Description
Book SynopsisTong Shao-Yi and His Family presents a biography of the Chinese statesman Tong Shao-Yi, one of the first hundred boys sent from China in the 1870''s to live with American families and attend American schools. Tong returned to China in 1881 to become a protégé of the statesman Yuan Shikai and the most influential of the Young China group of Western-educated diplomats and officials. One of the founders of the Chinese Republic in 1911-1912, Tong served briefly as Prime Minister and was later often sought for advice and collaboration by contending factions until his mysterious assassination in 1938. David G. Hinners relates the story of Tong through a unique personal perspective developed through historical research and correspondenceby himself, and previously, by his two auntswith members of Tong''s extended family. This direct correspondence with Tong''s descendants in Chinawho included an engineer educated in the United States (while growing up in the home of the author''s grandparents) and a schoolteacher whom the author interviewed in China in 1987relates not only the story of Tong and his family, but also the impact of a century of political developments on the people of China.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The First Generation: Under the Ch'ing Chapter 3 Tong Shao-Yi and the Politics of Republican China Chapter 4 1911-1938, The Second Generation: In the U.S. and China Up to World War II Chapter 5 The Post War Years: The Tong Family Under the Communist System Chapter 6 Epilogue; Appendices: "International Living: An Old Experiment:" Photographs of Wall Hangings Chapter 7 Family Tree: Eugene C. Gardner, Family Tree: Tong Shao-Yi Chapter 8 Map of China, 1948 Chapter 9 Notes Chapter 10 Bibliography Chapter 11 About the Author
