Publisher's Weekly Review
With its surging storyline, extraordinary events, and depth of character, this gripping tale of 120 Chinese boys sent to America-and scattered about New England-in 1872 reads more like a novel than an obscure slice of history. Leibovitz and Miller chronicle an unknown yet transformative period in the relationship between an arcane East and a progressive West. Slivers from diaries and correspondence record encounters the boys enjoyed with President Grant, life in the same New England community Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe called home, and China's reluctance to accept the returning over-confident "Americanized" citizens. Nevertheless, this education, combined with their ambition and bond, translates to a ¿Cantonese Clique' that filters into high-profile government positions in China and results in revolutions in industry and international relations. Chaotic regal battles and merciless wars lead to tragedy, but the tenacity and hope on displayed bring slow reform and triumph. Though the boys were well equipped with the tools for progress, ¿'the problems they faced are the problems still facing China today,'' and their tale stands as a unique, engrossing, and affecting chronicle. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Desperate to modernize in the final days of empire, China launches a bold educational experiment.By the second half of the 19th century, the Qing dynasty ruled half-a-billion Chinese, with 40,000 civilian and military officials administering the government. The imperial system's calcified bureaucracy, resistant to change, wedded to Confucianism and wary of foreign intercourse, struggled with a tottering economy, domestic rebellions and repeated humiliations at the hands of Western powers. One powerful statesman, Li Hongzhang, sought to reform the educational system by sending students to America to learn the new ways of thinking and returning them to China as a core group of future leaders. Under the direction of the Yale-educated Yung Wing, over a period of nearly a decade, 120 boys attended high schools and colleges, mostly in New England, as a part of the Chinese Educational Mission. Under assault from court critics who feared Western corruption of the young men, Li recalled the mission in 1880. Although a remarkably large number of the boys eventually rose to power and influence in China, Leibovitz and Miller (Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II, 2008) wisely focus on only a dozen or so, tracking their journey to Hartford, Conn., the Mission's base of operations, their acculturation to Gilded Age American society and their troubled reentry to a China tumultuously passing from corrupt empire to shaky republic. The authors' effective, quick-stroke treatment of momentous historical events, their sensitive portraits of schoolboys who became technological, military, industrial and commercial reformers and their deft juxtaposition of two cultures, one on the rise, the other coming apart, make for a rich, multilayered tale. Today, China and America warily circle each other, and China is once again furiously attempting to modernize, busy recapitulating many of the same struggles and absorbing many of the same lessons that the Mission boys learned so many years ago.A curious, little-known episode of Sino-American history vividly told.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
One hundred fifty years ago, ruling Chinese elites were torn. Many among them were deeply conscious of their technological and even political backwardness in relation to the West. Yet they also were proudly aware of their rich cultural tradition. For some, their pride, perhaps conceit, told them they had nothing to learn from the barbarians across the sea. Nevertheless, in 1872, under the auspices of the Chinese Educational Mission, 120 Chinese boys were sent to the U.S. to attend elite colleges, absorb the best this mysterious country could offer, and return to enrich China with their experiences and knowledge. Most of the boys stayed only nine years and were then forced to return to China because of political turmoil there. As Leibovitz and Miller show in their thoroughly enjoyable account, the sojourn here took hold. Many of these men became prominent in China's drive for modernization in the next century. The authors use a wealth of primary sources to tell the boys' stories, and the result is an outstanding tale of cross-cultural fertilization.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
To outsiders, China may seem purposefully dynamic. To its own people, the same ceaseless change can seem frighteningly chaotic. During my own recent three years of living there, I was often startled by the dramatic stories told by my Chinese friends - both the terrible parts (famine, split and scattered families, trust betrayed, fortunes lost) and the astonishing rebounds (an against-all-odds admission to a university, a fearless gamble that paid off, a random kindness from a generous stranger). But China has gone through previous periods of tumultuous change, as Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller's "Fortunate Sons" makes abundantly clear. Their story begins with Yung Wing, who came to America in the late 1840s. The first Chinese student admitted to Yale, he returned to his homeland in 1854, determined not to be the last. Under his tutelage, 120 Chinese boys crossed the Pacific in the 1870s, intent on learning Western skills that might help their country modernize. Yet mixed fortunes awaited them on their return to a country whose Qingera imperial rule was crumbling, where their schooling at various colleges in New England made them both influential and, in some cases, rootless and estranged. The boys arrived in an America that was going through its own post-Civil War transformation, and Leibovitz and Miller use the newcomers' experiences as pretexts for discourses on extraneous subjects. One such observation - "For the boys," the story of the transcontinental railroad's creation "could have contained many lessons about the contrasting outlooks of imperial China and the young American republic" - is followed by a lengthy discussion of the Central Pacific Railroad, ethnic tensions involving its Chinese work crews and how John Deere tractors tamed the prairie. On their return to China, many of these young men struggled to find a proper role, or even a measure of stability. One of Yung Wing's nephews, Yung Leang, a skilled orator at Hartford High, had just enrolled in college when the exchange program was abruptly halted. Arriving back in China in the fall of 1881, he and his companions were arrested because they could no longer speak Mandarin well enough to explain their long absence. Despite being ill-suited to military life, he was sent for naval training and emerged as an improbable hero of the (losing) Battle of Foochow against French warships in 1884. Occasionally, it's a random detail in a Chinese student's story that resonates. Chung Mun Yew, who became coxswain of the Yale rowing team, gained a small measure of vindication years later when, back in America as a diplomat, he met a scoffing Harvard graduate who bet he had never even seen a university boat race. "It is true that I had never seen a Harvard crew row," Chung replied. "They were always behind me." Leibovitz and Miller, whose previous book dealt with the German wartime ballad "Lili Marlene," are specialists in narrative history rather than Sinology, so their book will be most satisfying to readers who have had the least exposure to China and its history. Their breezily generalizing style discounts the many contradictory elements that are always at play among the country's vast population. And they introduce a number of small but cumulatively unfortunate errors - referring, for example, to the city of Nanjing as "northern" when its name means "southern capital." Elsewhere, they say that the "seven main languages" of China are "each as different from the other as German is from French," which oversimplifies a complex linguistic heritage. Still, the story of these 19th-century scholars is a useful reminder of how long exchanges between our two countries have been under way, and of the risks and rewards that these connections have brought to both sides. This history begins in the 1840s with Yung Wing, the first Chinese student admitted to Yale. Visitors: A Chinese Educational Mission baseball team in Hartford, Conn. Deborah Fallows is the author of "Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language."
Library Journal Review
Not only do Leibovitz and Miller (coauthors, Lili Marlene: The Soldiers' Song of World War II) narrate a fascinating cultural exchange unknown to many of today's readers, but they also share the personal stories and finer points about a very interesting time. In 1872, the first group of what would total 120 Chinese boys, with an average age of nine, came to America to learn about our progressive and modern country. Their disembarkation in San Francisco, rail trip across the country, lives with host families, and attendance of the best schools in New England are meticulously described. Also noted are the cultural differences; acceptance and ignorance exhibited by both sides; and the diversity of the Chinese the boys met, from California prospectors to the New England gentlemen who were their teachers. After nine years, the boys, grown to young men, were recalled when differing opinions of the exchange prevailed in China. The authors source firsthand accounts, diaries, letters, and biographies for their very engaging chronicle. A dedicated website (www.fortunatesonsbook.com) adds to the value of this worthwhile read. VERDICT Not to be missed; those interested in the social history of Chinese American relations and history buffs generally will find it very informative.-Susan Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.