{"id":1112,"date":"2023-07-31T22:56:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2023-07-31T22:56:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T14:56:19","slug":"what-were-chinese-youth-doing-abroad-150-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/?p=1112","title":{"rendered":"What Were Chinese Youth Doing Abroad 150 Years Ago?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today is May 4th Youth Day<\/em> (\u4e94\u56db\u9752\u5e74\u8282 w\u01d4 s\u00ec q\u012bng ni\u00e1n ji\u0113<\/em><\/strong>), not an international but a unique day to China, established in memory of the patriotic movement broke out in Beijing on May 4th, 1919. Nowadays, Youth Day has gradually been regarded as a cultural symbol for young people as the mainstay of a country: to shoulder the responsibility of developing China by solving social problems with passion and creativity. <\/p>\n\n\n

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In order to serve these purposes, many young choose to study overseas broadening their horizon.\u00a0Statistics shows that between 2005 and 2019 alone, the number of Chinese students studying in US alone increased by 100 times. However, when did young Chinese actually embark oversea journey? let us start from a photo\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n


First Group of\u00a0Students Sent Abroad<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Students in front of\u00a0Shanghai Shipping and Merchants Bureau before departure from China, whose average age was\u00a0only 12 in 1872.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

148\u00a0years ago, a group of teenage dressed in long gown and mandarin jackets wearing skullcap, with a look of shyness and confusion in the camera.\u00a0The image is recorded in\u00a0middle school history textbook for students of later generations to read and says: The first group of children to study in the United States.\u00a0This\u00a0Chinese Educational Mission\u00a0for kids was driven by\u00a0Yung Wing<\/em>, and funded by Qing government.\u00a0
Father of China’s\u00a0Oversea Students<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Yung Wing<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Time flies back to 1846 when Hong Kong was ceded to British colonists.\u00a0In Morrison school, headmaster Mr. Brown stood on the podium, facing a group of Chinese children and asked, “I am going home soon. Would anyone like to go to America with me?” Silence followed. Who would go so far out of China at such a young age?\u00a0
A moment later, a loud voice replied, “I do!” A young man named Yung Wing stood up to everyone\u2019s astonishment. The little guy had been in hard life whose mother made a living by picking firewood. He was sent to this foreign school because they provide free accommodation with no tuition need to pay. In an attempt to change the fate of poverty, young Yung Wing planted a “seed” in his heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Part of the group when arrived in San Francisco in 1872.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When in US, Yung often studied to late night and\u00a0entered Yale University by his own efforts. Yung made money to maintain life by running errands\u00a0for locals. He walked to school\u00a0and squeeze cost from daily meals so that he can send money back home. Still, none of those prevent him becoming top student at Yale University.\u00a0
When Yung\u00a0left Yale at the age of 26, he became the first Chinese graduate\u00a0and promised, \u201cThe rising generation of China should enjoy the same educational advantage that I had; through western education China would be regenerated in prosperity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yung Wing took his young group to\u00a0San Francisco. They\u00a0were described as gentleman by local press.\u00a0\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After returning China, Yung\u00a0was keen on the cause of promoting education. Overcoming one obstacle after another, he finally got his proposal approved by the Qing government. From 1872 to 1875, the Qing government sent four groups\u00a0of total 120 students to study in the United State.\u00a0
Life on Foreign Land
<\/strong>These youth were sent to the other side of the Pacific Ocean to begin their 15-year study life.\u00a0Smart and quickly adapted\u00a0to the new environment, they became the top\u00a0among the same ages in local schools.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Baseball team formed by Chinese students in 1878, Zhan Tianyou is the fourth from left side at back.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Zhan Tianyou was chosen as the first group of the children to\u00a0the United States at 11. He studied English from Yung Wing and was admitted to the department of civil engineering at Yale in 1878. He led China to design and build\u00a0its first railway: Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway and\u00a0set up the whole Chinese railway system.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Liang Cheng with his baseball team.\u00a0\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Liang Cheng was among the fourth group and studied at high school Phillips Academy Andover. He was the most famous baseball player among all students. Liang used to serve\u00a0as the Chinese envoy to many\u00a0countries. He successfully requested US to refund the indemnity about 10 million US dollar, part of which was then used to set up Tsinghua University.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Photos of when the children grew\u00a0up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n


Most of\u00a0them\u00a0became the key figures that influenced China’s modernization. Some of them\u00a0the pioneer\u00a0of China’s telegraph and mining industries, some the first president of Tsinghua University, and some the first premier of Republic of China…\u00a0
End of\u00a0the Mission<\/strong>
<\/strong>The conservatives in China that time thought these students abroad forgot traditions and talked about what they do not understand. They were angry about what the young had learnt from US as some even join Christianity and ran away. Moreover, Qing was lack of funding because of internal corruption. In 1881, the government ordered all students to return China as soon as possible. The plan to study in the US was broken.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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These 120 children are\u00a0long gone that only left in hostory. The joys and sorrows of them make the ups and downs of\u00a0an ancient China. They are the first Chinese to see outside world. They are\u00a0forgotten and rediscovered by us.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is\u00a0May 4th Youth Day\u00a0(\u4e94\u56db\u9752\u5e74\u8282\u00a0w\u01d4 s\u00ec q\u012bng ni\u00e1n ji\u0113), not an international but a unique day to China, established in memory of the patriotic movement broke out in Beijing on May 4th, 1919.\u00a0Nowadays, Youth Day\u00a0has gradually been regarded as a cultural symbol for young people as\u00a0the mainstay of a country: to shoulder the responsibility\u00a0of\u00a0developing China by\u00a0solving\u00a0social problems with passion and\u00a0creativity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[7,5],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1122,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions\/1122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/online.mandarininn.cn\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}