded in overthrowing Empress Cixi , China’s history might have taken a different turn. He would have gathered together an enlightened team of ministers and wisemen to run the country, in the likes of Rong Hong (also known as Yung Wing) who founded the Chinese Education Mission to look after the Boy Students. Rong Hong himself was the first Chinese to graduate from an American University, that was funded by the missionary. The Boy students would have continued their education in America. More students would have been sent abroad to bring back knowledge and ideas to rejuvenate China, as a few of the first batch of students to America had done. China could have become today a modern and an industrialized nation.

Although industrial revolution began in Britain in the 1700s, it started to spread to Europe and United States only in 1850s and later Japan industrialized rapidly. That was the phase in industrial revolution that China missed out during the last 30 years of turmoil in the Qing dynasty period. History would have changed for the better – probably no republic revolution in 1911, no repeat of war with Japan in 1937 and no communist regime coming into power in 1948. China might still have an emperor today like in Japan, or a king or queen like in England.

The problem in the feudal kingdoms of China, as in any feudal kingdom anywhere, was that obedience and loyalty to the emperor in power was absolute. If the emperor was an enlightened one, the country would progress and the subjects would prosper in peace; but if the emperor was oppressive, the country would be submerged in civil wars and the subjects would be suppressed and kept poor. The history of feudal China had repeatedly shown this to be the case from one emperor to the next, from one dynasty to the next dynasty.

The fault might lie in the Confucian teachings of filial piety that the emperors had literally imbibed to serve their selfish ends. To the emperors, filial piety meant absolute obedience to them and to them alone, as opposed to loyalty to the state that we know of today. Hence, the emperors in feudal China were always in the state of war - in the field and in the palace. They always surrounded themselves with eunuchs and sycophants to report any suspicions of plots, or coup d’etat that might be waged against them, instead of directing their energies to improving the welfare of the state and the wellbeing of the people. Plots and coup d’etat were a norm in feudal China. Having gone through many upheavals and sufferings by its people, China is now finally taking a long and tedious route to re-make itself as a kingdom, but without a king.

Thank you for the informative historical account.



Did you mean 1886?



We can't change the course of history and nobody really knows if Guangxu would have succeeded. He is indecisive and weak according to some historians. To unify China during that era of confusion and low confidence was no easy task. Majority of the population were uneducated and foremost on their minds was filling their stomach. The overseas scholarship policy was just the beginning. It takes time to effect significant changes.



There are strengths and weaknesses in most religious or philosophical teachings. Filial piety helps to bind society from the basic family unit to the top strata of the emperor. While promotes stability, it tends to resist changes. However, Confucianism also teaches symbiotic relationships. Should the leader fail in its obligation to provide for the people, the latter could rightfully oust the regime.



Care to elaborate? Does this refer to Mao's reign? Present day China has evolved into a collective leadership. Unlikely to return to the past and no leader could claim to have absolute power.

1) The year was “1886” and not “1986” when the 13 ‘noble' students were sent to Japan.

2) Emperor Guangxu was under house arrest at about age 27 when he tried to institute reforms. He could not therefore be effective under house arrest. He died at age 38 under mysterious circumstances. Of course we can’t change history, but history might have been different for China if Emperor Guangxu had been left to reign without conspiracies caused by Empress Cixi, his aunt who adopted him as son.

3) In a modern society that we know today, the people could oust the leader if he is oppressive. Not so in the feudal system – you need a rebel general, a trusted prime minister, or a royal family member to overthrow the leader. There were numerous examples in the Chinese history to show the conspiracies and intrigues that went along with it, yet Confucianism was strongly embraced by a succession of Chinese emperors.

4) I refer to China after Mao and the gang of four, that is now slowing evolving into a democratic nation, like in the west. In name, it is still communist, in practice it is capitalism. The transition that is still ongoing, although welcome, has been quite drastic in such a short span of time.

Overall, I have no disagreement with most of what you've pointed out. Except however, I am still not too convinced about Guang Xu's abilities. Perhaps the machavellian Empress Ci Xi was just too powerful and shrewd for the young Emperor.

Here is the story published in the website of Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale by courtesy of CCTV International.

Story of the Boy Students (Part I)

More than a century ago, the Imperial Government of China sent the very first delegation of students abroad. Between 1872 and 1875, the Qing government dispatched 4 groups, in total 120 students, to America. Their average age was only 12. Hence history remembers them by a common title - the Chinese Boy Students.

These young Chinese students were sent to the other side of Pacific 130 years ago, to a young republic founded less than 100 years earlier, to embark on their expected 15-year long overseas study.

In the shortest time possible, they overcame the language barriers and soon prevailed in academic achievement. Meanwhile, they rapidly adjusted themselves to the foreign culture and soon took off their long Chinese gowns and were often seen on sports fields.

They were students accepted into Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT; they were neighbors to Mark Twain; and they were once cordially received by the American President Grant. As the world saw dramatic changes, they were sent to the very front of the Industrial Revolution. However, as nearly half of the students were beginning their tertiary education, the Qing government abruptly terminated this project.

These students later became the precursors of China's modern mining, transportation, and communications industries. They were the first presidents of Tsinghua University and Tianjin University, the first diplomats, and the first premier of the Republic of China. After they returned home, they went through the ups and downs of late Qing Dynasty and witnessed the vicissitudes of modern China.

Stories of the Boy Students sent to America are like fragments of a precious piece of porcelain, scattered over America and China, almost lost for more than a century. They were left in the cities where the students used to live, in the high schools and colleges they attended; and the local historical societies and public libraries; they persisted in the blood of the students' descendants and in the memories of the host American families. We have collected the debris of history -pictures, letters, diaries, report cards, clothes, press clippings, to patch together a bygone period of Sino-American history from more than 100 years ago.

One person is key to the stories of all these children. He is the first Chinese graduate from a prestigious American university -- Rong Hong (also known as Yung Wing).

“I graduated from Yale University in 1854, but it was not till 1872 that the first delegation of students was sent to America. What happened in the meantime was 18 years of uncertainty and prolonged waiting.”

In 1909 Rong Hong wrote his autobiography ‘My Life in China and America’, lending us a view into the stories of China's first official delegation of overseas students. Some contend that, without Rong Hong, China could have sent students abroad, but then, the date would have been much later and there would not have been the vision of sending such young students abroad. It was the persistence and vision of Rong Hong that brought about this unprecedented event.

“I was born in 1828, in a small village called Nanping in Guangdong, China, only 4 miles from Macao.”

Beginning in the 17th century, foreign businessmen and missionaries began to appear in Macao, thus opening a window to the outside world.

When he was seven years old, Rong Hong was sent by his parents to a school in Macao run by a missionary, Mrs. Gutzlaff.

“It has always been a mystery to me why my parents should take it into their heads to put me into a foreign school, instead of a regular orthodox Confucian school, where my brother much older than myself was placed. Most assuredly such a step would have been more in play with Chinese public sentiment, taste, and the wants of the country at large, than to allow me to attend an English school.” [from ‘My Life in China and America]

Rong Hong believed his poor parents sent him to a foreign school because they noticed the increasing business with foreigners in the south, and thought that the ability to speak a foreign language would gain him a decent job.

“But what I later accomplished was far beyond their expectations when they sent me to the school.”

Rong Hong arrived in Macao and his eyes were greeted by unfamiliar scenes. The harbor bristled with sails and masts from foreign lands. The burnt-out ruins of St. Paul, still graceful, stood massively above the horizon. Foreign sailors and missionaries were seen everywhere on the piers. When Rong Hong was led to his teacher, Mrs. Gutzlaff, the first western woman he ever saw, he immediately hid behind his father. So Rong Hong entered Mrs. Gutzlaff's school and began to study English, arithmetic, painting and the Bible.

After four years, the school announced its closure. And Mrs. Gutzlaff left China for home. In 1839, the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, Viceroy of Hu Guang Lin Zexu came to Guangzhou to ban the opium trade. Then, China and UK declared war.

The secluded, ancient Chinese empire languished in opium fumes until its slumber was violently awakened by British warships. During the first opium war, China went through unrelenting miseries.

Rong left his studies. He returned to his village and began to take various odd jobs to support his family. Everything seemed to return to its normal track.

“No-one in the village knew that I could read and write English. When my sister told them, their curiosity was aroused.”

Farmers in the field called Rong to them, asking him to speak the foreigners' language and pledged rice as a reward.

“Heavy rewards fueled my courage. I recited the 26 letters aloud to them.”

Rong bartered the 26 English letters for bundles of rice. As he was working hard to earn petty sums of money to support his family, one day a missionary came to him.

