Although it is very hard to tell the owners of these things, they are reminders of the overseas life of the Chinese students.

Mark Twain published his book, the Adventures of Tom Sawyer in Hartford, in 1876, the year the Centennial Exhibition was held in Philadelphia.

These novels of Mark Twain were mailed from America when Zhan Tianyou came back to China. The books were kept by Zhan’s descendents

The students grew up while reading Mark Twain’s novels, hearing the noises of machines in Hartford, a flourishing industrial New England city.

Chinese students studied at different high schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The students’ performance was so excellent that it astounded the Americans.

Deng Shicong and Chen Juyong won first and second prizes in the Spelling Contest at the West Hartford Public High School

Li Enfu won first prize in English and Greek among the graduates from Hopkins Grammar School. Zhou Chuan’e won first prize in Latin and handwriting.

Cai Tinggan won first prize in the Wadsworth Street Public School Handwriting Contest not more a year after he enrolled.

The local newspaper said that generally the Chinese students adapted well to American education. The overseas education project was so successful that the Chinese government planned to send students UK, France and Germany. The Chinese students set a good example for American young people.

William Lyon Phelps was in the same school as the Chinese students. In his autobiography published in 1939, he wrote a chapter entitled “Chinese Schoolmates”.

The Chinese students organized their own ‘oriental’ baseball team.

Hartford Public High School’s best pitcher, Liang Dunyan, became a foreign affairs minister in the Qing Government.

Liang Cheng, a member of the Andover Baseball Team, later the Chinese envoy to the United States. He made the US return part of Gengzi Indemnity .

Deng Shicong became the Second Mate Artillery on the flag warship “Ding Yuan” of the Northern Navy.

Cao Jiaxiang’s life was closely related with guns. Later, he was nominated as the Chief Artillery Mate on the warship “Zhenyuan” of the Northern Navy. He also laid the foundation for the modern Chinese police system.

He became the chief engineer at the China Kaiping Coal Mine.

This senior official who was then at Tianjin was very concerned about the one hundred students sent abroad by his teacher Zeng Guofan and himself during the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor.

Li Hongzhang offered numberous instructions to Chinese Educational mission in his letters to them. Those unpublished letters are kept at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Editor:Ge Ting