ABSTRACT
The recent arrival of Chinese youths in New England was the subject of an August 18, 1873 article in the New York Times. The children had been hand-selected by the imperial leaders, it said, entrusted with the awesome assignment of initiating an extended program of education exchange with the United States of America—a project that if successful would help modernize China:
In the year 1871, Tsang Kwoh Fan (Zeng Guofan), a statesman of the highest order, a man of great energy and most rigid integrity, one who struck a death-blow upon the rebels in the city of Nanking … who subsequently became the Viceroy of the Kiang Nan … memorialized the emperor to select 120 clever youths, irrespective of birth and position, to be sent to the United States to receive a collegiate as well as a professional education. 1