When she left, Mrs. Gutzlaff had told the missionary and schoolmaster, Reverend Brown “when the school is reopened, you must get these children back to study." She was quite concerned about Rong.

"It is only later I found out that when Mrs. Gutzlaff had left Macao, she had entrusted the preacher-doctor to get me back to school once it reopened."

As instructed by Mrs. Gutzlaff, the missionary took Rong Hong in 1842 to the Morrison Academy in Hong Kong, located on top of Morrison Hill. The schoolmaster Reverend Brown was also a graduate of Yale University.

Having been away from school for two years, Rong Hong now returned to study the Four Books and the Five Classics in Chinese, English writing, geography, vocal music, geometry, history, and the rest.

Four years later, Reverend Brown planned to return to America due to health problems. Before he left, he made an announcement.

“He said he would take a few students back with him to America, where they could finish their studies. Whoever wanted to go, please stand up.”

A hush fell. The first to stand up was Rong Hong, followed by Huang Sheng and Huang Kuan.

In January 1847, 18-year-old Rong Hong embarked on a ship to America with Reverend Brown and two classmates, Huang Kuan and Huang Sheng. This was a typical commercial sailing route. The group departed from Hong Kong, negotiated the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Atlantic, aiming at the eastern coast of America. The 98 days and nights on the billowing waves marked the advent of Rong Hong's 8 years of overseas study.

America in 1847 was a young republic of only 70 years’ history. Reverend Brown's home was in Monson, south-central Massachusetts. His wife's maiden surname was Butler. These two names, Brown and Butler, would be closely related to Rong Hong and the 120 boy students that he eventually brought to America.

The three Chinese students all entered the famous Monson Academy in New England. The aim of the school, as it was set at the time of its foundation, was to prepare young students who desired to enter university.

“In my first year at Monson Academy, I never thought of entering university. When I left for America, I only planned to stay there for 2 years, and then return to China in 1849.”
After one year, Huang Sheng left America due to health problems, while Rong Hong and Huang Kuan were both determined to stay in the U.S. to further their education.

“In 1850 Huang Kuan and Rong Hong graduated from Monson Academy. They were offered opportunities in the U.K. to continue their education. London missionary societies funded Huang Kuan to go to Edinburgh for his medical studies.”

Rong Hong, however, insisted on staying in America with the hope of entering Reverend Brown's Alma Mater, Yale University.

“I did not concede to those conditions. I thought though I was poor, I should enjoy the freedom to choose the cause that I favored. Whatever field I decided to enter, it should benefit my country. That was my only hope.”

Throughout the Boy Students’ stories, the name of Yale University reverberated. In 1850, Reverend Brown secured economic support for Rong Hong from the Ladies' Association that enabled him to enter Yale. Many years later, Rong Hong would return with more Chinese students.

“I still cannot figure out how I was accepted by Yale University, for I had only studied Latin for 15 months, Greek for 12 months and mathematics for 10 months.”

The more arduous his studies, the better his results, and the more miserable he felt. He said that the growth of knowledge expanded the scope of one's moral considerations. “It pains me to think of the pain of the Chinese people under repression. Before I was educated, my existence was self-centered and ignorant. Now I am alive to the situation of the downtrodden, and I find their situation intolerable. The opportunity of education must be open to more, so I feel the urge to rescue my fellow countrymen from the predicament as soon as possible. I must serve them.” This is what distinguished Rong Hong from others and that convinced me he is a great historical figure.

While he was at Yale, Rong Hong had already outlined to his fellow students the grand cause he would pursue in China. He hoped that more Chinese youths would go abroad to study.

“The rising generation of China should enjoy the same educational advantages that I have enjoyed, so that through western education China might be regenerated and become enlightened and powerful.”

In 1854, Rong Hong graduated from Yale University. He was the first Chinese graduate from an Ivy League school, the top U.S. universities. Yale University has preserved notes exchanged by Rong Hong and his fellow students upon graduation. Rong Hong wrote: “a great man never loses the heart he had when a child.”

His American fellow students replied: “we expect to hear about your great cause in the near future of China. We wish you return to your motherland to find it already liberated into a sacred republic and that you will rejoice in the victory of overthrowing the despotic regime.”

To this day, Yale is proud of Rong Hong, whose photo greets countless visitors to one of the Yale buildings.

As the first Chinese graduate from a prestigious American university, Rong Hong attracted great attention. He returned to China in 1854 bearing the great ideal conceived at Yale, which he would finally realize. He designed and implemented the first official overseas student project in Chinese history. Encouraged by him, over 20 students later entered Yale. What Rong Hong did not expect, however, was that he had to wait 18 years for that day.

In 1854, Rong Hong returned to China to find her swept by the revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the nation was overshadowed by the cruelty and carnage of war.
“The thousand terrors that impacted on my eyes each day gnaw at my heart at night, keeping me from food and sleep. I began to wish that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would bring a brand new world.”

By the end of 1860, with the help of two missionaries, Rong Hong visited the army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Nanjing.

“I wanted to get to know the leaders of the Taiping Army, and to learn about their motivations and ideals. Were they eligible to create a new world to replace the Manchu government?”

Rong Hong suggested to the Taiping Army that they should establish military institutions and recruit talented people. But his advocacy was only rewarded with a fourth class baron title endowed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders. Disheartened, Rong Hong left them. He realized that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fell far short of his ideal.

After he returned to China, Rong Hong studied law in Hong Kong and worked as a translator at the Shanghai Customs Office. He said he was searching in his various jobs for opportunities to get to know people in power who would help him to achieve his dream.

“Another three years passed. An opportunity arrived. Someone from Anhui told me that Zeng Guofan wanted to see me in Anqing.”

Rong Hong would meet a key personage who would later facilitate his overseas student project.

It turned out that two close friends of Rong Hong had tried their best to recommend him to the Viceroy of Liangjiang, Zeng Guofan. In the fall of 1863, Rong Hong met Zeng Guofan in his Anqing barracks.

“The Viceroy sat there smiling at me, without a single word. This lasted for a few minutes. His penetrating eyes examined me from head to toe.”

It seemed the General of the Xiang Army felt a consuming curiosity about Rong Hong who had spent many years abroad studying. Zeng Guofan was among the first to wake up to the crisis of China being isolated and surpassed by the rest of the world. In a chronicle edited by Zeng's daughter there is a special picture in which Zeng Guofan sits in an old armchair, looking over his son and daughter while pointing to a huge globe. This must be a unique scene in the life of a high-ranking official at the time. It tells not only of Zeng's conscientious tutelage but also of his attempt to achieve an international perspective.

Soon Zeng Guofan asked to see Rong Hong again. He wasted no time in entering the subject. He asked Rong what would be the most immediately beneficial course for China to follow. Rong Hong, already informed of Zeng’s plan to import machinery from abroad, put aside his education project (temporarily). He suggested that China must first found a 'mother factory' to produce equipment. Zeng Guofan entrusted Rong Hong with procuring machinery abroad. In 1864, Rong Hong returned to the U.S. Though still uncertain about how to realize his dream, he felt that this journey would lead him to it.

(To be continued)

This story is published in the website of Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale by courtesy of CCTV International.

Story of the Boy Students (Part II) (continued)

In the reign of Emperor Tongzhi, visionaries emerged from the banal and parochial officials. These men realized that the situation in China was like traveling on donkeys while others rode stallions. Those who felt reluctant to ride donkeys aspired to redirect China to a fresh route through unremitting self-strengthening efforts.

The two Opium Wars taught the Chinese a serious lesson. For the first time they realized that the Westerners could defeat them with their advanced armaments. Now the Chinese became painfully conscious that they were in want of the powerful warships and cannons of the west. They never dreamed that the west had such powerful guns and ships that could defeat them.

In 1864, in a letter addressed to the Central Foreign Office, astonishing commentary appeared: 'Chinese gentry scholars are obsessed with diction and syntax only, while the military officers are recklessly uncouth. So what we use is not what we learned, and what we learn won’t be of use to us. In time of peace they mock at foreign machines as a display of wicked craft, while in time of war they demonize the western firearms, which they believe to be beyond their power to learn.'

The person who wrote this letter was Li Hongzhang, who was then Governor of Jiangsu Province. Soon, he too would become another key contributor to the overseas student project.

“Li Hongzhang is a major figure in modern Chinese history. He took office as governor of Jiangsu in 1862, and passed away in 1901. For four decades he remained a major player on the political stage of China. He is linked to many great changes in his era.”

In fighting the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion Zeng Guofan promoted Li Hongzhang's political debut. Li started out by training the Huai Army in his home province of Anhui. Later he became the backbone of the so-called "Westernization Officials."

