Rong Hong's Autobiography

Author: Rong Hong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The process of China's journey toward modernization is inseparable from the study of Westerners by Chinese people. Rong Hong was one of the earliest Chinese people to receive "Western learning" in the West after the Opium War. His aspiration was to "introduce Western knowledge to China, enabling China to gradually progress toward civilization and prosperity." In his lifetime, Rong Hong accomplished at least two significant achievements: establishing a well-equipped machine factory in China—the Jiangnan Arsenal—and organizing a group of government-funded overseas students—120 young Chinese studying in the United States for four years. These were two major undertakings in China's "Self-Strengthening Movement." A person who loved his homeland from the beginning to the end, yet had to "far away from his homeland" and rest in distant lands, was an individual tragedy, as well as a tragedy of his time.
Recommended for the following readers:
- Those currently studying abroad or preparing to study abroad
- University students, scientists, and middle school students
- Scholars of Sino-Western cultural exchange history
- Researchers of Sino-US relations
- All experts in cultural history and educational history
- Those who are determined to "seek the welfare of China"
The first five chapters outline the author's early education before going to the United States and his continued studies there, first at the School in Manson, Massachusetts, and later at Yale University. The sixth chapter begins with the author returning to China eight years after leaving. Western education, which has long been seen as a symbol of Western civilization, would be strange if it could not change the fundamental inner temperament of an Easterner, making him feel as if he were from another world when facing people with entirely different emotions and manners. My situation was exactly the same. However, my patriotic spirit and love for my compatriots did not diminish; on the contrary, these sentiments were strengthened by compassion. Therefore, the following chapters are dedicated to explaining the author's painstaking efforts to complete the plan of sending students abroad. This was a manifestation of the author's eternal love for China and, in his view, the most practical way to reform and revitalize China.