Mr. Gardner was a famous architect in Springfield, Massachusetts. He hosted four Chinese students in his household in turn, including the boy who later became the first Premier of the Republic of China --Tang Shaoyi.

Professor David Bartlett had once accommodated Rong Hong. Although he had passed away, Mrs. Bartlett and their three daughters once again opened their door to four young Chinese students. These four kids later became eminent political figures in the late Qing Dynasty. They were Liang Dunyan, who was the assistant to Zhang Zhidong and was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs; Cai Shaoji, who aided Yuan Shikai and later became the first president of Pei-yang University at Tientsin; Huang Kaijia, who started as secretary to Sheng Xuan Huai and once worked as the manager of the Investment Promotion Bureau; and Wu Yangzeng, who devoted his whole life to the mining industry as the Chief Engineer of Kaiping Mining Company

Dr. Northrop, the Commissioner of Education for Connecticut, issued a letter to all those who taught the young Chinese students. He hoped that besides due care and concern, they must supervise and urge the students to review their Chinese lessons and encourage them to love their motherland. And their physical welfare must be specifically attended to.

From 1872 until the early fall of 1875, as was planned, altogether 120 young students were sent to America, and dispersed over New England, in more than twenty American households in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

In northeastern America the group of six states is called New England. Small in size, New England played a large role in American history. Benjamin Franklin, honored as one of the country’s founding fathers, once drew a cartoon of a snake representing the union of the original thirteen states comprising the republic. New England was the head of the snake.

Here we are in New England, the nexus of American higher education, searching for the footprints of the Boy Students. The Historical Society of Connecticut has the richest resources to tap for our search.

These clothes and pictures left by the Chinese students were handed down from one generation to another within those American families. Eventually they were donated to the local Historical Society.

The most surprising collection there consists of articles and press reports on the Chinese Educational Mission and the Chinese students, all transcribed by hand.

This impressive story of transcription began in 1872, when the first group of students arrived, and lasted into the 1940s. A senior librarian of the Historical Society, Mrs. Kihn transcribed these articles. Now she is in her 90s. When we arrived, she was unavailable for an interview. But we did meet her colleague, Mrs. Frances Hoxie who worked there with Ms Kihn for over 60 years.

An accidental discovery by these two librarians led to half a century’s devotion and hard work. From a time when there were no printers through to the age of the copier Mrs. Kihn and her colleague clipped, transcribed and collected all the stories on Chinese students from the newspapers of those days. Mrs. Kihn, who read no Chinese, even tried to compile an index for the 120 Chinese students. Thanks to their meticulous efforts, today we can patch together piece by piece the jigsaw puzzle of the life of these Chinese students more than a century ago.

The press seemed intrigued by these Chinese boys and by the Chinese Educational Mission’s project. In 1874, The Hartford Evening Post reported that the first two detachments of students were generally pretty healthy. As a group, the newspaper reported, the students were sick for less than a total of two weeks since their arrival.

This newspaper also reported how the Chinese Educational Mission celebrated the Chinese New Year. All the Chinese teachers put on traditional festive attire—a kind of thick, gray silk gown, with a dark blue satin waistband, black caps on their heads and light black shoes on feet. The hall of the Chinese Educational Mission was adorned with selected floral decorations, and the walls bore splendid Chinese painting and calligraphy. For supper a sumptuous banquet was prepared to indulge the guests with oysters on the half-shell, fruit pudding and cream, salad and Chinese tea. The Chinese tea was served delicately in real china, only meant to be held by a calm and experienced hand.

In the Fall of 2002, we unexpectedly discovered the house where one of the students Tan Yaoxun once lived in a town called Colebrook, 40 km from Hartford, the capital of Connecticut.

Tan Yaoxun belonged to the first delegation of students. He was from Xiangshan in Guangdong. He lodged with the Carrington family in Colebrook. The Carrington family owns vast fields and many cottages, and has a two hundred year-old history. Even now the Carrington estate is still well preserved in the forests near the town.

Colebrook is a town of old-fashioned simplicity, untouched by time with its stores and churches from 100 years ago still standing intact. Like many other American cities, vast collections of historical evidence and artifacts of the city’s history are retained in Colebrook’s Historical Society.

A staff member of the town museum, Robert Grigg, demonstrated to us the tool that Tan Yaoxun used when he helped Mrs. Carrington with farm work.

Grigg then brought us Mrs. Carrington’s two diaries kept by the museum.

The two diaries were dated 1880 and 1881, and Tan Yaoxun’s name can be seen everywhere inside.

Editor:Ge Ting