“Li's professional achievements and advancement illustrated the benefits of modern technology and modern military industry.”

Beginning in the 1860s, a number of cities in China began to see things they had never seen before.

The Westernization Officials began to develop their own students. In 1867 at the Ding Guang Temple in Fuzhou City were heard a dozen children reading aloud 'A, B, C, D'. This was the Foochow Shipbuilding College founded by Zuo Zongtang and Shen Baozhen. Westernized education was the order of the day at the college. Teachers were from France and England, countries famous for their advanced techniques of shipbuilding and navigation. The modern thinker Yan Fu and marine officers like Liu Buchan, Deng Shichang, Lin Tai Zeng, were all graduates of this school.
Fourteen years later, Rong Hong's young students would come here.

However, the traditional Chinese educational system was not to be reversed. The Westernization Officials opened Tongwen College in Beijing. They recruited foreign teachers and offered courses in western studies. The school authority decided to enroll successful candidates of the imperial examination. This decision ignited universal controversy. What a shame to allow court appointed officials to learn from foreigners! A censor took the lead in maligning it. He advocated self-reliance as of the utmost importance. And the crux of self-reliance lay in the Emperor's subjects' integrity and faith, cultivated by the Way of Yao, Shun, Confucius and Mencius. Such integrity would shelter the Chinese from any ill fate or enemy. He attacked the Tongwen College as a traitorous institution that promoted submission to 'barbarian' culture through its educational reforms. He claimed that turning from tradition would subject the Chinese to foreign influences and would end up in the loss of the nation's identity.

In the spring of 1865, after spending over a year in America, Rong Hong shipped the machinery he had purchased to China, to the factory at the Kiang Nan Arsenal. When Zeng Guofan visited it, Rong Hong grabbed the chance.

“I suggested to him that he establish a military industrial school near the factory to train Chinese students, so that in future China would not have to depend on foreign machines and engineers.”

Zeng Guofan approved this scheme, and soon the school was founded. Rong Hong said this success was but an initial step in his grand project.

By 1867, already twelve years in China, Rong Hong was still waiting for the right time to come. In that year, the Qing Court appointed, Anson Burlingame, China’s first envoy to the west, which shed light on Rong Hong's plan.

More than one hundred years ago the Qing Dynasty first opened its door to the world by sending a diplomat to the west. Their choice was an American, Anson Burlingame, who was known in Chinese as Pu Anchen.

Pu Anchen is a legendary figure in the history of Sino-US relations. A Harvard graduate in legal studies, he entered the government at a young age and enjoyed a successful political career during his early years. He was elected to the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. He was a radical who epitomized the spirit of New England; a man who embraced democracy and freedom, and was always ready to defend others, especially disadvantaged nations, against injustice.

These pictures are now preserved in the U.S. Library of Congress. They were taken when Burlingame, after appointed envoy to the west by the Qing Dynasty, visited America in 1868. Burlingame, however, had first been the U.S. Ambassador to China. During his tenure, his growing admiration for China's venerable civilization and his disapproval of the west’s 'Gunboat Diplomacy' won him favor at the Qing Court. Just as he had completed his term and was ready to leave, a dramatic event took place. The Qing Court appointed him as China's first envoy to the west. In 1868, he signed the Burlingame Treaty on behalf of the U.S. and China. Article No. 7 states that in future 'Chinese subjects shall enjoy all the privileges as people of the most favored nation during their study in American public educational institutions, and vice versa.'

The Sino-US Burlingame Treaty of 1868 provided a foundation for China to send students to America in the years to come.

A dozen years elapsed and Rong Hong never forgot his dream. On various occasions he had proposed his project to some foreign affairs officials, only in futility.

In the spring of 1870, the Tientsin Massacre took place. Some peasants in Tianjin burnt down a church and killed a missionary. The court assigned Zeng Guofan to mediate in the event, while Rong Hong was summoned as the translator. As he increasingly encountered international issues, Zeng Guofan realized that the lack of Chinese professionals was a severe impediment. On this occasion, Rong Hong again proposed his overseas student project. Now, that dream was to become a reality.

“One night after I had already fallen asleep, somebody woke me up, saying that my project had been approved by Zeng Guofan, who would report with other officials to the court for imperial consideration. This piece of news was too much to allow me to sleep any more that night; while lying on my bed, as wakeful as an owl, I felt as though I were treading on clouds and walking in air.” [from ‘My Life in China and America’]

An original act by China, unprecedented in history. This is a quotation from Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang's memorial to the court. On August 5, 1871, two men, Zeng Guofan, the Viceroy of Liangjiang, and Li Hongzhang, the Viceroy of Zhili, together reported to the Tongzhi emperor. They said the foundation of westerners' military power was the knowledge of geography, mathematics, astronomy, manufacturing, and other fields of modern study. Westerners were eager to learn the advanced technologies of other countries, and to recruit experts to teach them. A strong land force and navy were life and death to them. China should learn from this success. The most urgent task was to select able students for overseas study so that the emperor's long-cherished wish of self-reliance could be realized.

On September 9, 1871, the Central Foreign Office received the royal decree. 'Proposal Approved', these two words initiated China's first overseas student project and turned Rong Hong's dream into reality.

In 1871, the Qing government determined to select bright children to study in America. The plan for the first four years was for an annual installment of 30 boys should be sent off, for a total of 120. They were to study military administration, mathematics, manufacturing, engineering sciences, so that China might become acquainted with the technology in which the west excelled, and thus propel China on to the path of gradual self-rejuvenation. The program was to last 15 years. The Imperial government would cover the overall cost of overseas study. The Qing Dynasty's first student recruitment program had begun.

“Such a gesture from the court was unheard of. Most people were confused when the message came to them. There were no newspapers in China at the time, so the information only spread by word of mouth in the capital, Beijing, and in a number of coastal cities.”

This is the memoir of Li Enfu, a boy student chosen for the project. In his book ‘When I was a Bo y in China’, he recounted in English his experiences in America. The book was published in Boston, in 1887.

“In fact, at that time it was rare for parents anywhere to send their son to the other end of the world for a long time, especially to a place they had never heard of. It was rumored that the place was inhabited by mere barbarians.”

“It was universally held by the Chinese that China was a nation of splendor and significance, and that learning from barbarians would be totally demeaning. When Guo Songtao, the first ambassador to the U.K. went abroad, Wang Kaiyun wrote couplets to insult him: 'before one has served humans, how can one serve demons? Why should one leave his motherland? Why on earth do you leave your home and hearth?'”

In China, few parents were willing to send their children overseas. But the court was determined to select talented children for this project. Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang wrote in their memorial to the throne that good candidates were hard to find since they must be enterprising and of good nature. Only those unencumbered by domestic cares and immune to external temptations would qualify for overseas travel to undertake serious study. Thus an ad hoc office was set up in Shanghai to select eligible Boy Students, with strict rules for age limit. Li Hongzhang modified the original age scope, from 12 to 20 years old, to below 16 years of age. A student going abroad at 20 would return at 35; then, the odds were high that he would suffer from family bereavement. Thus the length of his servitude to the nation would be circumscribed.

“When Zeng Guofan first stipulated the conditions, he was not very demanding. Any intelligent boy from a decent family with a good nature, who did not steal and who was not greedy would do. Li Hongzhang had different expectations. He demanded that the candidates must be from non-criminal families, perspicacious and responsive, quick to learn, and pleasant to look at, or they would disgrace the image of their nation in the foreign land. Those ungracefully named must be re-named by the family. He put forward many conditions.”

Facing such strict requirements, what sort of parents at the time in China would be willing to send their children abroad?

“A cousin of mine, however, who was in business then at Shanghai, thought differently; and was not deterred by any such considerations. He came home with glowing accounts of the new movement; and so painted the golden prospects of the successful candidate that he persuaded my mother to let me go.” [from ‘When I was a Boy in China’]

Li Enfu was 12 that year. His father had died 3 years earlier. Despite his cousin's persuasive efforts, his mother made no clear indication of her opinion, leaving the decision to the young boy.

Li Enfu, whose family was from Xiangshan in Guangdong, later became a member of the second detachment of boy students.

Another student Zhan Tianyou, originally from Wuyuan, Anhui, had moved with his family to Guangzhou. His ancestors had thrived in the tea trade but in his father Zhan Xinghong's generation, the family business declined. A friend informed the family of the government's overseas student project.

