In the shadow of Yung Wing: Zeng Laishun and the Chinese Educational Mission to the United States

Pacific Historical Review

Volumn 74, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 19-58

  Rhoads, Edward J M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EDUCATION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY;

ASIA; CHINA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; FAR EAST; NEW ENGLAND; NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES; WESTERN HEMISPHERE; WORLD;

EID: 16344388994     PISSN: 00308684     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/phr.2005.74.1.19     Document Type: Article

References (239)

1. See, for example, Weili Ye, Seeking Modernity in China's Name: Chinese Students in the United States, 1900-1927 (Stanford, Calif., 2001), 3;
2. Li Xisuo, Rong Hong-Zhongguo liu-xuesheng zhi fu [Yung Wing: Father of Chinese studying abroad] (Shijiazhuang, 1990), 243.
3. The best accounts of Yung Wing's life are his autobiography, Yung Wing, My Life in China and America (NewYork, 1909);
4. the entry by Thomas LaFargue in Arthur W. Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1911) (Washington, D.C., 1943-1944), 402-405;
5. and Edmund H. Worthy, Jr., "Yung Wing in America," Pacific Historical Review, 34 (1965), 265-287.
6. Zeng Laishun is not mentioned, for example, in Thomas LaFargue's pioneering book on the CEM, China's First Hundred: Educational Mission Students in the United States, 1872 to 1881 (1942; Pullman, Wash., 1987). Chen Lanbin, on the other hand, has received a modicum of attention;
7. see, in particular, Charles A. Desnoyers, "'The Thin Edge of the Wedge': The Chinese Educational Mission and Diplomatic Representation in the Americas, 1872-1875," Pacific Historical Review, 61 (1992), 241-263.
8. See, for example, Tin-Yuke Char, "In Search of the Chinese Name for 'Li Sun,'" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 16 (1976), 107-111.
9. Within the space of a couple of pages, one author refers to Zeng by three different names-Zeng Lansheng, Zeng Laishun, and Zeng Hengzhong-as if he were three different persons: Lin Zixun, Zhongguo liuxue jiaoyu shi (1847 zhi 1975 nian) [A history of Chinese studying abroad, 1847-1975] (Taipei, 1976), 14-15. These, along with yet others, were, in fact, all names by which Zeng was known.
10. Paul A. Cohen, Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang T'ao, and Reform in Late Ch'ing China (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), chapter 9.
11. K. Scott Wong, "Cultural Defenders and Brokers: Chinese Responses to the Anti-Chinese Movement," in K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, eds., Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era (Philadelphia, 1998), 3-40. While Wong devotes ten pages to Yung Wing, he consigns Zeng, identified confusedly as either Chan or Tsang Laisun, to a footnote (note 73).
12. Up to now, the only biographical sketch of Zeng Laishun (as Tsang Lai-sun) is in Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1985), 69-74.
13. According to Zeng's obituary (North-China Herald [Shanghai], June 7, 1895, p. 853), he was sixty-nine at the time of his death, which would put his birth at 1826;
14. his Masonic lodge record ("Bro. Tsung Lai Shun in Massachusetts," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 21 [1981], 180) says he was forty-six in 1873, which would make 1827 his birth date.
15. S. Wells Williams to Rufus Anderson, March 20, 1848, reel 259: frames 464-466, South China Mission, and Ira Tracy [to Anderson?], Jan. 2, 1873, reel 228: frames 268-269, Singapore Mission, both in American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions [ABCFM] Papers, Unit 3: Missions to Asia, 1827-1919 (microfilm edition, Woodbridge, Conn., 1983;
16. hereafter, in citations to the ABCFM Papers the numbers following dates signify the reel and frame numbers in this microfilm edition). Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
17. Carl T. Smith, "Idols on a School Hill: American Board School for Chinese Boys at Singapore, 1835-1842," Chung Chi Bulletin (Hong Kong), 55 (Dec. 1975), 28.
18. On the ethnolinguistic distribution of the Chinese in Singapore, see Kwok Kian Woon, "Singapore," in Lynn Pan, ed., The Enyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas (Cambridge, Mass., 1999), 203 -204. My thanks to J. Barton Starr for locating Smith's article.
