Origins of the Chinese Educational Mission

Break with Tradition

Between 1872 and 1875, one hundred and twenty Chinese youths set sail for America to acquire a Western education and vocational training. They went under a government-funded scheme supervised by the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM). In a broader sense, the CEM turned a new page in China's relations with the West as well as in its ideas about education.

Traditionally, China's relations with foreigners were driven by a deep-rooted belief in its own superiority. As Zhongguo 中国, "the Central Kingdom," and also the "Celestial Kingdom," whose Emperor claimed to be the Son of Heaven, China regarded itself as the center of civilization. Envoys from other nations were considered representatives of inferior barbarians who had to come kowtowing to the Emperor and bringing tribute to signify their submission. In past centuries, to acquire Chinese culture and learning, Japan, Korea and other countries sent thither their cohorts of scholars who were called liuxuesheng 留学生. The term roughly means "foreign-educated students," and previously only referred to foreign students coming to China. Thus, the CEM students represented the first liuxuesheng sent abroad by the Chinese Government. Because of their young age, they were known as liumei youtong 留美幼童, "the American-educated youngsters".

The CEM also marked a break with the traditional Chinese curriculum and with the method by which candidates were usually selected for government posts. For centuries, the syllabus never deviated from the Confucian Classics - memorizing them and writing formal essays on their texts and commentaries. The "standard route" of entry to a government career consisted in passing the public examinations based on this curriculum at the local, provincial and national levels. However, under the CEM scheme, after completing their training in America, the successful graduates would be given junior ranks in the civil service.

The origins of this radical scheme lay, firstly, in the conditions facing China, both externally and internally, and secondly, in the single-minded dedication of Yung Wing 容闳 (Rong Hong in Mandarin) - the man who conceived the scheme and brought it to fruition.

Country in Crisis

In the first half of the 19th century, being largely ignorant of the outside world, China was backward-looking and in decline compared to the major European powers, which were industrializing and expanding their trade and overseas empires. However, the Celestial Kingdom continued to regard them as barbarian tributary states and would only allow the foreigners to conduct very limited trade under highly restrictive regulations.  Furthermore, its refusal to recognize the status of the British Chief Superintendent of Trade at Canton caused increasing friction with Britain.  This escalated to open hostilities when the Chinese authorities took punitive action against the British merchants who had been smuggling opium from India into the country as a lucrative commodity that was in great demand.  But China's first armed conflict with the West proved disastrous. Militarily defeated by Britain, it was forced to open its markets to British merchants. In the Treaty of Nanjing (1842), which ended the Opium War, followed by the Treaty of Tianjin (1858), which ended the Second Anglo-Chinese War, Britain imposed severe terms and exacted huge concessions from the Qing Government. China had to cede Hong Kong and Kowloon, open up 18 Treaty Ports to British merchants and pay Britain tens of millions of dollars in reparation. The United States and France quickly followed suit and required China to sign similar commercial treaties, demanding the right of extraterritoriality for their citizens, and thus eroding Chinese sovereignty. But the deepest humiliation came in 1860, when British forces entered Beijing and burnt the Summer Palace to the ground.

At the same time, China was being racked by severe social unrest which resulted in the Taiping Rebellion (1850 -1864) in the south, the Nian rebellion (1851-1868) in the northeast and the Muslim revolts (1855 -1873) in the northwest. Though they were eventually defeated, the resulting loss of life, property and security was enormous and the hold of the Qing regime was considerably weakened. Ironically, mercenaries led by Western officers and the use of steam gunboats and Western arms played a significant part in the final defeat of the Taiping rebels.

