Y. L. Chin (金岳霖)

Today I cover another Boxer Indemnity Scholar, and indeed another famous Chinese scholar in general: Yueh Lin Chin (金岳霖, pinyin Jīn YuèLín), who attended Tsing Hua University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University, and was one of the principal founders of the study of Western logic in China. He is still famous in China today, not only for his books on philosophy, which are still read in schools, but for his interesting personal life.

Historical Text: “Tsing Hua College Commencement”, Peking Daily News, 28 June 1915, pg. 4

Today’s Historical Text is a news item from the English-language news in China. The article is about the graduation exercises at Tsinghua University in June of 1915. A note: about 50 non-associated people from Peking attended this graduation, just because they were interested in Tsinghua as a school . . . something completely unheard of at a modern graduation from a US university!

Historical Text: Chinese Students’ Monthly, Vol. 11 No. 1 (Nov. 1915), pgs. 65-66

Today’s Historical Text is from the Chinese Students’ Monthly from 1915 and focuses on the changing role and policies at Tsinghua University. Founded just 4 years earlier with Boxer Indemnity funds, Tsinghua was meant to prepare Chinese students to study in US universities. It later added a university department of its own, and is currently one of the most prestigious universities in China.

Miss Y. C. Liang (梁逸羣)

This week I’ll be profiling one of the female Indemnity Scholars: Miss Yat-Kwan Liang (pinyin Liáng Yìqún, Cantonese Jyutping Loeng4 Jat6kwan4). Beginning in 1914, the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship exams were opened to female students every other year. The number was limited; in 1914 only 10 scholarships were awarded to women. 1916 was the second year that female students were sent to the US to study, and Y. C. Liang was one of 10 women that earned a scholarship that year (Shen Bao, 1 Sept 1916, pg. 10).