Boxer Rebellion

What was the Boxer Rebellion? 

In 1898, The Boxer Rebellion began and  was a violent uprising led by a secret society known as Yihequan (義和拳）or in English, Righteous and Harmonious Fists. The goal of this rebellion was to overthrow the influences of Western power, imperialism, and Christianity which devalued the indigenous and traditional Chinese cultures, languages, and spiritual beliefs. For further context, the West gained access to such land, ports, and influential centers through the Century of Humiliation, ignited by treaties and agreements which thereafter influenced the relationship between the East and West, depicting them succinctly as Occident and Orient. 

This uprising was later supported by the government to rid the land of all foreigners; yet, one of the principles core to this rebellion was to rid China of the Qing Dynasty making this support a timely signifier to the pending fall of the Qing Dynasty and the dynastic system as a whole. The Dynasty was seen unfit due to the state of the economic system and the many natural disasters occurring, such as the flooding of the Yellow River displacing millions.

However, on August 14, 1900, the Boxers were defeated by a coalition of Western troops, who required the Chinese government to pay for financial losses of $330 million continuing the Century of Humiliation.

On July 10, 1909, in order to implement the plan of establishing schools with funding proposed by the United States, under Roosevelt administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education issued the "Measures for Repaying the U.S. Indemnity and Sending Students to Study Abroad in the United States", which stipulated in detail the methods for sending students to the United States, including an American Travel Affairs Office that was set up in the capital, which was managed by personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Faculty of Education. The General Office selected students, sent them abroad, and investigated and audited all matters. There was also an attached study hall where students were selected to enter testing for the program. Those who have good academic performance and skills are selected to be sent to study in the United States at any time. Eight-tenths of them study agriculture, industry, commerce, and mining, and two-tenths study law, politics, and financial management at Chinese universities. Students began to be sent over starting in 1910. 

However, these were not to be the first students sent to America in groups. As the first Chinese graduate of Yale University, Rong Hong (容閎) persuaded the Qing government in 1871 to send a group of young Chinese students to the United States to study Western science and technology. During the Qing Dynasty, Rong established the China Education Corps and sent 120 Chinese students to study in New England, the United States. However, this short-lived effort disbanded in 1881, the year before the Chinese Exclusion Act, and saw little activity thereafter.

It was through the funding in 1909 that a prep school was also founded, known today as Tsinghua University. This school was designed for specifically training Chinese students for life in America through an 8--year curriculum. These were precursors for the modern school now set up in Beijing and Hsinchu, Taiwan's National Tsinghua University.