The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Yung Wing

YUNG WING, yoong' wĭng', Chinese diplomatist and scholar: b. Nan Ping, province of Kwang Tung, 17 Nov. 1828; d. 21 April 1912. After graduation from Yale in 1854, he was in the silk and tea trade until 1864, and then entered the governmental service of China. The China Steam Navigation Company was established on his initiative, as was also the Chinese Educational Mission, for the education of Chinese in America. Yung Wing was made chief commissioner of this enterprise, for which an appropriation of $1,500,000 was made by the Chinese government. He was granted the rank of mandarin of the second grade, and appointed intendant of Kiang-Su province; and was for four years associate resident minister to the United States, where he took up his residence in 1902. Author of ‘My Life in China and America’ (1909).