Rong Hong's Autobiography (My Life in China and America)

Author: Shi Ni
Translator's Note:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: In the arduous journey of life, one must be a dreamer to accomplish what is possible. We come into this world not just to toil monotonously like animals for mere survival. I worked hard for the sake of education and thus believed I should make the best use of the limited knowledge I had learned. It would be better to benefit my nation than to benefit myself personally. I constantly changed and altered my professions just to understand my endurance and to figure out how I could become a blessing to China. —Yung Wing
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 City, Massachusetts, and later at Yale University. The sixth chapter begins with the author returning to China eight years after leaving. If Western education, which has long been seen as a symbol of Western civilization, cannot 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 behaviors, would that not be strange? My situation was exactly the case. However, my patriotic spirit and love for my compatriots did not wane; on the contrary, they were strengthened by compassion. Therefore, the following chapters are dedicated to explaining how the author painstakingly completed the plan to send students abroad. This was an expression of the author's eternal love for China and also the author's belief that it was the most practical way to reform and revitalize China.