This Month in History: Chinese Educational Mission Students in 19th century
On August 11, 1872, Qing imperial officials from China sent Chen Lanbin(1) and Yung Wing(2) along with the first 30 children, including Liang Guoyan(3) and Zhan Tianyou(4), to be educated in New England.
A few years earlier, in 1868, Yung Wing proposed to the Qing Dynasty to send promising 12- to 15-year-old students to study abroad. His proposal included the creation of an office and a monitoring officer in the United States to assist and manage the students’ education and living arrangements. Funding for the students’ expenses would come from customs revenue. The Qing government approved the plan in 1870, and in 1871 Yung Wing selected students who would go to preparatory school in Shanghai to study English.
The students were assigned to 54 households (34 in Connecticut, 20 in Massachusetts) while in the United States. In a short time, they overcame the language barrier and even became some of the best students in their schools. According to available statistics, by 1880, more than 50 students were enrolled in U.S. colleges—22 entered Yale University, eight into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three in Columbia University, and one to Harvard.
They met and interacted with Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and President Ulysses S. Grant. They witnessed advances in inventions and technology such as the telephone by Bell and the phonograph by Edison; and they witnessed how education and innovation can change a society.
The Chinese Education Mission was disbanded in 1881 with a total of 120 students brought to the United States. Many of the students returned home and made significant contributions to China’s civil services, engineering, and sciences.
Notes:
1. Chen Lanbin (Chinese: 陳蘭彬): 1816-1895, the first Chinese Minister to the United States during the Qing Dynasty China.
2. Yung Wing (Chinese: 容閎), 1828–1912, the first Chinese student to graduate from a U.S. university, Yale College in 1854.
3. Liang Guoyan(Chinese: 梁郭彥)
4. Zhan Tianyou (Chinese: 詹天佑, previously romanized as Jeme Tien Yow), 1861-1919, the Chief Engineer responsible for construction of the Imperial Beijing to Zhangjiakou Railway, the first railway constructed in China without foreign assistance.
Sources:
1. China’s First Hundred: Educational Mission Students in the United States, 1872-1881 (Washington State University Press Reprint), by Thomas E. La Fargue, 1987
2. My life in China and America (H. Holt and company), by Yung Wing, Joseph Hopkins Twichell, 1909
3. 大清留美幼童記(Chinese Educational Commission Students)，錢剛/胡勁草(Qian Gang, Hu Jingcao)，中華書局(Zhonghua Book Company), 2003
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