Chinese Educational Mission

A student on the Chinese Educational Mission on the baseball team at Phillips Exeter Academy

Yung Wing and the Chinese College at Hartford, Connecticut

Six First Detachment students on arrival in California

The Chinese Educational Mission (1872–1881) was the pioneering but frustrated attempt by reform-minded officials of the Qing dynasty to let a group of 120 Chinese students educated in the United States.

In 1871, Yung Wing, himself the first Chinese graduate of Yale University, persuaded the Chinese government to send supervised groups of young Chinese boys to the United States to study Western science and engineering. With the government's eventual approval, he organized what came to be known as the Chinese Educational Mission, which included 120 students, some under the age of ten, to study in the New England region of the United States beginning in 1872. The boys arrived in several detachments and lived with American families in Hartford, Connecticut and other New England towns. After graduating high school, the boys went on to college, especially at Yale. When a new supervisory official arrived, he found that they had adopted many American customs, such as playing baseball, and felt they were neglecting their Chinese heritage and becoming "denationalized". In addition, external pressures such as the US government's refusal in 1878 to permit students to attend the Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis in contravention of the Burlingame Treaty of 1868 called the whole purpose of the mission, the acquisition of Western military expertise, into question. Due to internal and external pressures, the mission was ended in 1881. When the boys returned to China, they were confined and interrogated.

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.

Many of the students later returned to China and made significant contributions to China's civil services, engineering, and the sciences. 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. Other prominent students on the mission included Liang Cheng, Tang Shaoyi, Cai Tinggan, Zhan Tianyou and Shouson Chow.

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.

Group	Names
First (1872)	Chang Hong Yen 張康仁 Chin Mon Fay 錢文魁 Ching Ta Hee 程大器 Chun Kee Young 陳鉅鏞 Chun Wing Kwai 陳榮貴 Chung Ching Shing 鍾俊成 Chung Mun Yew 鍾文耀 Ho Ting Liang 何廷梁 Jeme Tien Yow 詹天佑 Kwong Young Kong 鄺榮光 Liang Tun Yen 梁敦彥 Liu Chia Chew 劉家照 Low Kwok Sui 羅國瑞 Luk Wing Chuan 陸永泉 New Shan Chow 牛尚周 Ouyang King 歐陽庚 Paun Min Chung 潘銘鐘 Shih Kin Tong 石錦堂 Sze Kin Yung 史錦鏞 Tan Yew Fun 譚耀勳 Ting Sze Chung 鄧士聰 Tsai Cum Shang 蔡錦章 Tsai Shou Kee 蔡紹基 Tseng Tuh Kun 曾篤恭 Tso Ki Foo 曹吉福 Wong Chung Liang 黃仲良 Wong Kai Kah 黃開甲 Wong Sic Pao 黃錫寶 Woo Yang Tsang 吳仰曾 Young Shang Him 容尚謙
Second (1873)	Chang Hsiang Woo 張祥和 Chang Yau Kung 張有恭 Chuck Yen Chi 卓仁志 Chun Kin Sing 陳乾生 Chun Pay Hu 陳佩瑚 Fong Pah Liang 方伯樑 Kwong King Huan 鄺景垣 Kwong Wing Chung 鄺詠鐘 Lee Kwai Pan 李桂攀 Lee Yen Fu 李恩富 Liang Kin Wing 梁金榮 Liang Pao Chew 梁普照 Liang Pao Shi 梁普時 Lok Sik Kwai 陸錫貴 Sue Yi Chew 蘇銳釗 Sung Mon Wai 宋文翽 Ting Kwai Ting 鄧桂庭 Ting Sung Kih 丁崇吉 Tong Kwo On 唐國安 Tong Yuen Chan 唐元湛 Tsai Ting Kan 蔡廷幹 Tseng Poo 曾溥 Won Bing Chung 溫秉忠 Wong Fung Kai 王鳳喈 Wong Liang Ting 王良登 Wong Yau Chang 黃有章 Woo Chung Yen 吳仲賢 Woo Ying Fo 吳應科 Yung Kwai 容揆 Yung Shang Kun 容尚勤
Third (1874)	Ching Ta Yeh 程大業 Chow Chang Ling 周長齡 Chow Wan Pung 周萬鵬 Chu Chi Shuan 徐之煊 Chu Chun Pan 徐振鵬 Chu Pao Fay 朱寶奎 Chu Sik Shao 朱錫綬 Jang Ting Shan 鄭廷襄 Kee Tsu Yi 祁祖彝 Kong Kin Ling 康賡齡 Kwong King Yang 鄺景揚 Kwong Yen Chow 鄺賢儔 Liang Yu Ho 梁如浩 Lin Pay Chuan 林沛泉 Loo Ssu Wha 盧祖華 Shen Ke Shu 沈嘉樹 Sit Yau Fu 薛有福 Sun Kwong Ming 孫廣明 Tong Chi Yao 唐致堯 Tong Shao Yi 唐紹儀 Tsao Ka Chuck 曹嘉爵 Tsao Ka Hsiang 曹嘉祥 Tsao Mao Hsang 曹茂祥 Won Wai Shing 宦維城 Wong Kwei Liang 黃季良 Woo King Yung 吳敬榮 Yang Chan Ling 楊昌齡 Yang Sew Nan 楊兆南 Young Yew Huan 容耀垣 Yuen Chan Kwon 袁長坤
Fourth (1875)	Chen Fu Tseng 陳福增 Chin Kin Kwai 陳金揆 Chow Chuen Ao 周傳諤 Chow Chuen Kan 周傳諫 Chun Shao Chang 陳紹昌 Fung Bing Chung 馮炳鐘 Kin Ta Ting 金大廷 Kwong Kwok Kong 鄺國光 Kwong Pin Kong 鄺炳光 Lee Yu Kin 李汝金 Liang Ao Ting 梁鼇登 Liang Pi Yuk 梁丕旭 Lin Yuen Fai 林聯輝 Lin Yuen Shing 林聯盛 Liu Yulin 劉玉麟 Lok Teh Chang陸德彰 Paun Sze Chi 潘斯熾 Shen Mou Yang 盛文揚 Shen Shao Chang 沈壽昌 Shen Teh Fai 沈德輝 Shen Teh Yew 沈德耀 Tan Yew Fong 譚耀芳 Tao Ting King 陶廷賡 Tong Wing Chun 唐榮俊 Tong Wing Ho 唐榮浩 Wong Chu Lin 黃祖蓮 Wong Yen Bin 王仁彬 Wong Yew Chong 黃耀昌 Woo Huan Yung 吳煥榮 Woo Kee Tsao 吳其藻

See also

• Zeng Laishun

Further reading

• Stacey Bieler. "Patriots" or "Traitors"? A History of American-Educated Chinese Students. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. xv, 527p. ISBN 0-7656-1186-4

• Yan Phoo Lee. "When I Was a Boy in China." Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company, 1887. https://archive.org/details/wheniwasboyinchi00leey

• Liel Leibovitz and Matthew I. Miller. 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.

• Edward J.M. Rhoads. 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

• Wing Yung. 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 basic data and photos of the 120 students of the Chinese Educational Mission.