THE CHINESE STUDENT'S VIEW BY DR. W. W. YEN (The influence upon progressive thought in China of the many students sent from that country to be educated in the United States is great. At a banquet recently given in Peking to Secretary of War Don M. Dickinson, Dr. W. W. Yen, one of the secretaries of the Wai Wu Pu, and a Yale graduate, expressed clearly the attitude of the bright young Chinese toward a Chinese-American rapprochement, at the same time describing the great benefits derived from the American education of his countrymen. His address is given here.-EDITOR.) M men are R. TOASTMASTER, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Shakespeare said somewhere that some born great, some men achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. And so to-night some are born orators, like Secretary Dickinson, some achieve the art of speaking, like our popular toastmaster, while others like myself have speaking thrust upon them. I am asked to respond to the toast, "The Returned Student." Following the method of preachers, I shall begin by explaining the wording of my text. So much you know depends on the manner of reading a sentence. I remember hearing a boy once read from his primer the remarkable statement, "Here is a warm doughnut. Step upon it." Upon looking at the book, we found that it said, "Here is a worm. Do not step on it." Now, there are returned students and returned students. There are some who returned but are not students, and there are students who have never returned, but who have settled down in the land of their adoption. Then there are returned students from other countries. To-night I am to confine myself to returned students from the United States. Moreover, I shall content myself only with a brief survey of the general movement, and avoid as much individual mention as possible. If I were to try to trace out adequate preparation. His name is Yung Wing. It was during his undergraduate days that he conceived the grand idea of organizing a Chinese Educational Mission, the object whereof was to send Chinese young men to the United States to be educated, so that on their return they could regenerate their mother country. The scheme was finally approved by the Imperial Government, sixteen years after Mr. Yung Wing's graduation, and the first detachment of thirty boys arrived in New England in 1872. Altogether there were four detachments. But the scheme was too progressive for the His Excellency Tsai Ting Kan, director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs of the Province of Chihli, Tientsin, China. Educated in America, one of the original one hundred and twenty students which came to America to attend college. Is noted for his wonderful hospitality. States from its earliest days, it would take too much space and time. My remarks would then be as long as the genealogy of a certain famous family in China. The family history takes up several hundred volumes, and in the latter part of the second volume is this note on the margin, "About this time the world was created." In the very beginning of intercourse between China and the United States, very few young men cared to cross the ocean. The parents in those days knew nothing of "Meiko," and it was rumored that the country was inhabited by wild people who would make short shrift of our lads. C. Joshua Zee, M. A., Hon. Sec. World's Chinese Students' Federation; Chairman Management Com. W. C. S. F.; General Manager World's Chinese Students' Journal; author of "Diplomatic Relations of the United States with China;" Dean and Professor of International Law and History, of Imperial Polytechnic College, Shanghai, China. Chinese students sent to America, their expenses defrayed by Boxer indemnity fund returned by the United States to China. In the center, seated, is Chow Tee Chi, Director of Bureau of Education, with two associates. overcome all obstacles, and not a few have attained positions of honor and trust. Two have been appointed presidents of Ministries, two are now envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary; several have served in important positions under viceroys and governors, not a few have distinguished themselves in developing the telegraph service in China, and lastly, other students, though few and far between, proceeded to the United States both before and after the disbandment of the Educational Mission, but none of them were supported by the Government. In the past decade, provincial governments and educational institutions have once more begun to despatch young men to America, and at the present moment there must be some five hundred Chinese students in the States. According to present arrangements, large numbers are to be sent every year till 1940. ud so as the years roll by, the number of students educated in America will inincrease and multiply till we easily have hundreds and thousands. The gathering here to-night is an eloquent witness of the influence the United States is already exercising through her adopted sons, who are now engaged in practically every branch of service of the Imperial Government. We have here represented diplomacy, finance, army, navy, education, railway and mining, and what not. The attitude of the American returned student, I am emboldened to say, is very friendly to the United States. Touched by the same sympathies, nourished by the same alma maters, taught at the foot of the same professors, and inspired by the same hopes and ideals, is it strange that the bond between the Chinese student and the land where he spends his youth and early manhood should be of the closest and most lasting nature? Nor would it be quite natural if, during the hours of relaxation, an occasional American cocktail should not find its way down a Chinese throat, nor a mild and friendly session with a well-known American game of cards occupy the attention of American educated Chinese officials in Peking. Those of us who are in diplomatic life naturally advocate friendship with the United States; in the army, regard the training of West Point as indispensable; in the navy that the American navy cannot be beat; and our ships should be ordered from Philadelphia. Returned students from America propose the use of American books and employment of American teachers in our schools. Our respected friend, Mr. Jeme, has introduced more American wrinkles and curves into China than any other person present to-night. In short, then, we are to be the interpreters and expositors of America to our own people. Not, however, I hope, like that of the man who interpreted Shakespeare's "To be or not to be: that is the question," as "Can do, no can do, how fashion." I think we are able to bring to our own people a knowledge of the American people that no amount of explaining in books or by Americans themselves could accomplish. We constitute a bridge across the Pacific Ocean over which American education, American ideals, American machinery and manufactures, and all that is best of America pass to the Flowery Kingdom. We constitute the strongest link in the bond of friendship between China and the United States, strong because it it based on intellectual and disinterested reasons. CHINESE CHILDREN IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS BY REV. JOHN HOOD LAUGHLIN Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States 1. Their children make better progress in the mixed than in the exclusively Chinese school. The mingling with American young people, both in school and out, at play as well as at work, compelling the constant use of the English language, gives them an earlier and better command of it than could possibly be obtained from books, or from the requirements of the school room alone. The Chinese school deprives them of this important aid; for, outside of the preparation for lessons and the reciting thereof, their mutual communications are in Chinese, entirely so during recess, and out of school hours generally. Those of us who have attempted the acquisition of a foreign language are well aware that no other method can compare with a close and constant mingling with the people to whom that language is native. Progress in English promotes progress in other studies, for that is the language in which their text books are written. The greatest handicap to their education is thus early and rapidly removed. ance are to be acquired in the American school, such as American manners, customs and modes of thought, which add greatly to the comfort and happiness of these young aliens, and will make of them much more valuable assets of this republic of ours when their years of manhood and womanhood have arrived. 2. Segregation they regard as a humiliating discrimination. They alone of all the hodge-podge of national products in San Francisco are set off by themselves. "Why?" they ask. "Because you are Asiatics." "But so are the Japanese," they reply. "But what of that? Why should the accident of birth in Asia disqualify us from entering an American school ?" "Because your lineage and training are so foreign that you can't assimilate with us." "Are you sure we can't? Have you given us the chance? Have you allowed us to live anywhere but in Chinatown? "Are not our native-born sons and daughters now dressed as are yours, conducting themselves in much the same fashion, taking an interest in your fiestas, your business and your politics?" "You are an inferior race-ignorant, uncivilized, behind the age." "If all that were true, would it not furnish the very best ground for our petition to enter your schools? Our Other things, too, of great import- need is so great." |