Customer Reviews

Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I began to read this book raw, not knowing anything about the story or the book's structure.

At first, I could not put it down (though I had to between commutes). As each chapter unfolded, I wondered why there was no statue for Yung Wing? Does every Yale student know his story? Is there a club named for him? My questions were unending. This book needs to be required reading at a time when modern China is growing in power and wealth each week. Not only does it tell a gripping story of a quest for education, but it recreates the environment in which the Chinese lived in America 150 years ago.

Few American children learn in our schools about how many thousands of Chinese built the transcontinental railroads, or how they were then trashed after its completion. Few learn about the taxes that were imposed only on Asians, the riots and lynchings against the Chinese in California, the Chinese Exclusionary Act and other ugly acts.

This book is simply an amazing story that must be experienced, and it touches upon all these events of the early Chinese experience in the United States. The reader learns history through the adventures of a group of Chinese students, who one would have assumed would be anonymous players in the events of the world. But my assumption were wrong. Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Herbert Hoover, China, Japan, the emperors, the Great Western powers, and more all play a role in this book and interacted with the students.

Through the lives of a handful or two of these 120 students, the reader is present at the most important points of Chinese history from 1840 to WWII. The book opens in America prior to the U.S. Civil War. Yung Wing has been sent, in his scholar's robes and long queue pony tail to New England for prep school and college. It is he, the braided, robed Chinese student, who scores a touchdown at Yale to win the game for the freshmen against the sophomores. An unheard of victory. For the next 100 pages we follow the life of Yung Wing as he studies and excels at Yale, returns to China on a VERY slow boat to China, deals with Mandarins and revolutionaries, and faces off with colonial Brits, Scots, Americans and other non Chinese. His courage and tenacity are without end. Can you imagine a person coming to New England to buy equipment for a Chinese factory, learning of the outbreak of the Civil War, and decided to volunteer for the Union Army while he waits for his order to be manufactured? What kind of person would do this today? Years later, when he convinces governors and ultimately the Emperor to allow 120 Chinese boys to go to New England for decades of school and work, the story continues as we follow Yung Wing and his charges in New Haven.

In the next section of the book the new students acclimate to America and excel. We follow their academic progress and their return to China and contribution to its wars, changes, revolutions, and modernization. You will not look at opium, the Boxer Rebellion, France, Mao's revolution, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Tibet, England or America in the same way again. Any teen reading this book will learn how the proactive tenacious leadership of a single person can change world events. This was definitely my favorite read of the past 12 months.

Highly readable, it is amazing to me how much I learned easily thanks to the superb writing of these authors. The incredible dedication of Yung Wing is an inspiration.

I found myself intrigued by the decisions that went into sending young children to a foreign country, awed at the sacrifice of their parents, appalled the incredible ugliness of how San Francisco treated its Chinese immigrants unfortunate enough to live there, proud of the kindness and care the New Englanders gave to the children they fostered and the quality of the education they received even though it was abruptly cut short and fascinated by the internal workings of the Chinese government. The tales of these young men, and their roles in the politics of the time kept me reading and thinking and reading some more. The intrigue woven throughout this book is spell-binding.

It was a blessed day when I was given the opportunity to read this book. It is unforgettable.

*Note: This book was provided through the GoodReads First Read program with the expectation of an honest review. My opinions are my own.

I gave this book 5 stars, but toyed with giving it only 4 ... The book starts out with a bang and maintains an extraordinary pace for most of the book, at which point the students return to China and necessarily take up separate lives. While they are in the US their individual stories are so much fun to read about, and the history of China was very interesting and necessary for the full story. However, when all of the boys have returned to China the authors seem to give a detailed political history of that huge country ... but the book was suipposed to be about the education of the "fortunate sons" who came to America.

Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the acclimation of these young boys into such a different culture, and everyone involved in that effort is admirable, especially the instructors and the foster families.

I love *most* history, but had almost no desire to read about Chinese history. I, like many westerners, just never thought about it. When I saw this book prominently displayed in our library, it seemed a random enough topic that it might hold my interest.

I was right. The book is good from the very first pages. I had read positive reviews which were encouraging, along with a negative review which said there were errors in it. From what I could tell these errors (if they exist) were minor. In fact, the gist of the book seems very much in order (take a look at the footnotes and bibliography) and does correspond with other history books.

Because of Fortunate Sons, I now actually can claim an interest in Chinese/Japanese/Korean history (since the book ultimately involves all three cultures). I briefly discussed the book with a young Chinese acquaintance, and she had no clue about the whole Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) (guess it might not be part of Chinese history courses?). She was fascinated and intends on reading the book.

I give it a hearty five stars and purchased it for my daughter who had never heard of the CEM either.

Although very readable, there are a number of discrepancies (The Gardners were in Springfield, not Hartford, just one example of several), and the entire book is written with a bias; underestimating the career of the comissioner of the Mission, Chen Lanpin, in order to boost the image of the assistant commissioner, Wing. Wing's accomplishments are worthy of respect and praise without having to unfairly criticize those who did not agree with Wing's ideas. I feel these authors, in addition to their biased account mainly obtained from Wing's autobiography, neglected to thoroughly research the subject in order to avoid the numerous mistakes in the book. Although it was fun to read, those who know little of the subject will be misinformed.

I have known some of the names mentioned in the book, but the history of their education in America is eye opening reading. It's interesting how well they were received while in America, even against the background of anti Chinese sentiments. I highly recommend this book.

This is a well written documentary. If you are interested in historical

and cultural information about China and it's US influence, you will enjoy

this book. It is easy to read and the story propels you forward.

One of the questions that I've always had about China in the late 19th century, was whether anyone had tried to do what the Japanese did after the Meiji Restoration. It does seem that some one tried but was defeated by the 'mandarins' of the Imperial Court and the Dowager Empress Cixi, who was the worst thing that happened to China. Unlike Queen Elizabeth who is a constitutional monarch, or Czarina Catherine who was an absolute ruler, Cixi ruled from behind a screen and behind a child emperor. Though great at court politics and intrigues, she had no idea of military power nor did she ever have a favorite with military prowess. Overly protected from the outside world she ruled over an empire of which she had no reality to compare to.

In the latter 19th century a group called the "Chinese Educational Mission" succeeded in getting permission to send 120 boys (from 11 to 14) to America (mostly Connecticut and New England) where the would spend fifteen years being educated in the American system, training to be engineers and military men. Unfortunately, though many were able to graduated from High School (most at the top of their class) and going on to Yale and Harvard, none were ever able to enroll in an American military college. The whole experiment was closed down after less than ten years and the boys brought home before most had enrolled or finished college.

The success that the boys had after returning to China was both byzantine and uneven, many did make their marks on the first republic and in modernizing the transportation (mostly railroads) and naval areas. In the end, none of them made any major contributions as they were unable to rise to positions of power in the Nationalist government of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek. Interesting story.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient CivilizationNew York City Department of Education honored Yung Wing by dedicating the first city school named after a Chinese the Yung Wing Elementary School twenty-five years ago. Located in Chinatown at the intersection of Bowery and Division, it is in the Confucius Plaza Housing Development. There is a statue of Confucius on the corner, opposite a statue of Commissioner Lin who said "No to Drugs" during the Opium War with Britain.

I look forward to reading this book.