This double threat facing the country impelled the more progressive officials to advocate a program of "self-strengthening". They believed that only by adopting Western techniques for making modern armaments and institutional changes could China defend itself against Western aggressors. During the 1860s, under the leadership of Prince Gong, Zeng Guofan 曾国藩, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, Li Hongzhang 李鸿章, his protégé and others, reforms slowly gained ground. The new Zongli Yamen 总理衙门 (Bureau of Foreign Affairs), was opened in 1861, as well as the College of Foreign Languages in 1862 and a school of Western languages and science in 1863. Foreign works on science, mathematics, mechanics, geography, history and international law were translated to spread the knowledge of Western techniques. Zeng Guofan played a central role in these reforms, which included the creation of shipbuilding and armaments factories. In 1863, Zeng summoned the foreign-educated Yung Wing for an interview and this fateful meeting opened the way for Yung to eventually present his scheme of sending youths to be educated in America.

First Foreign University Graduate

Yung Wing (1828 -1912) came from a poor Cantonese peasant family in Nanping, near the Portuguese outpost Macao. At the age of seven he was taken into a missionary-run boarding school in Macao, which he attended for four years. After the Opium War, he resumed studies in the newly-formed Morrison Education Society School (named after Dr. Robert Morrison, 1782-1834, the first Protestant missionary to China), which in 1842 relocated to Hong Kong, the freshly-acquired British colony. The School's principal and missionary teacher was Dr. Samuel Robbins Brown (1810-1880), a graduate (1832) of Yale College. Yung distinguished himself as a bright student with considerable initiative. In 1847 Dr. Brown brought Yung and two other Chinese students back with him to complete their secondary education in America. After graduating from Monson Academy in Massachusetts, Yung entered Yale College and graduated in 1854, being the first Chinese to do so from a foreign university.

At Monson and Yale, Yung Wing received the best liberal education that America could offer. Boarding with Brown's relations at first, Yung got involved in campus and church life; he became highly Americanized, being a devout Christian, as well as an ardent believer in Western liberal thought. Nevertheless, he keenly felt for "the lamentable condition of China". During his final year, he pledged: "I was determined that the rising generation of China should enjoy the same educational advantages that I had enjoyed; that through western education China might be regenerated, become enlightened and powerful. To accomplish that object became the guiding star of my ambition."¹

Following his interview with Zeng Guofan, Yung entered government service and in 1864 returned to the U.S. to purchase machinery for Zeng's new Jiangnan Arsenal. Soon after this endeavour, Yung's educational scheme for sending youths to America gained Zeng's strong support. Due to unforeseen setbacks, the memorial to recommend the scheme, jointly signed by Zeng and Li Hongzhang, could not be presented to the Throne until 1871. Unfortunately, Zeng died in March 1872, two months before official approval was secured, leaving Li Hongzhang to oversee its implementation.

Mission Approved

The Government's choice of the United States as the destination was largely due to the Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868. This was a pact signed by the American diplomat Anson Burlingame (1820-1870) serving as the plenipotentiary for China, and William Seward (1801-1872) for the USA. Unlike other treaties with the Western powers, this treaty put China and the U.S. on equal footing and thus assured the Qing Government of American goodwill. In particular, Article VII had a specific provision allowing the citizens of each country the reciprocal right to "enjoy all the privileges of the public educational institutions" in the other country.

The final plan of the CEM contained these main elements:

Despite the generous terms of the Government's offer, there was little interest among the wealthier families from the capital and main cities in China. This was probably owing to the entrenched prejudice against foreign countries and also to the 15-year commitment required. To fill the quota, Yung Wing personally went to recruit students in Guangdong Province, especially the coastal communities, whence the Chinese had traditionally emigrated overseas and where the population was more aware of the advantages of a Western education. The breakdown of the 120 students by province was:

In summer 1871, the CEM set up a preparatory school in Shanghai. There the students were taught both English and Chinese, tested and screened, and only the best were selected to go abroad. Yung Wing travelled some weeks ahead of them to make preparations for their placement in New England schools. On August 11, 1872, the first detachment of 30 boys departed from Shanghai on their epoch-making voyage.

B.A.C.

NOTES

1. Yung Wing (1909), 40- 41.