The Chinese Educational Mission (1872–1881) was the pioneering but frustrated attempt by reform-minded officials of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

to educate a group of 120 Chinese students in the United States. In 1871,

Yung Wing Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between Ch ...

, himself the first Chinese graduate of Yale University, persuaded the Chinese

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

to send supervised groups of young Chinese 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 New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

region of the United States beginning in 1872. The boys arrived in several detachments and lived with American families in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

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 The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

and the Naval Academy at Annapolis in contravention of the

Burlingame Treaty The Burlingame Treaty (), also known as the Burlingame–Seward Treaty of 1868, was a landmark treaty between the United States and Qing China, amending the Treaty of Tientsin, to establish formal friendly relations between the two nations, with ...

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 Huang Zunxian (, May 29, 1848March 28, 1905), courtesy name Gongdu (), was a Chinese official, scholar, and writer, active during the late Qing dynasty. As a poet, he published more than a hundred poems. He was born in Jiayingzhou, now Mei Count ...

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.

William Hung William Hing Cheung Hung (; born January 13, 1983) is a Hong Kong motivational speaker and former singer who gained fame in 2004 as a result of his unsuccessful audition singing Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the ...

, "Huang Tsun-Hsien's Poem "The Closure of the Educational Mission in America"," ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' 18.1/2 (1955): 50-73. 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 Willimantic is a city located in the town of Windham, Connecticut, Windham in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It is a former Census-designated place and Borough (Connecticut), borough, and is currently organized as one of two Local gov ...

and

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

was Sung Mun Wai (宋文翙), who later became a Vice Admiral in the

Chinese Navy The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chine ...

. Other prominent students on the mission included

Liang Cheng Liang Cheng (November 30, 1864 – February 3, 1917), courtesy name Liang Chentung, also known as Liang Pi Yuk, and later as Chentung Liang Cheng, was a Chinese ambassador to the United States during the Qing dynasty. He was primarily respons ...

Tang Shaoyi Tang Shaoyi (; 2 January 1862 – 30 September 1938), also spelled Tong Shao Yi, courtesy name Shaochuan (), was a Chinese statesman who briefly served as the first Premier of the Republic of China in 1912. In 1938, he was assassinated by the ...

Cai Tinggan Tsai Ting Kan ( Wade-Giles spelling: Ts'ai Ting-kan; ; 字耀堂 Yao Tang) (April 5, 1861, Xiangshan County – September 24, 1935, Beijing) was a Chinese naval officer. Tsai was educated in the United States as a student on the Chinese Edu ...

, and

Zhan Tianyou Zhan Tianyou/Chan T'ien-yu (; 26 April 1861 – 24 April 1919), or Jeme Tien-Yow as he called himself in English, based on the Cantonese pronunciation, was a pioneering Chinese railroad engineer. Educated in the United States, he was the chief ...

References

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. History of Imperial China Education in China China–United States relations Qing dynasty Yale University

References

Further reading

External links