“This friend of Zhan's was very fond of him. The two were close friends and had arranged a marriage of their children. 'My daughter shall marry your son when they come of age.' After the engagement of the two children, he suggested that Zhan Tianyou should go abroad to study. He stressed that this was the path to great success, and that Zhan must be sent away. Zhan's parents were very reluctant to let him go. The future father-in-law of Zhan Tianyou, used his influence on the Zhan family, insisted and finally succeeded.”

Zhan Xinghong was persuaded to send his first son, the 12-year-old Zhan Tianyou, abroad despite his parental pangs. Thus, Zhan Tianyou became one of the first delegation of students sent to America.

More than 130 years ago, the Liang family who lived in Guangzhou sent two sons abroad. Their firstborn son, Liang Puzhao, then 13 years old, went to America together with his 11-year old brother, Liang Pushi.

“There are only five families that sent two of their sons abroad. Our family is one of them.”

Liang Zanxun's great grandfather, Liang Huannan, was in the tea business in Shanghai, and had contact with foreigners and foreign officials, and through this exposure was relatively liberal-minded. When the government was selecting potential students in Shanghai, the two brothers of the Liang family were taken. The Liang brothers left no pictures of their overseas years. But we discovered this picture of another pair of brothers taken before they went to America in Fuzhou's Mawei Majiang Marine Battle Museum. They are Huang Zhongliang and his younger brother, Huang Jiliang. Their father, Huang Doping, was at the time the official of foreign affairs for the Shanghai Kiang Nan Arsenal.

In the data of the 120 students, one fact, in particular, stands out. Students from Guangdong accounted for over 70% of the total. And, they were mostly from Xiangshan, today the area covers Zhuhai and Zhongshan. In Zhuhai there is a place called Tangjia Bay, the hometown of seven Boy Students. Among them were Tang Shaoyi, who later took office as the first premier of the Republic of China, and Tang Guo'an, the first president of Tsinghua University.

We interviewed Mr. Tang Yougan, who compiled the expatriate history of the Tang family.

“In our family, as long ago as the year 1700 in the reign of Emperor Kangxi, we had people who traveled via Macao to foreign countries to try their luck. So it was nothing special for these students from our family to go to America to study.”

In the family history of the Tangs, many important officials of foreign affairs appeared, for example, Tang Tingshu, the first general agent of Jardine, Matheson & Co. and later promoted to the Shipping Investment Promotion Bureau.

Open to foreign trade, people near the seaside areas of Guangdong were among the first to be in contact with the outside world and to become acquainted with western ideas and studies. Those who left their hometown to trade abroad prospered and encouraged their neighbors to send their own children abroad.

Rong Hong, who originally came from Guangdong, was appointed by the Qing Government as the Deputy Commissioner of the Chinese Educational Mission. He was responsible for the selection of candidates in Shanghai. When his work there was thwarted, he decided to try his luck in his hometown.

In the coastal areas of Guangdong, the overseas student project met with a positive response. Of the first group of boy students, over 80% were from Guangdong.

In 1872, the first delegation of students was waiting to set off in Shanghai. By this time, one of the founders of the project, Zeng Guofan, had already passed away. Seven days before his death, Li Hongzhang wrote him a letter, exclaiming that China was confronting a cataclysm unseen in 3,000 years. 'The current reform is under multiple pressures. It was first advocated, then, disrupted. And it is swaying between credence and doubt.' He said, 'Today with you, my mentor, and Zuo Zongtang still alive, our cause is already much suspected and maligned. What will become of it in the years to come?'

(To be continued)

This story is published in the website of Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale by courtesy of CCTV International.

Story of the Boy Students (Part III) (continued)

Their parents had already signed a contract with the government for a term of 15 years. The contract stated that upon graduation the students must return to serve the government; they were forbidden to work in America and, if ill-fate such as accident or illness should befall them on the way to or in America, the family should be accountable for it themselves.

Although the selection rules stipulated that the selection entailed no discrimination between Manchurians and Han Chinese, among the 120 students chosen, not a single one was a Manchurian.

“.... I paid my last respects to my mother in the conventional way. I did not embrace her and kiss her. Oh no! That would have been un-Chinese and undignified. What I actually did was to bow my head four times to the ground upon my knees. She tried to appear cheerful, but I could see that her eyes were moistened with tears.” [from ‘When I was a Boy in China’]

On August 11, 1872, the first detachment of boy students sent by the Qing Empire set out from Shanghai, embarking on their 15-year-long program of overseas study.

The vessel that carried the young students to America relied on the giant steam-driven wheels on both sides to move, hence the name “paddle-wheeler”.

The boy students took a different route from Rong Hong who sailed to America 20 years ago. From Shanghai to America, they no longer needed to spend 90 days on the westward route, negotiating the Cape of Good Hope on their way. The newly invented steamboat fared east across the Pacific until they reached the west coast of America. The journey took only 25 days.

Being first time away from home, the boy students were exhilarated. Yet when the journey on the surging billows started, it was soon accompanied by the cries from the cabin. Qi Zhaoxi was the official escorting the delegation. He detailed the whole journey in his account, later published as ‘Diary of Travels in America’. The book promises its present day readers to relive a trans-oceanic voyage of more than a century ago.

After a dozen days, the adults were still suffering seasickness that left them like drunkards, yet the boys were capering around when the storms came, with no fear or tear.

But when they had covered half the journey, Qi Zhaoxi said while the teachers still wanted Cantonese food, all the kids had fallen in love with Western food.

When the first group of boy students was still on their way in mid-Pacific, the New York Times had already reported on their expected arrival.

Half a year earlier, Frederick Low, then the American envoy to China wrote to the State Secretary of US, Mr. Fish, ‘when passing through Tien-tsin, I called upon Li Hong Zhang, the governor-general. I was informed of a project of sending a number of young men to the United States to be educated. The viceroy said that he would esteem it a special favor if I would inform my government of the matter; and if I would use my influence to facilitate their reception into the proper schools.’

In the dossier exchange between the Qing Emperor and the American President, we can see why China sent students to America rather than to one of the European powers at that time.

As was recorded, the White House interpreted this measure of the Qing Court as a progressive move by the ancient kingdom. The Qing had begun to stop excluding foreigners in order to sustain its secluded empire, realizing that competition with the West couldn’t do without knowledge of the West.

On September 12, 1872, the ship with Chinese students was about to arrive in Los Angeles. Qi Zhaoxi recorded in his diary ‘after lunch I opened the trunk to get the apparel for the students to wear in America. We had to show Los Angeles the glory of the Great Qing Empire.’

As expected, these Chinese boys with blue crepe coats, maroon-colored long gowns, silk boots and caps disembarked to be greeted by throngs of curious Americans. The New York Times reported that the “30 Chinese students who arrived in Los Angeles yesterday were all excellent and capable young ladies and gentlemen”. Apparently the Americans still needed some time to discern the gender of these Chinese kids with long queues!

What intrigued the boys most was the train. At that time the world had not yet seen electric lights, or automobiles. This new means of transportation held the boys spellbound.

The first sight of trains fueled not only curiosity but also ambition in the boys. Six years later, one of them was admitted into the engineering school of Yale. A further 32 years after that, he presided over the construction of the famous Beijing-Kalgan Railway. His name was Zhan
Tianyou, a name well-known to every household in China.

Only a few days before, these young students were still marveling at the sight of this new vehicle called ‘train’; now they would travel on the marvel itself.

The year 1872 marked the third anniversary of the Trans-Continental railway. This young republic, founded less than 100 years, fresh from its Civil War and the abolition of slavery, had just plunged herself into a vigorous industrial revolution.

Trains at that time had no dining cars, so passengers had to eat on the platform when the train pulled up. Qi Zhaoxi in his diary translated minute in English as ‘mili’ which means rice grain in Chinese. He wrote that every time it stopped, the train only stayed for a few ‘mili’ (rice grains), so they were always fighting to finish their dinner.

In the 1870s, a train journey across the American continent took seven days. On the vast untilled lands of the American west, herds of buffalo could be seen racing across the plains, and bareback riding Red Indians chasing their wild prey. There was always the risk of countless mustangs or buffalos roaming nearby to run into the train if surprised. But a still greater risk was of the train running into train robbers, such as the notorious James Brothers who still live today in TV shows, movies and novels as legendary figures. Imagine what ill fame could have led to such celebrity! And it was them that our Boy Students ran into on their train journey across America.

The crisis lasted nearly half an hour. Then, we knew the train had been stopped by five bandits who had broken into the train’s engine. It was said that a technician was sent to the nearest train station to ask for help through something called a “telegram”.

Many years later, dozens of the Chinese young students would commit themselves to the budding Chinese telegraph service. They would never forget that moment of crisis when they first came to know about the telegram.