19. Translation of agreement with the parents of the pupils in the Chinese School, Feb. 1837, 228: 97-98;
20. list of boys in boarding school, Feb. 1, 1840, 228: 509-510, Singapore Mission, both in ABCFM Papers;
21. Zeng's letter to Travelli quoted in Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
22. Carl T. Smith, "Idols on a School Hill," 28-30;
23. Carl T. Smith, "A Register of Baptized Protestant Chinese (1813-43)," in Smith, Chinese Christians, 216.
24. Thomas LaFargue, "Some Early Chinese Visitors to the United States," T'ien Hsia Monthly (Shanghai), 11 (1940), 134-138;
25. Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians, 212. My thanks to Gary Tiedemann for drawing my attention to LaFargue's article.
26. Minutes, Nov. 13, 1839, and Oct. 6, 1840, both in 229: 225, 234;
27. Joseph Travelli to Anderson, June 16, 1843, 228: 488, Singapore Mission, both in ABCFM Papers;
28. Carl T. Smith, "Idols on a School Hill," 29.
29. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, March 20, 1848, 259: 464-466, South China Mission, ABCFM Papers;
30. J. H. Morrison to Walter Lowrie, April 12, 1843, Allahabad Mission, Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions Papers, 1833-1911, India (microfilm edition, Wilmington, Del., n.d.), which places Morrison in Singapore in mid-April 1843, en route to the United States. Morrison's letter is partially illegible, but it seems not to mention Zeng. On Morrison, see Edward Howell Roberts, comp., Biographical Catalogue of the Princeton Theological Seminary, 1815-1932 (Princeton, N.J., 1933), 87;
31. on Bloomfield Academy, see Harry T. Taylor, Bloomfield College: The First Century, 1868-1968 (Bloomfield, N.J., 1970), 42-45.
32. Newark Daily Advertiser, June 12-24, 1846 (for S. Wells Williams's lectures), July 22, 1846, p. 2 (for J. H. Morrison's return to India);
33. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, March 20, 1848, 259: 464-466, South China Mission, ABCFM Papers. I have, regrettably, not found any notice in the Newark newspaper of Zeng Laishun's arrival in Bloomfield or of his departure for Clinton.
34. Utica Weekly Herald, Nov, 12, 1872, p. 5.
35. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, March 20, April 3, 1848, 259: 464-466, 667, South China Mission, ABCFM Papers;
36. Anderson to S. Wells Williams, March 31, 1848, folder 25, box 1;
37. S. Wells Williams to Sarah Williams, June 24, 1872, folder 175, box 4, Samuel Wells Williams Family Papers (MS. Group 547), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Libraries, New Haven, Conn.;
38. Utica Daily Gazette, May 23, 1848, p. 2.
39. New York Evening Post, May 29, 1848, p. 2, and June 1, 1848, p. 3;
40. S. Wells Williams to Sarah Williams, June 24, 1872, folder 175, box 4, Williams Family Papers.
41. Minutes, Oct. 25, Nov. 29, 1848, 265: 555;
42. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, Jan. 29, 1849, 259: 676, South China Mission, both in ABCFM Papers.
43. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, March 20, 1848, in ibid.: 464-466.
44. Report, Dec. 1, 1849, 258: 56;
45. annual reports, Sept. 1850, Sept. 1851, 258: 86-87, 106-109;
46. Daniel Vrooman to Anderson, June 19, 1852, 259: 592, all in South China Mission, ABCFM Papers.
47. Yung Wing, My Life, 35.
48. Minutes, Aug. 6, 1850, 265: 564, South China Mission, ABCFM Papers;
49. S. Wells Williams to "Friends," Dec. 20, 1852, folder 35, box 1, Williams Family Papers;
50. [Shanghai] Chinese Recorder, 48 (1917), 258;
51. Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians, 70, 216.
52. On Mary Ann Aldersey, see Katharine F. Bruner, John K. Fairbank, and Richard J. Smith, eds., Entering China's Service: Robert Hart's Journals, 1854-1863 (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), 348, note 2.
