Yung Wing

Yung Wing was born in China in 1828 in the Namping village of China. By age 13, Yung studied at the Morrison Educational Society School under the direction of Rev. Samuel Brown (1810-1880), a missionary of East Windsor, Connecticut. In 1846, Yung left China with Brown and two other students for the United States.

Between the years 1847 and 1854, Yung Wing attended and graduated from the Monson Academy (Monson, MA), Hartford Public High School, and Yale University. Yung Wing was the first Chinese student to graduate from a U.S. university.

Yung Wing returned to China in 1855, but it would not be until 1868 under the Burlingame Treaty (where Chinese were given access to public education under US control) that he would find his true purpose in shared education. In the same year, Yung initially proposed bringing students to the United States over a four-year period, to get educated and serve their native China upon their return. By 1872, Yung Wing's proposals were approved by Chinese authorities, and the Chinese Educational Mission was established in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1875, Yung Wing married Mary Louise Kellogg of East Windsor, Connecticut, and they had three children. Yung Wing received his doctorate from Yale University in 1876, and the following year became the chief librarian for the University. Yung Wing established what is credited as the first collection of Chinese books in the United States. In 1878, Yung Wing became second in command at China's first embassy in Washington, DC.

After almost ten years of the Chinese Educational Mission program, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by the United States Congress on May 6, 1882. This Act ulitmately ended the Mission program.

Yung Wing died in 1912.