The Chinese Educational Mission (1872-1881) in Hartford, Connecticut, was the fulfillment of a dream of Yung Wing. He wanted Chinese youth to study American technology to improve China’s engineering and infrastructure. Yung Wing came to the United States in 1847 to study at Monson Academy in Massachusetts, and at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. It was upon his return to China that he began planning to Chinese students to America. A group of thirty students ranging in age from ten to fourteen arrived in Hartford in 1872. They lived with host families, attended local schools, and in the summer studied Chinese classics at the Mission’s headquarters at 352 Collins Street, Hartford. In 1881 the Chinese government recalled the students because they thought they were becoming too Americanized.