53. Minutes, March 22, 1850;
54. Minutes, July 20, 1851;
55. Minutes, May 20 June 21, Dec. 22, 1852;
56. Minutes, April 12, June 22, 1853, 265: 561, 574, 578-580, 582;
57. estimates of the expenses of the mission, May 22, 1851, 259: 746;
58. estimates of the expenses of the mission, May 22, 1852, 258: 119;
59. annual report, Sept. 25, 1853, 258: 123, South China Mission, all in ABCFM Papers.
60. S. Wells Williams to "Friends," Dec. 20, 1852, folder 35, box 1, Williams Family Papers;
61. Vrooman to "Mr. Hill," May 16, 1853, 259: 599-600;
62. Vrooman to Anderson, May 19, 1853, 259: 600;
63. S. Wells Williams to Anderson, Sept. 24, 1853, 259: 796;
64. E. C. Bridgman to Anderson, Jan. 5, 1856, 259: 426;
65. annual report, Sept. 25, 1853, 258: 123, South China Mission, all in ABCFM Papers;
66. "Leaves from the Journal of C.J.," [NewYork] Spirit of Missions, 22 (1857), 350;
67. North-China Herald, June 7, 1895, p. 853;
68. Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians, 71. The missionary "C. J." referred to Zeng Laishun as "Mr. Sy-Soong," probably a misprint for her handwritten "Ly-Soong."
69. Bridgman to Anderson, Sept. 3, 1855, Jan. 5, 1856, 259: 423, 426;
70. annual reports of the Shanghai mission, Dec. 31, 1855, Dec. 31, 1856, 258: 311, 315;
71. Henry Blodget to Anderson, June (?) 1857, 259: 49, South China Mission, all in ABCFM Papers;
72. Michael C. Lazich, E. C. Bridgman (1801-1861), America's First Missionary to China (Lewiston, N.Y., 2000), 329;
73. [Shanghai] Chinese Recorder, 48 (1917), 258-259;
74. "Leaves from the Journal of C.J.," 351;
75. membership records, South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Springfield, Mass. (The Rev. Peter Heinrich kindly granted me access to these church records.) On the Union Church, see F. L. Hawks Pott, A Short History of Shanghai, Being an Account of the Growth and Development of the International Settlement (Shanghai, 1928), 82.
76. Obituary Record of the Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Academical Year Ending in June 1891 (New Haven, Conn., 1891), 67;
77. F. W. Williams, A History of the Class of Seventy-Nine, Yale College, 1875-1905 (New Haven, Conn., 1906), 533;
78. Yung Shang Him, The Chinese Educational Mission and Its Influence (Shanghai, 1939), 7. Dana Young made a copy of Yung Shang Him's booklet available to me.
79. Yung Wing to S. Wells Williams, Dec. 30, 1852, folder 35, box 1, July 27, 1853, folder 40, box 1, Williams Family Papers;
80. "Leaves from the Journal of C. J.," 351.
81. Yung Wing, My Life, 96, chapters 10-11;
82. Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and Western Cultures (Tokyo, 1964), 91-92, which accurately dates the trip to the autumn of 1860 rather than (as Yung Wing has it) 1859. On Western interest in the Taipings, especially during 1860-1861,
83. see Prescott Clarke and J. S. Gregory, Western Reports on the Taiping: A Selection of Documents (Honolulu, 1982), 223-225. I have been unable to identify the two missionaries whom Zeng Laishun and Yung Wing escorted to Nanjing.
84. David Pong, Shen Pao-chen and China's Modernization in the Nineteenth Century. (Cambridge, U.K., 1994), 193, 226, 232;
85. Steven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China: Prosper Giquel and the Self-Strengthening Movement (Berkeley, 1985), 116;
86. Haifangdang Fuzhou chuanchang [Archives on maritime defense: The Fuzhou navy yard] (Taipei, 1957), 568a-568b. My thanks to David Pong for the latter reference.
87. Hamilton Literary Monthly (Clinton, N.Y.), Feb. 1873, p. 245;
88. e-mail from Gary Tiedemann to author, Aug. 5, 2001, in author's possession. On Thomas Hanbury, see Jindai lai-Hua waiguo renming cidian [A biographical dictionary of foreigners in modern China] (Beijing, 1981), 189.
