Yale-China Association

Plans for a Yale mission in China were first formulated in 1901. In 1902, the Yale Foreign Missionary Society was organized, and Lawrence Thurston travelled to China in order to contact missionary groups and investigate locations for a mission. In 1903, the First Conference of Protestant Missions of Hunan invited a Yale group to settle in Changsha. Brownell Gage, Warren Seabury, and Edward Hume formed the first group. A collegiate school, Yali Middle School, opened in 1906, and in 1914, the College of Arts and Sciences opened. In 1928, the School of Science of Yale-in-China College became part of Central China (Hua Chung) College. A dispensary (1905) and hospital (1908) were started, and a new medical school began in 1916. World War II forced the school's evacuation, and rebuilding efforts were halted by the evacuation of mainland personnel in 1948. Schools and operations continue to function in Hong Kong. Although affiliated with Yale University, the Yale-China Association is an independent organization with its own board of trustees.

Plans for a Yale Mission in China were first formulated in 1901. In 1902 the Yale Foreign Missionary Society was organizated and Lawrence Thurston travelled to China in order to contact missionary groups and investigate locations for a mission. In 1903 the First Conference of Protestant Missions of Hunan invited a Yale group to settle in Changsha. Brownell Gage, Warren Seabury, and Edward Hume formed the first group. A collegiate school, Yali Middle School, opened in 1906 and in 1914 the College of Arts and Sciences opened. In 1928 the School of Science of Yale-in-China College became part of Central China (Hua Chung) College. A dispensary (1905) and hospital (1908) were started and a new medical school began in 1916. World War II forced the school's evacuation and rebuilding efforts were halted by the evacuation of mainland personnel in 1948. Schools and operations continue to function in Hong Kong. Although affiliated with Yale University, the Yale-China Association is an independent organization with its own board of trustees.

The Yale-China Association is a non-profit educational organization concerned with promoting understanding and goodwill between the American and Chinese peoples. Though affiliated with Yale University, it is an independent organization with its own board of trustees, its own funding sources, and a staff of five.

The Association's educational activities are both national and international in scope. At present Yale-China's overseas activities are confined to Hong Kong where, since 1954, the Association has worked closely with New Asia College, a component of the Chinese University. The Yale-China Association maintains a representative of its board of trustees in Hong Kong to supervise the Association's educational work and to participate in university activities. Current programs of the Association include the Yale Teaching Fellowships, which annually send two Yale graduates to the Chinese University on two-year teaching appointments, and the Overseas Chinese Fellowships, which each year bring two graduates of New Asia College to the United States for two years of advanced degree work and a professor from the Chinese University to conduct research and seminars in the United States. In addition, the Association provides scholarships for New Asia College students and financial assistance to both New Asia College and the Chinese University for special projects.

In the United States, the Association's activities include the recruiting of students and scholars for the International Asian Studies Program, the production of a film series on Chinese history and culture for use in the classroom, and a variety of programs and lectures aimed at increasing the American people's understanding of China.

History

Plans for a Yale Mission in China were first formulated in 1901 by a small group of Yale students and faculty. The original intention was to develop and maintain a non-denominational Christian institution of higher learning. In the following year, the Yale Foreign Missionary Society was organized, and its first representative, Lawrence Thurston, was sent to China to establish contact with existing missionary groups and to seek a site on which to locate the mission. In 1903, as a result of Thurston's efforts, the First Conference of Protestant Missions of Hunan extended an invitation to the Yale group to settle in Changsha and to assume responsibility for the higher education of the province. During 1905, following a preliminary site survey, Brownell Gage, Warren Seabury, and Edward Hume, the first representatives of the Yale Foreign Missionary Society, took up residence in Changsha, Since it was not possible to open a college until prospective students had received the necessary preparation, a collegiate school - Yali Middle School - was opened in 1906. Gage was chosen as chairman of the school's governing board, and Seabury was appointed dean.

To help alleviate the teaching load at Yali Middle School, the Yali Bachelor or teaching fellow program was instituted. Under this program, selected Yale graduates spent two years teaching at Yali. For six years during the Sino-Japanese and Second World Wars, Yali was located on a refugee campus at Yuanling, Hunan. By the mid-1940s, enrollment at the school averaged as many as 500 boys.

In 1914, the College of Arts and Sciences was started with graduates from the middle school. Degrees granted by the College were recognized by the Hunan Provincial Government, the National Government of China, and the state of Connecticut. In 1927 the National Government of China, under Chiang Kai-shek's leadership, came into existence, and during the transition period all Americans withdrew from Hunan. The following year the Association came to the conclusion that college-level education in Hunan could be most practically carried on by means of a cooperative effort with other missionary groups. Following this plan, the School of Science of Yale-in-China College became part of Central China (Hua Chung) College. During World War II, Hua Chung's campus was located in western Yunnan.

In 1905, immediately after his arrival in Changsha, Dr. Edward Hume began a dispensary, and in 1908 a hospital was opened under his direction. When Dr. F.C. Yen joined the hospital's staff in 1910, Yale-in-China became the first institution in China to employ western-educated Chinese as full members of the permanent faculty on equal terms with Americans. In 1914, agreement was reached with the Hunan government to co-operate in sponsoring medical education in the form of a new hospital and medical school. The Yale-in-China College of Nursing, begun by Nina Gage in 1910, was also placed under the direction of the cooperative Hunan-Yale (Hsiang-Ya) Board. In 1916, the first students entered the new medical school.

During World War II, Hsiang-Ya Hospital continued to service the local community as well as military personnel. In 1939, as the Japanese Army approached Changsha, three branch hospitals were established. The main hospital was able to continue in Changsha until 1944.

Because of the military threat, the Medical College was moved to Kweiyang in 1938. Two years later, it was designated a national medical college by the Chinese Ministry of Education and began to receive funds from the Nationalist Government. The 1945 bombing of Kweiyang forced the school's evacuation to Chungking.

Planning for the reconstruction of Yali and Hsiang-Ya was begun immediately after the war. However, rebuilding had just begun when the political situation deteriorated and fighting broke out between the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-Tung. In November 1948, most of the Yale-in-China staff remaining in Changsha were evacuated. Dwight Rugh, the last representative of Yale-in-China on the mainland, crossed the border into Hong Kong in May 1951. Both Yali and Hsiang-Ya continued to function under the People's Republic. Yali was renamed Hunan Private Liberation Middle School and Hsiang-Ya's facilities were doubled, so that by 1962 it had an enrollment of nearly 5,000 students.

For further information on the history of the Yale-China Association, see Yale in China, the Mainland 1901-51, by Reuben Holden, New Haven, 1964; The Yale-China Association: A Centennail History by Nancy E. Chapman with Jessica C. Plumb, New Haven, 2001.

A note on changes in name: the Yale-China Association was incorporated in 1903 as the Yale Foreign Missionary Society. In 1934, the name was changed to the Yale-in-China Association and in 1975 to the Yale-China Association.