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P.K. Chen

Who is Pu Kao Chen?

Pu Kao Chen was the first Asian descent student to attend William & Mary, graduating in 1923.

He recorded his experiences and observations about the United States and published them in the 1923 William & Mary Literary Magazine called “A Chinese Student’s First Impressions of America.”

Entering the United States Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese students like Pu Kao Chen were able to attend college in the United States despite the Chinese Exclusion Act due to the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion in China took place as a secret society led to a violent uprising to rid China of Western and other imperial influences. The Boxers were eventually defeated by a coalition of Western troops, who required the Chinese government to pay for financial losses of $330 million.

Roosevelt established this scholarship in 1908 as a form of reparations for China’s financial losses from the Boxer Rebellion. Roosevelt sought to use this fund to ensure US-China relations, elevating the United State’s global image and influencing China’s next generation of leaders.

In

His

Words

In February 1923, P.K. Chen wrote for the William and Mary Literary Magazine in which he describes his experiences in the United States. Excerpts below.

“It is twenty-two years now since the memorable Boxer Uprising took place in China; fourteen years since the United States of America, under the administration of president Roosevelt, out of sheer friendship and good-will returned to the Chinese government that part of their share of the notorious Boxer Indemnity which was an excess of losses actually sustained, to be devoted to educating young Chinese in America. Ever sice 1910, groups of Chinese students are annually dispatched from Tsing Hua College, Peking, across the Pacific to pursue higher studies in the United States.”

Full of Hope, Greeted with Slurs

While “chink” is the more blatant anti-Asian slur used in William & Mary’s Flat Hat, a semester before Chen arrived at the college, “John Chinaman” was a then-popular Western stock caricature of a Chinese man, specifically a Chinese laborer. P.K. Chen recounts being called a “Chinaman” shortly after he arrived in the United States.

"My impression of America was highly favorable by this time. Many of my dreams were somehow realized."

"We did not see some of those dusty streets that belonging to a big city. As soon I arrived at my destination and alighted from the train with another fellow who was to go to the same college with me, we were presently hailed, "Chinaman! Chinaman!" from behind, I do not know by whom, but decidedly to our great discomfiture.

It often troubles me, especially in those days of my mental depression, to think that, great as the American civilization is, there should still be a small fraction of the people who seem to think China somewhat barbaric country, and her citizens an unruly set of people, or, as it were, a mass of antediluvian men..."

OCR- FlatHat_ChinkLogic_1921Apr2.pdf

An example of the anti-Chinese sentiment during P.K. Chen's time:

Chink Logic.

Near Shanghai an English Sailor on his way to put a wreath of flowers on the grave of a comrade, met a native with a pot of rice on his head.

"Hello John," he hailed. Where are you going with that?"

I takee to put on glave of my friend."

"Ho, ho," laughed the sailor, "and when do you expect your friend to come up and eat it?""

All same time your flend come up and smellee your flowers," replied John.

Recognizing Misrepresentation

"Another cause of China's misrepresentation to the American people is, in my opinion, that type of moving pictures, which pretends to depict Chinese life and thus carries a wrong impression into the mind of the audience. That such pictures are monstrously exaggerating can be indirectly proved by the following instance: it was my belief, when I was in China, that Americans at home were either as smart as Harold Lloyd or at least as funny as Charlie Chaplin, for both these personages are no mean favorites on Chinese screens. Now, whether or not this impression is justified we Americans know best. The Chinese themselves are, I may add, not insensible to this state of affairs, and efforts are being made to put a stop to further mischief. But how can they prevent the strenuous activities of their next-door neighbors, who are ever ready to play their role?

Still, another cause lies, to no small extent, in the stories and pictures brought back by some transient tourists, and missionaries. As to the former, I should say they see only a spot of the leopard's body through the wood, as common Chinese proverb has it. They have not lived among the Chinese long enough to think with them, to sympathize with them, or even to feel the gigantic efforts put forth by the younger generation to overcome the shortcomings of their country."

Asking for Humanity, To Be Seen

"China certainly regards America as her best friend, both from the standpoint of international relations and from the influence American missionaries exerted. in this work-a-day world, she has much to learn and much to forget, and is turning to America for guidance, as America is indisputably the light of the world to-day. China wishes to be rightly understood, particularly to Americans at home."

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