In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

5 The American Host Families While the first cohort of CEM students was making its way to the United States in the summer of 1872, Yung Wing, who had been designated the associate commissioner, had gone on ahead to prepare for its arrival. Earlier in the year Yung had written to his old philosophy professor at Yale, Noah Porter, who, unbeknownst to Yung, had just been elevated to the position of president of the university. In his letter Yung informed Porter of the broad outlines of the CEM project and asked him to consult with two other professors for suggestions on how best to carry it out.1 As he went from New York to Springfield to welcome the first detachment, Yung stopped at New Haven and called upon one of these professors, James Hadley, who put him in touch with Birdsey G. Northrop, secretary of the Board of Education for the state of Connecticut. A fellow graduate of Yale and an ordained Congregational minister, Northrop advised Yung (as Yung later wrote) “to distribute and locate the students in New England families, either by twos or fours to each family, where they could be cared for and at the same time instructed, till they were able to join classes in graded schools.”2 This seems to have been what Yung himself had had in mind all along (based on his personal experience in Monson), and this was what he proceeded to carry out. Where in New England were the CEM boys sent? Who were the families that took them in, and why? How did the students get along with their host families? The CEM’s first task was to identify families who wished to participate in the program. In mid-September 1872, with less than a week before the first detachment arrived in Springfield, Secretary Northrop issued a call, on Yung Wing’s behalf, for “cultured families” in Connecticut and Massachusetts—“homes which illustrate the best phase of American society”—who would be willing to take in the Chinese boys immediately. “Only two will be in the same family, and usually but two in the same town. They have just begun the study of English, and will need private instruction in our language and in the rudimentary studies.”3 Far more families responded to this and subsequent calls than were needed. 50 Stepping Forth into the World In 1872 alone, 122 families answered the initial solicitation.4 As a result, many prospective host families were disappointed not to receive any of the Chinese boys. For instance, in 1875 Harriet G. Atwell of Pleasant Valley, Connecticut, was supposed to host two boys from the fourth detachment, Shen Deyao (#109) and his brother Dehui (#108), but when she failed to reply promptly to an inquiry from Yung Wing, the Shen brothers were reassigned to the Phelps family in Hebron. As Yung regretfully explained to Atwell, “… as I had waited four days without hearing from you, I was obliged to give the two students away to another party. It was impossible for us to keep the students any longer than we did, & they were given away under the impression that either there was some mistake in the application or that you did not care to take them.” In this case, it happened that Yung was able to supply Atwell with a replacement, a non-CEM student by the name of Xu Jiayou (Chu Kia Yau), who almost certainly was one of the three cousins of Shanghai comprador Xu Run who had come to the United States with the fourth detachment as self-supported students. It is unclear why Xu Jiayou’s two siblings were not also sent to live with Atwell’s family.5 Within a day or two of each detachment’s arrival in Springfield, the CEM boys were assigned to specific host families in New England. Those placed with families in western Massachusetts were fetched in Springfield. Other boys destined for central and southern Connecticut were escorted to Hartford and New Haven respectively, where they too were introduced to their host families and taken away.6 It may be imagined how anxious the boys were as they left their friends and went their separate ways with these strangers. Nevertheless, as Li Enfu (#40), of the second detachment, recalled, “it was my good fortune to be put into the hands of a most motherly lady in Springfield. She came after us in a hack [a horse-drawn carriage]. As I was pointed out...

Share