Tun Yen Liang and Family
SubjectPortrait of
Tun Yen Liang
(1858 - 1924)
SubjectPortrait of
Che Chiang Liang
(Chinese)
Date1913
MediumPhotography; gelatin silver print on paper
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Carolyn Ellis
Object number1984.132.1
DescriptionFour Chinese people, three men and a woman, sit outside on the steps with a dog. The men are dressed in western style suits with neckties. The woman wears a light colored dress with light stockings and heeled shoes. The man at the front right is Tun Yen Liang, a graduate of Hartford Public High School with the Chinese Educational Mission program. The younger man at top right is his son Che Chiang Liang, who lived with the Martin Welles family in Hartford for a time.
Label TextTun Yen Liang studied in Connecticut as part of the Chinese Educational Mission. He had been in school with Martin Welles, both in Hartford High School and at Yale University. Tun Yen was Chinese diplomat, serving as Minister of the United States in 1907, and both Vice-President and President of the Foreign Office in Peking. Liang was also an advocate for Chinese education in American institutions.
The Chinese Educational Mission (1872-1881) in Hartford, Connecticut, was the fulfillment of a dream of Yung Wing. He wanted Chinese youth to study American technology to improve China’s engineering and infrastructure. Yung Wing came to the United States in 1847 to study at Monson Academy in Massachusetts, and at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. It was upon his return to China that he began planning to Chinese students to America.
A group of thirty students ranging in age from ten to fourteen arrived in Hartford in 1872. They lived with host families, attended local schools, and in the summer studied Chinese classics at the Mission’s headquarters at 352 Collins Street, Hartford. In 1881 the Chinese government recalled the students because they thought they were becoming too Americanized.
The Chinese Educational Mission (1872-1881) in Hartford, Connecticut, was the fulfillment of a dream of Yung Wing. He wanted Chinese youth to study American technology to improve China’s engineering and infrastructure. Yung Wing came to the United States in 1847 to study at Monson Academy in Massachusetts, and at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. It was upon his return to China that he began planning to Chinese students to America.
A group of thirty students ranging in age from ten to fourteen arrived in Hartford in 1872. They lived with host families, attended local schools, and in the summer studied Chinese classics at the Mission’s headquarters at 352 Collins Street, Hartford. In 1881 the Chinese government recalled the students because they thought they were becoming too Americanized.
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