Yung Wing

Yung Wing 容閎
Born	Nanping, Xiangshan, Guangdong, Qing Empire (in modern-day Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai)
Died	21 April 1912(1912-04-21) (aged 83) Hartford, Connecticut
Spouse(s)	Mary Kellogg

Yung Wing (simplified Chinese: 容闳; traditional Chinese: 容閎; pinyin: Róng Hóng; Jyutping: Jung4 Wang4; November 17, 1828 – April 21, 1912) was the first Chinese student to graduate from a United States university (Yale College in 1854). He was involved in business transactions between China and the United States and brought students from China to study in the United States on the Chinese Educational Mission. He became a naturalized American citizen, but his status was later revoked under the Naturalization Act of 1870.

Yung Wing is the first-known Chinese student to graduate from a U.S. university. He graduated from Yale College in 1854 where he was a member and librarian of Brothers in Unity, a prominent Yale student literary society. His time at Yale was sponsored by Samuel Robbins Brown (1810–1880). In 1851, at the end of his freshman year, Wing wrote to Albert Booth, a fellow alumnus of Munson Academy and "old Yale, where you have the satisfaction + honor to have gone through." Wing asked for Booth's help in acquiring study materials and stated, "Now you know probably the many disadvantages in which I labor aside from these additional studies." He was a member of the Phi chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. After finishing his studies, Yung Wing returned to Qing Dynasty China and worked with western missionaries as an interpreter. In 1859, he accepted an invitation to the court of the Taiping rebels in Nanjing, but his proposals aimed at increasing the efficiency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were all eventually refused. In 1863, Yung Wing was dispatched to the United States by Zeng Guofan to buy machinery necessary for opening an arsenal in China capable of producing heavy weapons comparable with those of the western powers. The arsenal later became Jiangnan Shipyard.

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