Late Qing Dynasty 120 Young children went to America. Why did 94 children finally come back?

From 1872 to 1875, at that time, the Qing Dynasty chose to send children aged 10 to 16 to study in the United States. These people are the earliest formal overseas students in China. They originally planned to study in 15, but for various reasons, they planned to study abroad.

During the Westernization Movement, due to the proposal of Hong Rong, Zeng Guofan's chief of staff, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang jointly wrote a letter asking for a "study abroad education plan". According to the plan, the Qing dynasty sent 120 international students to the United States to study science, technology, engineering and other disciplines urgently needed for westernization. Considering the language problem, we finally decided to choose children aged from 10 to 16 to go abroad. Starting from 1872, 30 children will be sent to 1875 every year, with a fixed number of years 15, and all the funds will be paid by the court.

Today, many people should strive for such conditions, but at that time, most people were very afraid of studying abroad and felt extremely dangerous. At that time, the Qing dynasty still regarded the United States as a wild and uncivilized place, not to mention sending teenage children abroad 15 years. It is precisely because most families find it difficult to accept it that Yung Yung worked hard, and I don't know how long it took him to get enough international students from the southeast coast.

Completely different from their frightened parents, these young children studying abroad were very excited and curious about the outside world at first, but after arriving in the United States, various difficulties followed, first of all, language problems. These children who have not been trained in English can't communicate with Americans at all. In order to learn the language better, these young children are scattered in local families in the United States. Different customs and habits often make these children blush and feel at a loss.

However, many problems still exist. The Qing court banned these young children from changing their minds, which naturally destroyed their feelings with their host family. Besides, they are not used to western food. The newly arrived young children in the Qing Dynasty were often looked at differently by people around them because of the problem of dressing. In order to study as soon as possible, young children need to study very hard. As a result, after the first batch of young children studying in the United States in the Qing Dynasty arrived in the United States, they were waiting for a boring and lack of freedom to study abroad.

However, with the passage of time, these smart, studious and diligent children in China quickly integrated into the local life, and generally achieved excellent results, and their English level quickly improved to the level of being able to communicate smoothly with the local people. It is precisely because of this that young children studying in the United States in the Qing Dynasty quickly adapted to local life. It turns out that the confusion and inadaptability of overseas students in the Qing Dynasty gradually disappeared, and they also made many friends in the local area, and everything was on the right track.

At the same time, however, there were problems in the Qing Dynasty. At the beginning, the main purpose of sending young children to the United States in the Qing Dynasty was to learn American advanced technology on the premise of maintaining traditional culture and various systems, but these young children studying in the United States quickly accepted western culture and thinking and became more and more Americanized. Gradually, young children studying in the United States joined the church, and even cut off their braids and refused the clothes of the Qing Dynasty. A series of "defections" made the Qing Dynasty more and more afraid.

After some arguments and struggles, the Qing court finally decided to withdraw all young children studying in the United States in 188 1. In fact, these young children will be able to enter the university in four or five years, but their fruits are about to mature, but they suddenly miscarry.

In the end, 94 children from 120 came back, and the rest were mainly in three situations:

First, he died in America.

The young children who came to the United States for the first time fell ill because of acclimatization and too much academic pressure. At that time, medical conditions were still limited, so there were not many young people who died young. Pan Mingrui, a gifted boy, was admitted to Rizal Institute of Technology at the age of 15, and died of serious illness one year later.

Second, be sent back early.

The Qing Dynasty spent a lot of money on these young children studying in the United States, with an average of about 62,000 silver per person per year. This is not a small sum. It turns out that the Qing Dynasty sent overseas students to go abroad for westernization. If international students don't do their work well, they will inevitably waste a lot of resources. Therefore, the Qing dynasty would regularly let them accept supervision and assessment, and unqualified international students would be sent back in advance to stop them in time.

Third, I insist on not going back to school.

Young children studying in the United States in the Qing Dynasty were generally younger and more susceptible. During their stay in the United States, they questioned the original features of the Qing Dynasty, but they became more and more close to western culture and were extremely dissatisfied with the backwardness of the Qing Dynasty. When the Qing Dynasty asked young children to return to China, Yung Kwai and others refused to return to China to continue their studies in the United States.