The Boy Students set out from Los Angeles and traveled for seven days till they reached a place called Springfield in Massachusetts. This was the hometown of Reverend Brown who had brought Rong Hong to America, also Rong Hong’s hometown in the United States. Now Rong Hong was right there waiting for them. Appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Chinese Educational Mission by the Qing government, Rong Hong had arrived in the U.S. three months in advance to arrange for the education and accommodation matters.

On February 17, 1872, Rong Hong wrote to President Porter of Yale University to inform him of the Chinese government’s overseas student project.

In his letter Rong Hong asked President Porter for suggestions on details of accommodation arrangements. In order to expedite the language and culture immersion, it was finally decided that the boy students should be grouped into twos and threes and each group allocated to one of a dozen American families in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This plan was cordially applauded by the local American families.

The hostess who welcomed Li Enfu with a warm kiss was Mrs. Vaille. Another boy called Rong Kui joined Li Enfu as Mrs Vaille’s student boarders.

We met the descendants of Rong Kui and Li Enfu in Austin and Buffalo. Their grandfathers had lived with Mrs. Vaille of Springfield. At that time those two young boys in their early teens had no idea what trials and tribulations were awaiting them, and how their fate would be intertwined with this country.

Mr. Gardner was a famous architect in Springfield, Massachusetts. He hosted four Chinese students in his household in turn, including the boy who later became the first Premier of the Republic of China -- Tang Shaoyi.

Professor David Bartlett had once accommodated Rong Hong. Although he had passed away, Mrs. Bartlett and their three daughters once again opened their door to four young Chinese students. These four kids later became eminent political figures in the late Qing Dynasty. They were Liang Dunyan, who was the assistant to Zhang Zhidong and was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs; Cai Shaoji, who aided Yuan Shikai and later became the first president of Pei-yang University at Tientsin; Huang Kaijia, who started as secretary to Sheng Xuan Huai and once worked as the manager of the Investment Promotion Bureau; and Wu Yangzeng, who devoted his whole life to the mining industry as the Chief Engineer of Kaiping Mining Company

Dr. Northrop, the Commissioner of Education for Connecticut, issued a letter to all those who taught the young Chinese students. He hoped that besides due care and concern, they must supervise and urge the students to review their Chinese lessons and encourage them to love their motherland. And their physical welfare must be specifically attended to.

From 1872 until the early fall of 1875, as was planned, altogether 120 young students were sent to America, and dispersed over New England, in more than twenty American households in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

In northeastern America the group of six states is called New England. Small in size, New England played a large role in American history. Benjamin Franklin, honored as one of the country’s founding fathers, once drew a cartoon of a snake representing the union of the original thirteen states comprising the republic. New England was the head of the snake.

Here we are in New England, the nexus of American higher education, searching for the footprints of the Boy Students. The Historical Society of Connecticut has the richest resources to tap for our search.

These clothes and pictures left by the Chinese students were handed down from one generation to another within those American families. Eventually they were donated to the local Historical Society.

The most surprising collection there consists of articles and press reports on the Chinese Educational Mission and the Chinese students, all transcribed by hand.

This impressive story of transcription began in 1872, when the first group of students arrived, and lasted into the 1940s. A senior librarian of the Historical Society, Mrs. Kihn transcribed these articles. Now she is in her 90s. When we arrived, she was unavailable for an interview. But we did meet her colleague, Mrs. Frances Hoxie who worked there with Ms Kihn for over 60 years.

An accidental discovery by these two librarians led to half a century’s devotion and hard work. From a time when there were no printers through to the age of the copier Mrs. Kihn and her colleague clipped, transcribed and collected all the stories on Chinese students from the newspapers of those days. Mrs. Kihn, who read no Chinese, even tried to compile an index for the 120 Chinese students. Thanks to their meticulous efforts, today we can patch together piece by piece the jigsaw puzzle of the life of these Chinese students more than a century ago.

The press seemed intrigued by these Chinese boys and by the Chinese Educational Mission’s project. In 1874, The Hartford Evening Post reported that the first two detachments of students were generally pretty healthy. As a group, the newspaper reported, the students were sick for less than a total of two weeks since their arrival.

This newspaper also reported how the Chinese Educational Mission celebrated the Chinese New Year. All the Chinese teachers put on traditional festive attire—a kind of thick, gray silk gown, with a dark blue satin waistband, black caps on their heads and light black shoes on feet. The hall of the Chinese Educational Mission was adorned with selected floral decorations, and the walls bore splendid Chinese painting and calligraphy. For supper a sumptuous banquet was prepared to indulge the guests with oysters on the half-shell, fruit pudding and cream, salad and Chinese tea. The Chinese tea was served delicately in real china, only meant to be held by a calm and experienced hand.

In the fall of 2002, we unexpectedly discovered the house where one of the students, Tan Yaoxun, once lived in a town called Colebrook, 40 km from Hartford, the capital of Connecticut.

Tan Yaoxun belonged to the first delegation of students. He was from Xiangshan in Guangdong. He lodged with the Carrington family in Colebrook. The Carrington family owns vast fields and many cottages, and has a two hundred year-old history. Even now the Carrington estate is still well preserved in the forests near the town.

Colebrook is a town of old-fashioned simplicity, untouched by time with its stores and churches from 100 years ago still standing intact. Like many other American cities, vast collections of historical evidence and artifacts of the city’s history are retained in Colebrook’s Historical Society.

A staff member of the town museum, Robert Grigg, demonstrated to us the tool that Tan Yaoxun used when he helped Mrs. Carrington with farm work.

Grigg then brought us Mrs. Carrington’s two diaries kept by the museum.
The two diaries were dated 1880 and 1881, and Tan Yaoxun’s name can be seen everywhere inside.

(To be continued)

Little Egret: Thank you for all these articles re: Early Chinese Students in US sent by the Qing Imperial Court. I look forward to more articles on these Boy Students and their contributions to China upon their return to the motherland.

There is a saying: "If the student is willing, the teacher will be there!" In this case, the Chinese, past and future, are eternally grateful to all those American families in New England who had hosted those Boys from China. The interaction of these Boys with the American families had surely left favorable impressions on them that future Sino-American could be built upon, one of mutual trust and benefit. It took many years for it to happen. It became more apparent with the visit of President Nixon with Chairman Mao.

Kebau: It’s nice to know you’re interested in these articles on the Boy Students. As the story is quite obscure and very long, not many people would be aware of it, or interested, so I thought.
A friend happened to see on TV, one night in Xiamen, China early this year, a CCTV documentary programme (1st part of the series) on Rong Hong (the first Chinese graduate from an American university) - the man largely responsible to get the Chinese boys educated in US . Interested to know more, my friend decided to check it out when he returned home from his China trip. He has also obtained the permission of CUSY (Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale which translated the original script from CCTV) to post the story in any forum and to accredit it to CCTV’s courtesy, which has been done.

The story has been passed to me. Because of its length, I decided also to post my lengthy commentary on the subject at the start, followed by the articles. Three parts have already been posted with five more to go, one part each week. Hope you’ll enjoy the rest too.

Thanks, Little Egret and your friend, for taking the time and effort to obtain the detailed archives and posting them on the forum.

This is an important landmark in Chinese history, continuing into the present and future. China's yearn for knowledge and improvement remains unabated despite various obstacles in history and socio-political factors. The "boy students" were fortunate to be the first to gain exposure. Cross pollination always produce better results.

Decades ago, training in the Soviet bloc was marred by bilateral issues and the Chinese were deeply hurt by the sudden pullout of Soviet assistance in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split.

America is always welcoming hardworking and bright Chinese students with open arms while Bejing's biggest headache is "braindrain" when these graduates are reluctant to return to their home country. As one Chinese scholar noted, no such brain drain occurred in the case of Soviet trained Chinese scholars.

I agree with XP that you, Little Egret, has reproduced here these series of articles on the Boy Students which are really enlightening to a lot of us who do not know much of the organized effort to educate and train the Chinese populace in the western ways.

XP:



Can you offer some explanations to this phenomenon?

This story is published in the website of Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale by courtesy of CCTV International.

Story of the Boy Students (Part IV) (continued)

The boy students lived two or three together in American families. They quickly adapted themselves to the American way of life. The Chinese Educational Mission not only required the local families to ensure their time to study Chinese everyday, but asked the students to assemble every three months in the Mission building to honor their Confucian obligations by studying ‘The Five Classics’, including ‘The Book of Poetry’, ‘The Book of History’, ‘The Book of Rites’, ‘The Book of Changes’, etc.