89. William Hung, "Huang Tsun-hsien's Poem "The Closure of the Educational Mission in America,'" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 18 (1955), 57-59, notes 5-6;
90. Yangwu yundong [The foreign affairs movement] (8 vols., Shanghai, 1961), 2: 159.
91. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
92. see also Hamilton Literary Monthly, Feb. 1873, p. 245. On other occasions, Zeng Laishun gave Yung Wing sole credit for the CEM;
93. see, for example, San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1872, p. 3. My thanks to Dana Young for the latter citation.
94. Yangwu yundong, 2: 157;
95. S. Wells Williams to Sarah Williams, June 24, 1872, folder 175, box 4, Williams Family Papers;
96. North-China Herald, July 27, 1872, p. 64;
97. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
98. Yung Shang Him, The Chinese Educational Mission, 7;
99. Yung Kwai, "Recollections of the Chinese Educational Mission," as transcribed by Dana B. Young. I am, again, grateful to Dana Young for making available to me a transcript of his grandfather's "Recollections." The original document has now been deposited in Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Libraries.
100. The identification of Spencer Tseng Laisun with Zeng Dugong, which heretofore has not been made, is based on the following evidence: Zeng Dugong, according to a directory of CEM boys, was a native of Chaozhou prefecture, Guangdong; so, because of his father and grandfather, was Spencer Laisun, even though he himself was born in Shanghai. Secondly, both Zeng Dugong and Spencer Laisun were, on arrival in the United States, about sixteen years old, well above the average age of the CEM boys as a group. Furthermore, according to Yung Shang Him, Zeng Dugong's alternate name was "Tse An," which Yung Shang Him elsewhere says was Spencer's Chinese name ("Zi'an"). Finally, Yung Shang Him's sketch of Zeng Dugong's post-CEM career is fully congruent with that of Spencer Laisun. See Xu Run, Xu Yuzhai zixu nianpu [The chronological autobiography of Xu Run] (1927; Taipei, 1978), 17a;
101. Yung Shang Him, The Chinese Educational Mission, 7, 23.
102. San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 13, 1872, p. 3;
103. [San Francisco] Daily Alta California, Sept. 16, 1872, p. 1;
104. Thomas Houseworth & Co., Pacific Coast Scenery (San Francisco, 1872), 43-44; p. 1;
105. Peter E. Palmquist, Lawrence & Houseworth/Thomas Houseworth & Co.: A Unique View of the West, 1860-1886 (Columbus, Ohio, 1980), 118.
106. All in Springfield Daily Republican, Sept. 24, 1872, p. 2;
107. All in Springfield Daily Republican, Sept. 25, 1872, p. 4;
108. All in Springfield Daily Republican, Oct. 14, 1872, p. 8.
109. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
110. Springfield Daily Republican, Sept. 17, 1875, p. 6;
111. Springfield City Directory, 1875/76 (Springfield, Mass., 1875), 257;
112. Yung Wing, My Life, 189.
113. For stereoscopic photographs of Zeng and his family by Thomas Houseworth, see the website of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Stereoscopic Research Library, http://www.importautopart.com/library/ houseworth.htm (accessed June 2004).
114. Springfield Daily Republican, Oct. 2, 1872, p. 2, and Jan. 6, 1873, p. 2;
115. Chan Laisun to Edward North, Sept. 10, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File, Special Collections, Burke Library, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.
116. Yung Kwai, "Recollections";
117. Chan to North, July 12, Sept. 10, 1873, Chan Laisun 1850 File;
118. Springfield Daily Republican, March 19, 1873, p. 2, March 27, 1873, p. 2, Oct. 4, 1873, p. 3, and Nov. 14, 1873, p. 8.
119. Statistics, Class of '77, Sheffield Scientific School, of Yale College (New Haven, Conn., 1877), 2, 22;
120. Springfield Daily Republican, Sept. 10, 1874, p. 6, Feb. 20, 1875, p. 6, Aug. 23, 1875, p. 6, Aug. 25, 1875, p. 6, and Aug. 26, 1875, p. 6;
121. for a photograph of Elijah Laisun at Yale, apparently shorn of his queue, see Sheffield Class Album, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
122. Springfield Daily Republican, April 6, 1875, p. 6;
123. Williams, A History of the Class of Seventy-Nine, 533;
124. Hopkins Grammar School Annual, 1876-7 (New Haven, Conn., 1876);
125. "List of Students in Classes, 1873-1889," 34-35, 90-91, School Archives, Hopkins School, New Haven, Conn.;
126. Portraits of Yale Individuals, folder 1480, box 39, record unit 684, record group 48-A, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. The Manchu hairstyle required both shaving the forehead and the sides of the head as well as letting the rest of the hair grow long and braiding it into a plait. See Edward J. M. Rhoads, Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928 (Seattle, 2000), 60.
