TOMORROW is the 180th anniversary of the birth of Zhuhai native son Rong Hong (Yung Wing). To mark the event, The Zhuhai Daily is publishing a special edition of two pages, plus this story.

  Born in Nanping Town of what today is Zhuhai in 1828, Yung Wing attended Macao Missionary School under the tutelage of Yale graduate the Rev Samuel Robbins Brown. At 19, Yung Wing arrived in the US with Brown to enrol in Monson Academy in Massachusetts before entering Yale College. At Yale, he sang in the choir, played football on the gridiron, was a member of the Boat Club and won academic prizes for English composition, before graduating in 1854.

  After returning to China, Yung Wing established the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM), via which 120 Chinese students were sent to the US in the 1870s. Most of these students went on to play important roles in China's modernization.

  The following activities were held in China and the US to commemorate Yung Wing over the past few years:

Portrait for Hu Jintao

  Yale presented PRC President Hu Jintao with two gifts representing the university's ties to China -- which are the longest and deepest of any North American university -- a portrait of and a book from Yung Wing, Yale College Class of 1854, when President Hu and Yale University President Richard C Levin participated in a Book Exchange Ceremony on 21 April 2006. The occasion symbolized both the 156-year old tradition of academic exchange between China and Yale and also the launch of a new era of library and scholarly collaboration between China and Yale, according to M2 Presswire.

  The Book Exchange Ceremony preceded President Hu Jintao's major address on the campus of Yale University. The book given to President Hu is a typical compilation of Confucian teachings, representative of common volumes from Yung Wing's lifetime and those held by Yale.

First Chinese graduate

  A portrait of Yung Wing as a Yale graduate -- the first person from China to graduate from an American university -- was unveiled by Levin and Zhang Hongxi, consul general of China, in a ceremony on 5 May 2000, in a garden of the President's House on Hillhouse Avenue.

  The portrait, painted by New Haven resident Judith Reeve, is based on a lithograph of Yung in his Yale class book. It was commissioned by the Yale-China Association with contributions from members of the Yung family, United Technologies Corp and other individuals.

  "We at Yale are proud that the first Chinese student to receive a baccalaureate degree in this country attended our university," said Levin. "And we are proud of the thousands of outstanding Chinese students and scholars who have followed him and contributed so much to the life of the university. Some three or four hundred Chinese students and visiting scholars now study at Yale each year, constituting our largest contingent of foreign students and scholars."

  Frank Yung, a grandson of Yung Wing who flew in from Hong Kong for the ceremony, said of his grandfather: "Yung Wing's vision is well known. He wanted to see China catch up on the Western nations through the modern sciences. He wanted it possible for the rising generations in China to receive the same level of education he had received in the US. Ching Dynasty China needed a reform in education."

(Courtesy Yale Bulletin & Calendar)

  In 2004, upon the 150th anniversary of Yung Wing’s graduation from the prestigious American university, various celebrations were held in both China and America to commemorate the event and later accomplishments.

Anniversary in Beijing

  On 3 August 2004, the Ministry of Education and Yale cosponsored the 150th anniversary of Yung Wing’s graduation at the second Chinese-Foreign University Presidents Forum in Beijing.

  Levin spoke highly of Yung Wing’s accomplishments in initiating cultural exchanges between China and America in his speech. Vice Educational Minister Zhang Xinsheng also highly praised Yung Wing for his immense contributions to the early modernization of China and the devotion of his entire life to introducing western learning to China and Chinese culture to the West.

  About 160 presidents and educational experts from Chinese and overseas universities, including Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Cambridge and Oxford were present. Huang Xiaodong, president of the Zhuhai International Culture Association, was present at the invitation of Yale University along with officials from the Information Office of the municipal government and journalists from the Zhuhai Daily and Zhuhai TV.

Celebration at Yale

  A series of events at Yale from September 2004 to June 2005 celebrated the 150th anniversary of the graduation of Yung Wing.

  The Asian American Cultural Centre and its affiliated student agencies had organized the series, which open September 27 with a lecture titled "Yellow in a White World" by Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh. The talk was free and open to the public, with Yale College Dean Peter Salovey offering introductory remarks. The Yale campus series in honour of Yung featured two events per semester.

Activities in Zhuhai

  The Zhuhai municipal government celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Yung Wing’s Graduation from Yale University during an Academic Conference on Yung Wing held at the Zhuhai Holiday Resort Hotel on 17 November 2004.

  More than 80 descendants of CEM students sent by the Qing government to study in the US and 50 senior officials from the Education Ministry and provincial departments and academic scholars attended the conference. It was reportedly the biggest ever gathering of descendants of the CEM students to study in the US.

  Hartford Mayor Eddie A Perez sent an e-letter with electronic signature to mark the 176th anniversary of Yung Wing’s birth on 17 November 2004. He wrote: “In recognition of Yung Wing’s contributions to the City of Hartford and China, as Mayor of the City of Hartford, on behalf of its citizens and government, I am honoured to proclaim 17 November 2004 as “Yung Wing Day.”

Statue unveiled

  A 12-member delegation led by Zhuhai International Cultural Exchange President Huang Xiaodong was in the US on 21 December 2004 for the unveiling of a bronze statue of Yung Wing.

  The municipal government of Zhuhai had commissioned and donated the likeness. And the dedication was part of the university's celebration of the 150th anniversary of Yung Wing's graduation from Yale.

  Vice President Linda Lorimer opened the unveiling ceremony before nearly 100 scholar and student representatives from Yale and journalists from CCTV, China Radio International, Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily, Phoenix TV, AP, UPI, the New Haven Register, Zhuhai Daily and Zhuhai TV. Alice Hom, principal of New York City’s Yung Wing Public School, also attended.

  Huang Xiaodong gave a speech in English at the ceremony. Salovey, Professor Beatrice S Bartlett of the Yale Department of History, and Association of Chinese Students & Scholars Vice President Huang Cong, also delivered speeches.