The Selection Rules stated that on the special days of the Chinese lunar calendar, the two commissioners should convene the students, and preach the royal orders and official mandate to ensure that they grow into obedient subjects of the Qing emperor. They must pay homage to royalty and respect their superiors. These tenets should preserve the young students from the mental corruption of heresy.

The American magazine, Harper’s Weekly, published a caricature in 1875 on the Chinese students’ regular study in the Chinese Educational Mission. The Chinese teacher was depicted as reproaching his students, while holding a newspaper on which was written ‘Freedom’. Apparently freedom was what the Qing government strove to curb among the students. What their Chinese studies fostered was like this: a boy student—Huang Xuangui who, when in America, wrote a poem:

Ten years spent in academy, proof undenied,
True riches and honor in study reside
As of turtle surfacing from a thousand overlapping waves
and osmanthus blooming to perfume a ten thousand miles
Or of the dragon revealing talons in the billowy depth
and the phoenix soaring beyond the heaven ninth
Thrive I shall in the imperial exam
Straight to bolster and pillar the state

The boy students recalled when in China they never worried about their appearance. But now in America they were reluctant to go out and hated being followed by a crowd of neighborhood kids calling them ‘Chinese girls’. At first the insulting confrontation ended in bruises on both sides. But over time, embarrassment worn out, and the boys quietly traded their long Chinese gowns for western clothes. Since the American schools had physical education lessons never seen in a Chinese curriculum, the long gown proved to be a great bother. Hence the Chinese Educational Mission officials gave tacit agreement. But the queue, which defined their identity as subjects of the Great Qing Empire, must not be touched.

These boys from an ancient empire wearing long queues down their backs surprised New England even more when they overcame the language barrier in slightly more than one year. Now they had graduated from the grammar schools and were ready to enter high schools.

These are some of the students’ yearbooks kept in the Connecticut Historical Society, written in the spring of 1874, only one year after the first group of students arrived in America.

The old newspapers recorded how the Chinese students soon prevailed in class, and how their academic excellence was balanced by their versatility. The graduation wishes they left for other students were often written in both English and Chinese, with both pen and brushes, and often illustrated.

This is from Liang Dunyan, one of the first delegations of young Chinese students in America.

I am a pretty Little Kitten
My name is Fabby Gray
I live out in the country
Home twenty miles away
My eyes are black and hazel
My fur is soft as silk
I am fed each night and morning
With a saucer full of milk

Your friend
Liang Tun Yen
Hartford Feb 16th 1874

At the time this poem was written, Liang Dunyan had only been in America one year and five months.

One year after arriving in America the first group of students entered high school one by one.

Founded in 1804, the Monson Academy was known throughout New England. Rong Hong once studied here and after his time a dozen Chinese students were accepted into the academy. Decades ago, Monson Academy was destroyed by a fire with only this bell left. In 1971, Monson Academy merged with the nearby Wilbraham School, becoming today’s Wilbraham and Monson Academy.

The Monson School records from that time were nearly all burnt. But when Ms. Gray opened the door of the archives room for us, we felt we were touching the history of 100 years ago. The Monson archives unexpectedly held a photo of Shi Jinyong, unscathed by several fire accidents. He was in the first detachment, coming from Xiangshan, Guangdong and arriving in America at the age of 15.

Ms. Gray produced two notebooks with the signatures of Chinese students. On one page we spotted Shi Jinyong’s name. This is the message Shi Jinyong left for his fellow students on October 29th, 1875. In the middle there was a pencil drawing of Angels around the Bible, beside it a Chinese poem of the Tang Dynasty written with a brush.

In some unsorted files we found Shi Jinyong again. This time on a name card, on which was printed ‘S.C.Shin / Canton China.’ There was also an English letter written by Shi, addressed to a fellow student called Jennie, and dated October 5th, 1876. He told Jennie he planned to enter Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in a year’s time.

The evidence we found in Monson aroused our interest in Shi Jinyong. But we could not find any trace of him either at Yale University mentioned in his letter or in any other university with records of Chinese students’ attendance. Not until we looked through the unpublished correspondence of Li Hongzhang at Fudan University, Shanghai, was the mystery unraveled.

‘Shi Jinyong and three other students were called back. When Shi arrived there, he had cut off his queue and adopted western dress, which upset the government. We sent students abroad to cultivate talents for the country. People like Shi Jinyong who were so readily westernized wasted our previous efforts and posed threats for the future.’

In 1877, Shi Jinyong and another three Chinese students were recalled before their term was up because they were seen as over-westernized.

Despite such minor setbacks, the whole project was going forward smoothly. History had presented the best opportunity to the Qing government with their overseas education plan. More than 100 years ago, as the world was swept by the fierce competition of the Industrial Revolution, the young Chinese students were delivered into the center of the arena.

Philadelphia was the first capital of the United States and here the Declaration of Independence was signed. In 1876, the 100th anniversary of the United States, the first world exposition in U.S. history was held here. This Centennial Exhibition was of great significance to the United States, for the young republic was eager to demonstrate its evolution from an agrarian arcadia to a new industrial power.

The Qing Empire was one of the 37 participating countries in the Centennial Exhibition. Led by the Connecticut Educational Commission, the young Chinese students were also there and were received by the President of the United States.

On May 10th 1876 the exhibition was inaugurated. 160,000 people were present despite the driving rain. General Grant, the President of the US and Don Pedro, the Emperor of Brazil, co-hosted the opening ceremony.

A Chinese visitor of the exhibition exclaimed that the world today had turned into one gigantic machinery factory. He was Li Gui, a customs official from China’s central coast. He came to the Centennial Exhibition as one of a delegation sent by the Qing Government. After he returned China, he wrote and published a book ‘New Records of Travels Around the World’, telling of his experiences at the exposition and his journeys to other countries.

At the Centennial Exhibition, Li Gui not only witnessed the biggest Corliss Centennial Steam Engine, but water pumps, dredgers, sewing machines, looms, typewriters, fountain pens, slide projectors, post offices, machine-manufactured paper and the famous Krupp guns from Germany, They also viewed the Statue of Liberty, then still in the form of one arm only -- a gift from France to the United States. And heralding a new epoch indeed were exhibited Thomas Edison’s newly invented electric light and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone.

China occupied its own space in the Centennial’s general exhibition hall. In the front was a grand gateway carrying the title of ‘Great Qing Empire.’ In a rich assortment of archaic cabinets were displayed silk, ivory carvings, china, Chinese calligraphy and paintings. For those who were completely new to Asian civilization, the exquisite art and artifacts from the ancient oriental empire were especially enchanting.

Inspired by this eye-opening experience at the exposition, Li Gui reflected on the machine revolution and wrote ‘since ancient times in China machine-making techniques were libeled as diabolic tricks, which would only lead to wily scheming. But how wily would it be if the scheming were applied to benefiting the country and the people?’

At the Centennial, Li Gui ran into the Chinese students who had come to visit. He never thought that his country was so far-sighted to have sent so many young students to the very frontline of industrial development. Li Gui recorded: ‘I saw the Boy Students walking around in the exhibition hall, unrestrained in speech and movement. Their attire and bearing were in the western fashion, yet over their western coat they wore a Chinese gown.’

Li Gui chose a few older students to ask what they perceived to be the benefit of the exposition. They answered ‘the assembly of international goods for public display enriched their knowledge. The advanced technology of new machinery encouraged the imitation. And the expo could promote friendship among countries. The benefits were great.’ Then Li asked what they liked most. They said ‘the foreign printing technology and the Chinese carved ivory’. ‘But don’t you miss home?’ ‘We do, but that doesn’t help at all. All we can do now is concentrate on our studies. We will return home sooner or later.’ ‘Why are you wearing foreigners’ clothes?’ The kids responded: ‘It is really inconvenient sometimes to wear our own clothes. Our rule is that we must not cut off our queues and must not enter churches.’

Here at the Centennial Exhibition, the Connecticut Educational Commission displayed to the world the English essays written by the young Chinese students as their pedagogical outcome. When the students arrived in Philadelphia, President of the United States, Ulysses Grant, was at the exposition as well. When informed, he arranged to meet the Chinese students.

On August 25th 1876, Philadelphia Inquirer reported that President Grant staged a welcoming ceremony for the young Chinese students, in which he shook hands with every one of them. The newspaper lauded the boys as being of intelligent mentality and sedate demeanor.

Deeply impressed with what he saw in the young Chinese students at the Centennial, Li Gui wrote down ‘the outcome of western education is well beyond our estimation.’

