Yung Wing (1828-1912) was the first Chinese student to graduate from a North American university. After graduating from Yale University in 1854, Yung was consumed by the issue of China’s political, economic, and social stagnation. So influenced by his own education, Yung convinced the Qing Dynasty government that western education in science and military technique could greatly advance China. In 1872, Yung organized the Chinese Education Mission and sent 120 young students to study in New England for a period of 8 years. Four years later, he married Mary Kellogg, with whom he had two children. But his mission suffered tension on both ends：American sponsors rejected the mission’s applications to Military and Naval Academies on the basis of race, and his Chinese overseers, who were already suspicious of Americanization, pulled the plug on the program after Wing’s promise of military education failed. Yung strongly supported reform in China, which put him in great political peril – after fleeing to Hong Kong, he attempted to return to the U.S. but in 1902 was told his U.S. citizenship had been revoked under the Naturalization Act of 1870. Yung was able to sneak into the U.S. in time to see his youngest son graduate from Yale, where he remained active in high-level Chinese revolutionary politics and was even requested by Sun Yat Sen to help build the new Republic of China in 1911. While Yung was unable to complete his mission of bringing Western education to China, he left a legacy of Chinese education in the U.S.: Yung’s donation to Yale of 12,000 volumes from his own collection would found the core of its world-renowned East Asian Library.
容闳（1828-1912）是第一位从北美大学毕业的中国学生。1854年从耶鲁大学毕业后，容闳深受中国的政治、经济和社会停滞问题的困扰。因此，受自己教育的影响，容闳说服清朝政府，西方的科学和军事技术教育可以大大促进中国的发展。1872年，容闳组织中国教育代表团，派遣120名青年学生赴新英格兰学习，历时8年。四年后，他与美国人玛丽·凯洛格结婚，并育有两个孩子。但是他的使命受到两方面的夹击：美国赞助人以种族为由拒绝了该项目向军事和海军院校的申请，而他的中国上级本来就对美国化持怀疑态度，在容闳的军事教育承诺失败以后，他们就终止了该项目。容闳强烈支持中国的改革，这给他带来了巨大的政治风险。在逃往香港后，容闳试图返回美国，但在1902年，他被告知由于1870年实施的《归化法案》，他的美国国籍已被撤销。容闳偷偷潜入美国，及时见证了他的小儿子从耶鲁大学毕业。在那里，容闳仍然活跃在中国革命高层政治活动中，甚至在1911年一度被孙中山邀约，帮助建立新的中华民国。尽管容闳未能完成将西方教育带入中国的使命，但他在美国留下了中国教育的遗产：容闳从自己的藏书中捐出了1万2千册给耶鲁大学，这成为了耶鲁举世闻名的东亚图书馆的核心基础。
Countdown to the TCS NYC Marathon on November 3, 2019: 216 Days.
2019年是美国第一条横贯大陆铁路建成150周年，为了纪念第一批华人来美建设这条铁路所做出的巨大贡献， MOCA将其2019 TCS NYC Marathon的活动命名为 MOCA Spike 150 – Running Forward With Our Stories！ 鼓励大家通过马拉松公益跑，全国线上接力，以及一天一个故事的方式讲述150个华人的历史故事，敬请大家持续关注， 讲出华人自己的故事，回顾过去，立足现在，展望未来，共同书写美国历史，使之更加充实完整。