Christopher J. Dawe is a New Hampshire native and headmaster at the Hübschmann Zhan International School in Shenyang. He is a Ph.D. candidate at University College London where he studies the history of Sino-American educational exchanges.
On September 12th, 1872, 9-year-old Niu Shangzhou arrived in the United States from Jiangsu, China. Niu would eventually travel to New Hampshire to study at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Niu, the first Chinese student to study in New Hampshire (and perhaps the first Chinese person to ever visit New Hampshire), became an outstanding student, even publishing in the school newspaper. Today, Phillips Exeter maintains in its archives a copy of Niu’s “Chinaland. Across the Sea,” which was written shortly before he returned to China in 1880.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM), a program started by the Qing dynasty to send a total of 120 students to the United States. As we mark the program’s anniversary, we should also celebrate its tremendous success.
This success was not readily apparent. Indeed, despite lobbying from Americans including Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, China decided to terminate the CEM early. This was, in part, because of growing xenophobia in the United States and the government’s refusal to abide by its treaty commitments, which included allowing Chinese citizens to study at the American army and naval academies.
Moreover, conservative elements in the Qing court were afraid the boys were becoming too “Americanized.” This concern proved mistaken. The boys — men, actually, when they returned to China —had never lost their love for their native land. Having been exposed to new ideas and been inspired by the United States, the students still returned as patriots, constantly working to strengthen China.
Among the CEM’s alumni was Tang Shaoyi, a leading republican and the first Premier of the Republic of China, and Zhan Tianyou, the “Father of Chinese Railroads.” Liang Cheng who, at the age of twelve studied in Massachusetts, became an ambassador to the United States.
Liang was able to build upon his personal connections and diplomatic skills to lobby President Theodore Roosevelt to return money that China had paid as an indemnity following the Boxer Rebellion. This money was used to establish Tsinghua University and send other students to the United States for an education, including Yang Chen-Ning, who received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work at the University of Chicago. (Senator J. William Fulbright would later draw inspiration from the American Boxer Scholarship program when creating the Fulbright Program.)
There was also Tsai Tingkan, a naval commander injured during his defense of the Dagu Forts in the 1895 Battle of Weihaiwei against the Japanese. Later promoted to the rank of admiral, Tang spent his retirement translating Chinese poetry into English. When he was 72, Tang’s translations were published by an American university and introduced English readers to the beauty of Li Qingzhao, Dufu, Li Bai and others. Tragically, three of Tsai’s fellow seamen who were also CEM alumni gave their lives defending China against the Japanese attacks.
Niu Shangzhou, New Hampshire’s first Chinese student, had a less exciting career but it was nevertheless important. He became a telegraph operator and interpreter, later working in the Jiangnan Shipyard. His two sons were educated at Harvard and Cambridge and jointly opened one of China’s most advanced hospitals. Niu’s descendants include many noted professionals, including Dr. Lily New, an acclaimed pianist who continued her family’s tradition by, in the words of New York Newsday, being an “East-West cultural ambassador.”
These men participated in the genesis of what would become the largest overseas study exchange in the world, involving hundreds of thousands of students. While this exchange has been traditionally Chinese, tens of thousands of American students have enrolled in Chinese universities. Like their Chinese counterparts, these Americans return home able to strengthen our nation with new viewpoints and understandings.
As a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, I had my own ancillary experience with the benefits of overseas study. I had many Chinese classmates, some of whom became very good friends and presented me with new ideas. Indeed, one of my classmates hailed from the city of Shenyang and introduced me to the place in which I have now lived for eight years; a city I have come to consider a second home.
The personal relationships which develop through education are important, especially in this increasingly contentious time. My involvement in international education has profoundly shaped how I look at the world. While I have not lost my own love of country and pride as an American, I have increasingly been able to understand the Chinese perspective. I have a deeper appreciation for Chinese history and culture (especially the food!) and I can better see how China views its place in the world.
As we mark the 150th anniversary of Niu Shangzhou and the Chinese Educational Mission, more and more people on both sides of the Pacific are becoming interested in the students’ stories. The students themselves seemed to have understood the specialness of what they had done.
In 1935, more than sixty years after they arrived in the United States, the few remaining members of the Chinese Educational Mission gathered in Shanghai for a reunion. The surviving men, numbering about twenty, had been prominent businessmen, distinguished statesmen, and dedicated public servants.
Assembling for what might have been the last time, they composed a letter, addressing the New England friends they had known six decades before: “We still feel young and it is with young hearts that we cherish a warm friendship with you who are living in America.”
A century and a half have passed since the Chinese Educational Mission, but the ideas and warm friendships that come about through international study remain vitally important.