The year 1876 marked a moment of great change in the world. The Boy Students were brought to the epicenter of the upheaval. They were to grow up in the boom time of the steam engine. At the expo of 1876, they appeared in their traditional Chinese apparel worn over their western clothes. When years later, they discarded their long gowns or even cut off their queues and competed with the American students on the sports field, where would fate then propel them?

One American city featured prominently in the history of Chinese overseas students. It was the capital city of Connecticut, Hartford, located in the northeast of the United States. Though not as famous as New York or Boston, more than a century ago, Hartford was the center of U.S. manufacturing and insurance industry.

Though a small city, Hartford became a prominent business center. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, Hartford became the city with the highest average income in the United States.

With the rapid growth of the economy Hartford attracted a great number of publishers, writers, educators and politicians, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ was published in 1851. The great writer Mark Twain also lived here.

Mark Twain moved to Hartford in the same year the first group of Chinese students arrived in America. He became a friend to the Chinese through the Chinese Educational Mission that was set up in Hartford.

Rong Hong decided that Chinese Educational Mission should be located in Hartford. The Qing government spent $75,000 US dollars constructing an office building for it in 1877.

This house was fitted up with the most advanced tap water and heating system at the time. The famous architect in Springfield Mr. Gardener supervised the construction of the whole building. He even put up four of the Chinese students, including Tang Shaoyi, Liang Ruhao and two others, in his home.

The office building was located on Collins Street, in the western region of Hartford. It was demolished in 1972, and the place became a parking lot for nearby hospitals.

Hartford was a city with the largest number of overseas Chinese students. The dozens of them became very special guests in this city.

With the end of the Civil War in 1865, Hartford’s economy began to grow very fast.

A great number of migrants thronged into the city.

The Hartford Public High School was an old high school built in 1638. It was here that over thirty of the Chinese students studied. Today at the original site of the school there stands only a stone monument amid wild grasses. The school was demolished to make way for city highways. It was re-established at a new site.

A grade book of the graduates of 1881 was saved from the fire and kept in the archive room. We saw several names of the Chinese students in it.

Including Huang Kaijia from Zhenping and Cai Shaoji from Xiangshan, both in Guangdong Province.

Some pictures of the Chinese students were also kept in the archive room.

Although it is very hard to tell the owners of these things, they are reminders of the overseas life of the Chinese students.

Mark Twain published his book ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ in Hartford in 1876, the year the Centennial Exhibition was held in Philadelphia.

These novels of Mark Twain were mailed from America when Zhan Tianyou came back to China. The books were kept by Zhan’s descendents

The students grew up while reading Mark Twain’s novels, hearing the noises of machines in Hartford, a flourishing industrial New England city.

Chinese students studied at different high schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The students’ performance was so excellent that it astounded the Americans.

Deng Shicong and Chen Juyong won first and second prizes in the Spelling Contest at the West Hartford Public High School

Li Enfu won first prize in English and Greek among the graduates from Hopkins Grammar School. Zhou Chuan’e won first prize in Latin and handwriting.

Cai Tinggan won first prize in the Wadsworth Street Public School Handwriting Contest not more a year after he enrolled.

The local newspaper said that generally the Chinese students adapted well to American education. The overseas education project was so successful that the Chinese government planned to send students to UK, France and Germany. The Chinese students set a good example for American young people.

William Lyon Phelps was in the same school as the Chinese students. In his autobiography published in 1939, he wrote a chapter entitled ‘Chinese Schoolmates’.

The Chinese students organized their own ‘oriental’ baseball team.

Hartford Public High School’s best pitcher, Liang Dunyan, became a foreign affairs minister in the Qing government.

Liang Cheng, a member of the Andover Baseball Team, later became the Chinese envoy to the United States. He made the US return part of Gengzi Indemnity .

Deng Shicong became the Second Mate Artillery on the flag warship “Ding Yuan” of the Northern Navy.

Cao Jiaxiang’s life was closely related with guns. Later, he was nominated as the Chief Artillery Mate on the warship “Zhenyuan” of the Northern Navy. He also laid the foundation for the modern Chinese police system.

He became the chief engineer at the China Kaiping Coal Mine.

A senior official who was then at Tianjin was very concerned about the one hundred students sent abroad by his teacher Zeng Guofan and himself during the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor.

Li Hongzhang offered numerous instructions to Chinese Educational mission in his letters to them. Those unpublished letters are kept at Fudan University in Shanghai.

(To be continued)

This story is published in the website of Chinese Undergraduate Students at Yale by courtesy of CCTV International.

Story of the Boy Students (Part V) (continued)

1875
After finding out that there were women teachers in the school, Li Hongzhang wrote to the bureau in 1875 asking whether the women teachers could be replaced by men. He also said there were three months of vacation at American schools.

So he instructed the bureau to enhance the students’ education in Chinese. After learning that some students who left school earlier than scheduled were hired by foreigners at a high monthly salary, Li ordered that those students be put under strict control. He sent them to various arsenals. The slow students were only provided with food ration, so as not to set a bad example for students continuing with their studies.

1878
The score reports of the 1878 graduates show that the Chinese students were the top in almost each school they attended.

The Hartford graduation ceremony was a grand occasion in this city. The Chinese students were always the most outstanding stars on these occasions.

Liang Dunyan delivered a speech titled “The Northern Bear” at the Graduation Ceremony in 1878. He addressed the roles that different countries had played in the recently ended Russian -Turkish War.

He said: “Now let us look at the most absurd thing on this subject: ‘Turks are Asiatics. Therefore they ought not to be allowed to stay in Europe.’ According to that argument the Americans ought to be driven back to Europe, the Russians themselves from Asia.”

The delivery of Liang’s oration excited the greatest enthusiasm in the audience who responded with prolonged applause. Liang was called out to once more bow his thanks to the audience. As was reported by the local newspaper, this scene had never occurred in the history of Hartford Public High School.

It was the same Liang Dunyan who drew this picture of “Fabby Gray” who attended Yale University upon graduation in 1878.

Another graduate from Hartford in 1878 was Cai Shaoji, who later became the first president of Bei Yang University. In his graduation speech he addressed the subject of the opium trade. He said he had witnessed the destructive effects of opium and it was worse than murdering a man with a knife to sell him this poison. Cai spoke of the Opium Wars that caused the opening of the treaty ports in China.

He said that, while Chinese officials were somewhat to blame, Britain had committed the greater wrong in their drug trade. He said: “China is not dead, only sleeping, and will eventually rise to the proud station in the world which God has destined her to fill.”

China was being awakened in the 1870s by the gunshots from the western world. It was woken up even more by the fast developing Japan who had entered the modern period at the same time as China.

The “Ryukyu Incident of 1874” was a serious warning to China.

In 1876, Li Hongzhang was invited to visit the foreign warships anchored on Yantai Sea. He noticed that some young Japanese officials were receiving training on the western warships. This prompted his decision to send Chinese students abroad for military studies.

Li Hongzhang hoped that the students could attend American military academies after graduation. In 1877 he sent students to naval academies in the UK, France, and Germany.

These overseas students all came from Foochow Shipbuilding College in Mawei founded in 1867. They included Yan Fu, Liu Buchan, Lin Taizeng, Sa Zhenbing and others. They either attended the Greenwich Royal Naval College, or were sent for internships on British or French fleets.

They were the earliest elites of Chinese naval force, who later became the captains of the capital warships of Northern Navy.

After sending a group of students to Europe to study military affairs, Li Hongzhang wrote to the Chinese Educational Mission in Hartford. He ordered clever children to study law and mining. He forbade them to study religion and medicine, for China had no such need.

The education budget had increased as more Boy Students were ready to attend college. According to Rong Hong’s budget, the overseas education project needed a total of 1,200,000 liang (Chinese unit of weight) of silver to continue. The Chinese Educational Mission reported to the royal court in 1878 that the project ran short of money due to the soaring prices in US.

According to the original plan, the expenses for the overseas education would come from the Jiang Customs Bureau. But the departments concerned all felt reluctant to pay the money.

Li appropriated 280,000 liang of silver from his naval funds to the Chinese Educational mission. He wrote that the overseas education project was vital to the development of China. So it couldn’t be abandoned halfway. Every single cent invested should have its future value.

In 1878 the Chinese students began to attend American universities. Yale University, one hour’s ride from Hartford, admitted more than 20 boy students.

Yale’s Sheffield scientific school founded in 1847, was the first American college at the time dedicated to scientific research. Ouyang Gen and Zhan Tianyou attended this school in 1878.

Zhan Tianyou majored in railway construction in the Civil Engineering Department. A year before he attended Yale, the first foreign-built railway, 14.5 kilometers long, was built in his homeland, China.

