My Life in China and America · Chapter
V: My College Days explained
Yung Wing recounts his time at Yale College, detailing the financial struggles, academic challenges, and his growing resolve to use his education to reform China.
What happens
Yung Wing recounts his time at Yale College, detailing the financial struggles, academic challenges, and his growing resolve to use his education to reform China. He refuses to pledge himself to missionary work, instead seeking freedom to serve China in broader ways. Despite hardships, he perseveres, earning prizes and support, and graduates as the first Chinese student from a first-class American college, with a clear mission to bring Western education to China.
Themes in this chapter
Education as a Tool for National Reform
Yung Wing sees education as the key to regenerating China, aiming to provide the same opportunities to the rising generation.
The West as Model and Mentor
Yung Wing's college experience in America shapes his vision for China's modernization, with Western education as the model.
Corruption and Personal Integrity
Yung Wing refuses to sign the missionary pledge, prioritizing his integrity and freedom to serve China over financial gain.
Characters to notice
- Yung Wing
Reflects on his college years, struggles with finances and academics, and his determination to use education for China's regeneration.
- Mr. Brown
Supports Yung Wing by arranging financial aid from the Ladies' Association in Savannah and advising him on his college plans.
- Rev. Charles Hammond
Helped prepare Yung Wing for college and supported his decision to decline the missionary pledge.
Key passages
“The more one knows, the more he suffers and is consequently less happy; the less one knows, the less he suffers, and hence is more happy. But this is a low view of life, a cowardly feeling and unworthy of a being bearing the impress of divinity.”
Knowledge brings suffering and unhappiness, but this perspective is unworthy of a divine being; instead, one should embrace the responsibility that comes with education.
Yung Wing grapples with the burden of knowledge but rejects a cynical view, affirming his commitment to use education for good.
“I was determined that the rising generation of China should enjoy the same educational advantages that I had enjoyed; that through western education China might be regenerated, become enlightened and powerful.”
He resolved to bring Western education to China's youth so that China could be transformed into an enlightened and powerful nation.
This statement encapsulates Yung Wing's life mission and the guiding star of his ambition.