Tracing Grandpa's dream

The Chinese Dream

The now-elderly descendants of 15 boys sent by the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) court to study in the United States some 140 years ago reminisce about what it meant. Wang Ru reports from Tangshan.

In 1872, residents in the American city of Hartford, Connecticut were undoubtedly startled to see a group of Chinese boys, wearing silk robes and pigtails, arrive to begin study at local schools and to live with host families.

Last month, 15 senior Chinese citizens in their 80s gathered in Kailuan Mine Museum in Tangshan, Hebei province, to reminisce about their grandfathers, who were among the boys who shared that dramatic journey more than a century ago.

Back then, their grandfathers were mere children, aged between 10 and 15. But the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty paid to send them to study in schools of Hartford, one of America's oldest cities in the state of Connecticut.

Ten years after returning to China, they began working in the Kailuan coal mine and later played leading roles to modernize China in areas as diverse such as transportation, mining and education.

Kailuan, considered the cradle of China's modern mining industry, was China's earliest modern mine, established in 1877. The 31st US president, Herbert Hoover, once worked in the mine as an engineer, in 1901.

From 1872 to 1875, 120 Chinese children were chosen and sent for the scheduled 15-year program, which aimed to transfuse new blood into the dying empire.

They became the first group of Chinese students to be officially sent abroad by reform-minded officials in the government. The program was named "The Chinese Educational Mission".

The history was little known by the public until a TV documentary titled Boy Students was released in 2004 by China Central Television.

In contrast to the anti-Chinese immigrant climate years later, when riots and even lynching occurred, the boys were warmly welcomed. On average, 60 local families applied to host each of the Chinese visitors.

One boy wrote in his diary: "A kind white lady came to pick me up, and she hugged and kissed me. My friends burst into laughter and I turned flushed - it might be the first time I was kissed by another person except my mother."

Most of the boys overcame language and cultural barriers.

Wu Yangzeng was a bright student who absorbed knowledge like a sponge. Curious about mechanisms, Wu was among the earliest people in Hartford to ride on the newly invented bicycle.

After graduating from high school in Hartford, Wu studied mining and metallurgy at Columbia University in New York. He returned to Kailuan to work at the coal mine in 1881, then went to London to study mining again in 1890. Later he explored coal mines in many places of China.

Speaking of his great-grandfather at the gathering last month, Wu Shouhao says he never knew that history until 1998.

"Due to the political environment, especially the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76), my family kept it as a secret," says Wu, former general manager for Pepsi in China.

"But once I knew the history, I felt so proud for my great-grandfather and his blood in my veins."

Tang Shaoming is the grandnephew of Tang Guo'an, one of the Hartford students, who later became the first chancellor of Tsinghua University. He says the mission 140 years ago had profound meaning.

"China recognized itself as the Middle Kingdom of the world for hundreds of years. We were teachers, but this mission marked that the country realized the world order had changed."

The students, he says, "were too young to understand the heavy responsibility on them, but I believe that they had seen how the country had suffered from invasion, chaos and poverty".

The Chinese students witnessed a great era of inventions: They were in the US when Thomas Edison recorded and reproduced sounds on the phonograph. Alexander Graham Bell developed the first telephone at the time.

The mission, however, was brought to a sad end by the Qing government.

In 1881, as many of the Chinese students were beginning their studies at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other leading universities, they were suddenly called back.

The students had adjusted to Western education and culture. Many cut or hid their pigtails. Some even claimed to be Christians.

It was all too much for the conservatives in the imperial court of Qing, who feared the students would be permanently Westernized. The mission was declared over.

A group led by celebrated American author Mark Twain appealed to Ulysses S. Grant, then US president, to stop the departure of the Chinese students, but the effort was in vain.

Only two of the students finished their university courses. One of them was Zhan Tianyou, who designed and built China's first railway. Meanwhile, the students who returned to China after 10 years far from home were confined and interrogated.

Most of them, however, went on to make great contributions to modernize their country. Some joined the military and died in the wars against foreign invasions.

"We are full of thankfulness to come back in Kailuan coal mine today, the first stop where our grandfathers returned to China from the US," says Liang Zanxun, whose grandfather Liang Puzhao once studied at Yale University and became one of the earliest mining and metallurgy engineers in China. "We learned from our grandfathers their true patriotism, open minds and their down-to-earth working spirit."

Contact the writer at wangru@chinadaily.com.cn

Zhang Yu in Shijiazhuang contributed to this story.