Fear over Break-Up of China Spawns Top University in Beijing

Chinese-American banker Dr. Tsu Yao can trace his family back to 1350, around the end of the Mongul Conquest in China (Think Genghis Khan.)

More recently—well, comparatively—Dr. Yao’s father was one of the early graduates from the world-renowned Tsinghua University (In Beijing.) Before going forward further, Dr. Yao paused. “That university has a long history...”

In the 1800s, China was being broken up into different areas of influence: French, British, American, Russian, Japanese. A corrupt Chinese Dynasty combined with foreign countries interested in gaining a foothold in the wealthiest country in the world spelled havoc. Or as one Lord wrote in 1899, “The Break-up of China.”

 Little by little the country lost a port here (Shanghai, Nanking, Canton, etc.) , a piece of land there (Hong Kong, Kowloon, Manchuria, etc.) until many Chinese felt they were being overwhelmed by foreign elements.

In came the Boxers. In 1900, a Chinese secret organization called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising against the spread of foreign influence. The rebels--referred to by Westerners as “Boxers” because they performed physical exercises they believed would make them able to withstand bullets--killed foreigners and Chinese Christians, and destroyed foreign property. For three months, the Boxers besieged the foreign district of Beijing, until an international force subdued the uprising.

“After the rebellion was put down in 1900,” said Dr. Yao. “There was this settlement…”

Boxers and Chinese government officials involved in the uprising were punished, foreign legations were permitted to station troops in Beijing, China was prohibited from importing arms for two years, and it agreed to pay more than $330 million in reparations to the foreign nations involved. (That would be similar to over $9 billion in today’s money.)

“China had no way to pay that. So they had to borrow it. The British, French, Russian, Japanese banks lent them the money—of course, with interest. And, of course, in order to guarantee the collateral, the Chinese customs office was seized by the Allies with a British in charge.  His name was Sir Robert Hart. The street across from us growing up was called Hart Avenue which was named after him.

“The compensation had two components. One was for lives lost and property lost. The other was a punishment. It was roughly fifty-fifty. By 1908, a member in (U.S.) Congress introduced a bill that said, ‘The penalty we should keep but the punishment we should return.’

“Another person said, ‘Returning is no good. It’ll be wasted. Let’s start up a school.’ This is how Tsinghua was set up. The school was founded in 1911 through a U.S. Act of Congress."

“In the beginning the board of trustees was all Americans. It was a peculiar system—an 8-year system, the equivalent of six years of high school and 2 years of junior college. They began to recruit students. It became a nationwide competition to enter this –you can call it prep school.  After they graduated they went to the U.S. to finish their education. That was the stipulation. I think my father was the second or third class.

“My father came to the University of Chicago and got his bachelor’s degree two years later.  Then he went to Ohio State for one year in the business school. Roughly at that time Wharton Business school started up  (in Pennsylvania), and he applied there. He got is MBA from Wharton in 1927. Then he went back to China. He ended up in Beijing. That’s where he met my mother. I have an older sister born in 1930. I was born in 1932. Two weeks after I was born, Japan attacked Shanghai Jan 28, 1932.”

Within months, Dr. Yao’s family moved to this scene of chaos.

(…to be continued: A Memory of Pearl Harbor: School Was Cancelled.)