Quick Answer: What Was the Chinese Educational Mission?
The Chinese Educational Mission was a Qing program that sent 120 boys to study in the United States. It ran from 1872 to 1881. Its students are known in Chinese as 留美幼童 (Liú Měi yòutóng), or boys who studied in America. Yung Wing (容闳, Róng Hóng), a Yale graduate, proposed the mission to train people for public service. [1][2][3][6][8]
- Dispatch: The government sent four groups of 30 students, from 1872 through 1875.
- Education: Students lived mainly with host families in New England and attended local schools.
- Recall: The Qing government ended the mission in 1881, before most students had finished. [1][2][3][5]
Yale educated some participants. The mission itself operated across several schools, towns and colleges. [2][3][6]
For a boy who arrived in 1872, education took place in an American household, a local school and a program administered by Chinese officials. Each institution expected something different of him. The 1881 recall grew out of disagreements about those expectations and the obstacles students met.
Why the Qing Government Sent Students Abroad
Yung Wing had studied in Massachusetts and graduated from Yale in 1854. In his memoir, he recalled proposing a public-service training experiment. Four groups of boys would go abroad, with as much as fifteen years allowed for their education. Teachers and officials would supervise their studies, and the government would cover the cost of schooling and maintenance. [1][3][6]
The Qing dynasty was investing in technical training and industrial enterprises as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement (洋务运动, Yángwù yùndòng). Sending pupils abroad could help provide the engineers and administrators those projects needed. The students were young enough to begin with language and school preparation before pursuing more specialized study. [1][2]
The Qing government established an office in 1871 to administer the project. Chen Lanbin served as commissioner and Yung Wing as deputy commissioner. The arrangement put an advocate of American education and a Qing official in charge of a program expected to oversee students abroad on behalf of the officials who funded it. [1][8]
The Burlingame–Seward Treaty of 1868 formed part of the diplomatic background. Article VII provided for reciprocal access to public educational institutions on the same terms that each country offered students from its most favored foreign country. When the mission later sought places at the military academies, Yung Wing invoked this general provision. [1][3][4]
How Students Lived and Learned in New England
After preparation in China, the first group arrived in New England in 1872. Families in Connecticut and Massachusetts took students into their homes. Learning English meant following lessons at school and using the language at meals and in daily conversation. In Hartford, some attended schools such as West Middle School and Hartford Public High School. [1][2][3]
American schooling was only one part of the schedule. The mission built a headquarters on Collins Street in Hartford in 1874. Students studied Chinese classics and culture there during the summer. That work was part of the state’s original plan to prepare students for service after their return. [1][2][3]
As some pupils moved from local schools to college, their paths began to diverge. Zhan Tianyou (詹天佑, Zhān Tiānyòu), for example, studied civil engineering. Other students were still in earlier stages of education when the recall came. The cohorts had arrived in successive years, so the closure interrupted students at different points. [2][5][7]
Why the Qing Government Recalled the Students
Some Qing officials criticized the supervision of students and saw conversion to Christianity or changes in habits as evidence that the program had relaxed its supervision too far. Historians also place the recall in the context of growing anti-Chinese agitation in the United States. Host families and teachers could support individual students without shielding the program from that wider hostility. [2][3][5]
Yung Wing recalled being denied places for students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He presented the refusal as a violation of the treaty. His memoir gives the organizer’s view of the episode. His account helps explain why he saw the refusal as a setback. The Qing debate over supervision was a separate pressure on the program. [1][4][5]
What the Students Did After Returning to China
Zhan Tianyou, listed by Yale as Jeme Tien Yau, completed his degree in 1881. He later led engineering work on the Beijing–Zhangjiakou railway. Tang Guo’an (唐国安, Táng Guó’ān), another former student, became the first president of Tsinghua College. Railway engineering and college administration were two quite different applications of the mission’s public-service goal. [6][7]
Other returnees worked in diplomacy, the navy, medicine and administration. Their careers developed over decades, so it helps to distinguish the formal mission from the later work of the people it trained. The government brought the program to an early end. The work of its former students extended the mission’s effects into the railways, schools and government offices that employed them. [1][2][3]
FAQs About the Chinese Educational Mission
Were all the Chinese Educational Mission students sent to Yale?
No. Students began in local schools around New England. Some later studied at Yale or other institutions, while others were still in school when the recall came. [2][3][6]
Who paid for the Chinese Educational Mission?
The Qing government financed the program. Yung Wing’s memoir describes government funding for student expenses, teachers and supervision. [1][2]
Did any mission students finish college before the recall?
Yes. Zhan Tianyou, for example, received his Yale degree in 1881. Many students were recalled before completing their planned studies. [2][5][7]
Sources
[1] Yung Wing. My Life in China and America
[2] Edward J. M. Rhoads. Stepping Forth into the World: The Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872–81
[3] Barbara Austen, Connecticut History. Yung Wing’s Dream: The Chinese Educational Mission, 1872–1881
[4] University of Nebraska–Lincoln, U.S. Law and Race Initiative. Burlingame–Seward Treaty, July 28, 1868, Article VII
[5] Edward J. M. Rhoads. Recall and Return
[6] Yale University, MacMillan Center. Yung Wing
[7] Yale University. Yung Wing and the Chinese Educational Mission, in The Yale Endowment 2007
[8] National Museum for Modern Chinese Scientists. 中国第一批留美幼童的兴国之路 (The First Chinese Students in America and Their Paths to National Renewal)