127. Yangwu yundong, 2: 155-159. For the tael-dollar exchange rate (roughly 1 tael to $1.37), see Yung Shang Him, The Chinese Educational Mission, 14, and Hung, "Huang Tsun-hsien's Poem," 59, note 8.
128. Hartford Evening Post, July 25, 1873, p. 2;
129. New York Times, June 7, 1874, p. 9. Yung Wing himself, in a letter to the editor in April 1875, made the same point, even though by then Zeng Laishun had been recalled to China;
130. see "A Note from Yung Wing," Scribner's Monthly, 10 (July 1875), 393.
131. Chan to North, Sept. 10, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File. Yung Wing left for China sometime after April 1873 to persuade the Qing officials to purchase a large quantity of Gatling guns; he was ordered to return to the United States soon after meeting with an envoy from Peru in November or December. See Yung Wing, My Life, 191-192;
132. Worthy, "Yung Wing," 275-276;
133. Robert L. Irick, Ch'ing Policy Toward the Coolie Trade, 1847-1878 (Taipei, 1982), 329-339.
134. Springfield Daily Republican, July 22, 1873, p. 2, and Aug. 22, 1874, p. 8;
135. Qi Zhaoxi, "You Meizhou riji (A diary of travels in America)," in Zhong Shuhe, comp., Zou xiang shijie congshu [Turning toward the world, a collection of writings] (10 vols., Changsha, 1985), 2: 233-241.
136. Qi Zhaoxi, in this print edition of his diary, refers to Zeng Laishun as "Zeng Lansheng," which is also how he is called in the Chinese translation of Yung Wing's autobiography, Xixue dongjian ji [A record of the eastward spread of western learning] (1915; Taipei, 1973), 58.
137. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Dec. 20, 1874, p. 5;
138. see also Chan to North, Oct. 16, 1872, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File.
139. Hoosac Valley News (North Adams, Mass.), July 16, 1873, p. 2;
140. Hoosac Valley News (North Adams, Mass.), May 6, 1880, p. 3.
141. On the Chinese at North Adams, see Frederick Rudolph, "Chinamen in Yankeedom: Anti-Unionism in Massachusetts in 1870," American Historical Review, 53 (1947), 1-29.
142. On the diplomatic responsibilities of the CEM, see Desnoyers, "'The Thin Edge of the Wedge.'"
143. Hamilton Literary Monthly, March 1873, p. 278;
144. Springfield Daily Republican, March 7, 1873, p. 6;
145. Chan to North, April 4, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File. I have been unable to locate the original news dispatch quoted in the Hamilton Literary Monthly. On Yung Wing's presence in the United States at this time, see Springfield Daily Republican, April 23, 1873, p. 2, which reported his visit to Springfield.
146. Springlield Daily Republican, March 5, 1874, p. 5;
147. Robert L. Irick, Ching Policy, 294-301, 352-353. Robert Irick erroneously states that Zeng Laishun was a member of Chen Lanbin's delegation to Cuba.
148. Chan to North, Oct. 28, Nov. 14, 1872;
149. April 4, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File;
150. Tracy [to Anderson?], Jan. 2, 1873, 228: 268-269, Singapore Mission, ABCFM Papers;
151. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3;
152. Utica Weekly Herald, Nov. 12, 1872, p. 5, and July 1, 1873, p. 7;
153. Springfield Daily Republican, June 30, 1873, p. 2.
154. Chan to North, Nov. 25, 1872, and April 4, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File;
155. on Elizabeth Cady Stanton's lecture fees, see Elisabeth Griffith, In Her Own Right: The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (New York, 1984), 146. In 1874 another Chinese, Wong Chin Foo, took to the lecture circuit;
156. see Qingsong Zhang, "The Origins of the Chinese Americanization Movement: Wong Chin Foo and the Chinese Equal Rights League," in Wong and Chan, eds., Claiming America, 44-47.
157. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Dec. 20, 1874, p. 5;
158. Chan to North, Feb. 3, Sept. 10, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File.
159. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Jan. 16, 1873, p. 4;
160. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Feb. 15, 1873, p. 4;
161. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: April 12, 1873, p. 2;
162. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: April 28, 1873, p. 3;
163. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: May 19, 1873, p. 8;
164. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: June 7, 1873, p. 4;
165. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: June 9, 1873, p. 8;
166. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: June 16, 1873, p. 2;
167. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Aug. 26, 1873, p. 3;
168. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Oct. 9, 1873, p. 5;
169. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Oct. 10, 1873, p. 3;
170. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: Oct. 20, 1873, p. 3;
171. Items from Springfield Daily Republican as follows: June 16, 1874, p. 6. Sept. 26, 1874, p. 6. Utica Weekly Herald, July 1, 1873, p. 7;
172. New York Times, July 14, 1873, p. 8;
173. J. N. Bagg, comp., Account of the Centennial Celebration of the Town of West Springfield, Mass. (Springfield, Mass., 1874), 80. Chan to North, April 4, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File.
174. Springfield Daily Republican, Jan. 16, 1873, p. 4, Feb. 27, 1873, p. 3, and Oct. 9, 1873, p. 5.
175. Ibid., Feb. 15, 1873, p. 4, and April 28, 1873, p. 3.
176. Stuart Creighton Miller, The Unwelcome Immigrant: The American Image of the Chinese, 1785-1882 (Berkeley, 1969).
177. Chan to North, Jan. 7, 18, 1873, Chan Lai-sun 1850 File;
178. Springfield Daily Republican, June 7, 1873, p. 4.
179. Ibid., May 19, 1873, p. 8, June 9, 1873, p. 8, and June 16, 1873, p. 2.
180. Hartford Evening Post, Aug. 28, 1873, p. 2.
181. Membership records, South Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass.;
182. Springfield Daily Republican, June 9, 1873, p. 8,
183. and July 7, 1873, p. 2;
184. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Oct. 28, 1874, p. 3. The South Congregational Church possesses a copy of the photograph of the cornerstone laying. The Springfield Daily Republican, in its account of the ceremony (July 21, 1873, p. 3), uncharacteristically failed to mention the presence of the Zeng family.
185. Springfield Daily Republican, Oct. 3, 1872, p. 2, and Jan. 15, 1873, p. 8.
186. Ibid., April 9, 1873, p. 2, June 30, 1873, p. 2, and Nov. 17, 1873, p. 3;
187. Qi Zhaoxi, "You Meizhou riji," 238;
188. "Bro Tsung Lai Shun," 180;
189. Lynn Dumenil, Freemasonry and American Culture, 1880-1930 (Princeton, N.J., 1984), 3, 9.
190. Springfield Daily Republican, March 12, 1873, p. 2.
191. On the Sumner Lodge, see Moses King, ed., King's Handbook of Springfield, Massachusetts (Springfield, Mass., 1884), 274;
192. on black Freemasonry, see Loretta J. Williams, Black Freemasonry and Middle-Class Realities (Columbia, Mo., 1980),
193. and William A. Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks in a White Society: Prince Hall Freemasonry in America (Berkeley, 1975). According to Muraskin, Middle-Class Blacks, 41, in the late nineteenth century "the group from which [Prince Hall] Masonry chose its adherents tended to be light in complexion." The Fifteenth Amendment extended voting rights to black males.
194. Pittsburgh Evening Leader, Dec. 20, 1874, p. 5.
195. Ibid., Dec. 20, 1874, p. 5;
196. New York Times, Dec. 31, 1874, p. 8;
197. Springfield Daily Republican, Aug. 23, 1875, p. 6;
198. Steven A. Leibo, "The Sino-European Educational Missions, 1875-1886," Asian Profile, 16 (1988), 442-444;
199. Ba Sidi [Marianne Bastid-Brugière], "Qingmo fu-Ou de liuxue shengmen-Fuzhou chuanzhengju yinjin jindai jishu de qianqian houhou" (Students in Europe at the end of the Qing: the story of how the Fuzhou Navy Yard introduced modern technology), Xinhai geming shi congkan [Collected essays on the history of the 1911 Revolution], 8 (1991), 191-193. It should be noted that neither Steven A. Leibo nor Marianne Bastid mentions Zeng Laishun in their respective accounts of the Chinese educational mission to Europe. I am grateful to Marianne Bastid for making her article available to me.
