The Story of Yung Wing/容闳的故事

Yung Wing: Pioneer of Chinese Study Abroad中国首位留美学生Yung Wing (1828-1911) was born in Nanping Village Xiangshan County Guangdong Province (present-day Nanping Town Zhuhai City). He was the first Chinese student to graduate from Yale University in the United States and a pioneer of China's study-abroad initiative often revered as the Father of Chinese Overseas Students.From childhood through young adulthood Yung Wing received a comprehensive Western education and later studied in the United States. However confronted with a China mired in poverty and weakness he chose to return to his homeland after graduation with the lofty aspiration of infusing China with Western learning so as to lead the nation toward civilization and prosperity. He gave up a comfortable life abroad and devoted himself wholeheartedly to social reform striving to realize his visionary ideals.The path to fulfilling his dreams was fraught with thorns and setbacks. Yung Wing lived through many major events in modern Chinese history: he participated in the Westernization Movement and the Hundred Days' Reform facilitated the government-sponsored Chinese Educational Mission to the United States and contributed to the establishment of China's first modern comprehensive machinery factory the Jiangnan Machine Manufacturing Bureau... Whether he succeeded or failed he remained unwavering in his fervent patriotism and made monumental contributions to China's modernization.容闳（1828-1912），出生于广东省香山县南屏村（今珠海市南屏镇），是位毕业于美国耶鲁大学的中国留学生，中国留学生事业的先驱，被誉为中国留学生之父。容闳自童年至青年时代接受了完整的西方教育，后又到美国留学，但是面对积贫积弱的中国，在大学毕业后，他怀着以西方之学术，灌输于中国，使中国日趋于文明富强之境的远大抱负，放弃在美国的优越环境，决然返回祖国，积极投身社会改革活动，竭尽全力实现心中的理想蓝图。实现理想的道路，总是布满荆棘和坎坷，容闳一生经历了中国近代史上的许多重大事件，参与洋务运动、维新变法运动等，促成近代中国代官费留美学生的派遣，参与建立中国近代座完整的机器厂江南机器制造局......无论是成功还是失败，他始终怀抱一腔炙热的爱国之情，矢志不渝，为中国近代化作出巨大贡献。