But people firmly believed that railway would destroy their ancestors’ tombs and Fengshui. Within one year, this railway was demolished by the Qing government. The time for train hadn’t come yet.

Zhan Tianyou studied German, English, physics, chemistry, engineering, irrigation, astronomy and other subjects. He became the first Chinese railway engineer to receive strict and systematic education in this field.

From the year 1878, more than 20 other Chinese students such as Liang Dunyan, Zhong Wenyao, Cai Shaoji, Rong Kui, Huang Kaijia, Tang Guo’an, Tan Yaoxun, Li Enfu, and Rong Xingqiao attended Yale. Just as in high school, these boys not only excelled in study, but also participated actively in various sports.

Zhong Wenyao became the coxswain of Yale’s rowing team after he attended the university in 1879. The boating contest between Harvard and Yale had started in 1852. Yale lost the races most of the time. But this small Chinese guy deeply impressed Yale by his unusual performance as a coxswain. Zhong Wenyao looked very gentle sitting in the middle of the team. How did he boost the morale of the members? The fact was that the Yale rowing team beat Hartford in 1880 and 1881 when Zhong Yaowen was the coxswain.

William Phelps was not only the schoolmate of the Chinese students at Hartford but also at Yale.

According to incomplete statistics, about 50 Chinese boy students attended American universities by 1880, 22 of them went to Yale, 8 to the MIT, one to Harvard, and three to Columbia University in New York.

Other universities that they attended were Lafayette College, Amherst College, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Brown University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Lehigh University, Johns Hopkins University, and Rensellaer Polytechnic institute.

The boy with Zhan Tianyou in the picture was Pan Mingzhong. He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 15. This genius boy, as he was later called, died from hard work a year later.

This is Pan’s tomb at Hartford Cemetery. For 120 years, none of his relatives had ever been here.

Rong Hong returned to Monson, his home in the US, in June 1880 to attend the funeral of Reverend Brown who had brought him to America.

30 years before, Reverend Brown had taken Rong and other two Chinese students to America. And now Rong himself brought 120 Chinese students here.

The Chinese Educational Mission existed for eight harsh years now. Rong Hong knew it too well.

On February 24th, 1875 Rong Hong married Mary Louise Kellogue from Connecticut. His colleagues were alarmed. They thought Rong was setting a very bad example for the Chinese students.

From the day the Chinese Educational Mission was established, Chen Lanbin and Rong Hong, the two commissioners were in constant conflict.

Chen Lanbin returned to China in 1880 when the fourth group of Chinese boys arrived in America. Rong Hong had a foreboding that the 8th year of Chinese Educational Mission could be disastrous.

A new supervisor Wu Zideng assumed office at CEM in 1880. The new supervisor made himself known to the Chinese boy students and the citizens of Hartford in a surprising way. He published an English letter in the Hartford Newspaper. The letter read: “As is known to all, the Qing Government spent a huge amount of money supporting your education. After graduation, you are expected to serve your motherland, and honor your family and ancestors. There are millions of other Chinese young men at home who hadn’t had the opportunity to study abroad. The purpose is for you to learn western technology and skills, not to forgo Chinese conventions. You should work hard to gain knowledge. But the conventions should not be altered.”

Obviously, the new commissioner wanted the students to understand that he well understood the changes the students had undergone before he assumed office.

Wu Zideng believed the boys in western coat had gone too far. Measures must be taken to stop the situation from worsening. So Wu ordered a new set of rules to be released.

Rong Hong understood the changes the boys had undergone. He wrote in his biography: ‘Now in New England the heavy weight of repression and suppression was lifted from the minds of these young students; they exulted in their freedom and leaped for joy. No wonder they took to athletic sports with alacrity and delight. The boys took off their robes and boots, and learned boating, skating, dancing, singing, and camping. When they fell in love with the alien culture, they were on the edge of danger.’

Rong Kui wrote: ‘A bird born in captivity cannot indeed appreciate the sweet odor of the woods; but let it once have free space to exercise its wings, off it flies to where natural instinct leads, choosing rather to suffer the privations of freedom than to enjoy the luxuries of captivity.’

Rong Kui publicly announced he had become a Christian and cut off his queue after graduating from Springfield High School in 1880.

On August 24th, 1880, Tan Yaoxun’s hostess, Madam Carrington wrote in her diary: ‘Tan came after we were in bed, and had his queue cut.’

Cutting off their queues, and becoming Christians were simply taboos. Rong Kui and Tan Yaoxun were recalled before the scheduled time.

The two 17-year old boys ran away when the train reached Springfield. They announced their intention to break away from CEM and stayed in America.

Rong Kui and Tan Yaoxun’s escape in the summer of 1880 alarmed CEM.

On Dec. 17th, 1880, Li Shibin, supervisor of the Jiangnan Circuit attacked CEM. He reported that the overseas students were forbidden to join a foreign religion. But more and more of them did. In their letters home, they regretted at not having converted earlier. And that CEC was under loose administration. It needed thorough rectification.

Wu Zideng’s report wrote: ‘alien customs are harmful. The Chinese students studied few Confucian classics. They have loose morality and were thus susceptible to evil habits. They spent more time playing American games than studying. Patriotism dwindled in their hearts as time went by. They would harm instead of benefiting China. Hence even a thorough rectification would do no good. CEC must be closed.’

The future of CEM was dim in the winter of 1880. Rong Hong wrote to his good friend, Rev. Joseph Twichell of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church, asking for help.

Twichell graduated from Yale, was a member of Yale Board of Trustees, and was thus a prestigious figure in educational circles. He contacted almost the presidents of all the universities with Chinese Boy Students. He asked them to petition the Central Foreign Office of the Qing Government.

The letter written by Porter, President of Yale said:
‘… these young men have made good progress in their studies. Their morals have been good; their manners singularly polite… In many ways they have proved themselves eminently worthy of the confidence reposed in them to represent the great Chinese Empire. Though children and youths, they have seemed always to understand that the honor of their race and their nation was committed to their keeping. As a result, many of the prejudices of ignorant men towards the Chinese have been removed. We deeply regret that the young men have been taken away just at the time when they were about to reap the most important advantages from their previous studies.’

In this letter the president denied the rumors that the students received harm rather than benefit from overseas study. They believed the rumors ruined the reputation of the US and its education.

December 15th, 1880:
Rong wrote to me (Rev Twichell) asking me to go to New York and see Gen. Grant, and try to enlist his services.

The tree that was planted behind President’s Grant Memorial Hall in New York was sent by Li Hongzhang in 1896 when he visited America.

Mark Twain recorded the whole process of meeting General Grant with Rev. Twichell.

Joe (Rev Twichell) had been sitting up nights building facts & arguments together into a mighty unassailable array, hoping Grant would sign the petition to the Viceroy of China.

After almost three months, Reverent Twichell received Rong Hong’s letter on March 10th, 1881.

‘General Grant’s letter has done its work. Viceroy’s telegram to Woo instructs him not return to China with the students at present but to consult Minister Chen. Chen and I are one in this matter. He would never allow it to be broken up.’

Rong Hong was full of hope that all his endeavors would save the Chinese Educational Mission.

He also hoped that Chen Lanbin, its former Commissioner, would support the Mission at this critical time. However, Chen Lanbin quoted Wu Zideng in his report to the emperor: ‘foreign cultures are fraught with defects, the lack of Confucian inculcation rendered the students weak in moral bearing.’ His report obviously cast a dark shadow on the future of the Chinese Educational Mission.

When The Mission’s fate was uncertain, the Sino-US relationship also deteriorated. In the 1880’s, an anti-Chinese movement spread from the west coast of the US. As Chinese laborers were more competitive in jobs, dissatisfaction began to simmer. The images of Chinese laborers were distorted and anti-Chinese riots broke out. This sentiment was exploited by politicians, who stirred up racial discrimination aimed at overturning the 1867 Burlingame Treaty and curbing the inflow of Chinese laborers. In 1882 the U.S. passed the Chinese Exclusion Act.

According to the 1867 Burlingame Treaty, if Chinese wished to study in American colleges and academies, the US should grant them the most preferential treatment. Li Hongzhang was anxious to have his Boy Students attend US military schools. However, this was thrown into question by the anti-Chinese movements across the US.

(To be continued)

Little Egret, would appreciate it if you could start a new thread to post the "continuation" of the Imperial Boy Students. Are there are many more chapters coming up? Just a suggestion. Once it reaches two pages, it is a bit difficult to read and follow. Thanks, we look forward to reading more of this interesting topic.

For those interested - Three more Chapters to go and they will be posted in a new thread as a continuation of 'Imperial Students'.