200. Robert L. Irick, Ch'ing Policy, 301, 384-385;
201. Desnoyers, "'The Thin Edge of the Wedge,"' 255;
202. Springfield Daily Republican, Oct. 26, 1875, p. 5;
203. North-China Herald, June 7, 1895, p. 853.
204. Springfield Daily Republican, Aug. 23, 1875, p. 6, and Oct. 26, 1875, p. 5.
205. Ibid., Sept. 17, 1875, p. 6, Sept. 20, 1875, p. 6, and Sept. 29, 1875, p. 6;
206. Statistics, Class of '77, Sheffield Scientific School, 2;
207. Obituary Record of the Graduates of Yale, 1891, 67;
208. Williams, A History of the Class of Seventy-Nine, 533;
209. membership records, South Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass.
210. North-China Herald, June 7, 1895, pp. 853, 888;
211. Kenneth E. Folsom, Friends, Guests, and Colleagues: The Mu-fu System in the Late Ching Period (Berkeley, 1968), 133;
212. Char, "In Search of the Chinese Name," 107;
213. William N. Armstrong, Around the World with a King (New York, 1904), 91-99. In the North-China Herald, Zeng Laishun is referred to as "Tseng Lai-sun."
214. Hamilton Literary Monthly, April 1893, p. 344;
215. "Bro Tsung Lai Shun," 179;
216. North-China Herald, June 7, 1895, p. 888.
217. [Shanghai] Chinese Recorder, 48 (1917), 258-259.
218. Hamilton Literary Monthly, Feb. 1887, p. 233;
219. Obituary Record of the Graduates of Yale, 1891, 67.
220. North-China Herald, March 25, 1880, p. 253, and April 19, 1895, p. 598;
221. Hamilton Literary Monthly, Feb. 1887, p. 233. My thanks to Caroline Reeves for the 1895 North-China Herald reference.
222. North-China Herald, June 7, 1895, p. 853;
223. Carl T. Smith, Chinese Christians, 74.
224. Caption to photograph of reunion in LaFargue, China's First Hundred after page 124;
225. New York Times, April 23, 1897, p. 3.
226. North-China Herald, Jan. 20, 1917, pp. 135, 163;
227. Williams, A History of the Class of Seventy-Nine, 533;
228. W. W. Yen, "The Chinese Student's View," Overland Monthly, 57 (1911), 496.
229. On the Zilin Hu bao, see Ma Guangren, comp, Shanghai xinwen shi [A history of journalism in Shanghai] (Shanghai, 1996), 85-90, which says that "Spencer T. Laisun" was for a while, in the 1890s, the paper's editor.
230. On Zhan Tianyou, see LaFargue, China's First Hundred, 111-114.
231. Wong, "Cultural Defenders and Brokers";
232. on Kuang Qizhao and his opposition to Chinese exclusion, see New York Tribune, March 22, 1879, p. 2;
233. Andrew Gyory, Closing the Gate: Race, Politics, and the Chinese Exclusion Act (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1998), 258-259.
234. Rudolph, "Chinamen in Yankeedom";
235. Edward J. M. A Rhoads, "'White Labor' vs. 'Coolie Labor': The 'Chinese Question' in Pennsylvania in the 1870s," Journal of American Ethnic History, 21 (2002), 3-32.
236. Springfield Daily Republican, April 28, 1873, p. 3. The two sets of photographs of Zeng referred to are his portraits taken by Thomas Houseworth in San Francisco in September 1872 and the group photograph taken at the laying of the cornerstone at Springfield's South Congregational Church in July 1873.
237. Springfield Daily Republican, Feb. 26, 1875, p. 6;
238. Harper's Weekly, 22 (May 18, 1878), 396.
239. Paul A. Cohen, Between Tradition and Modernity, chapter 9, especially pp. 260-263.