East to West: How 120 Boys Revolutionized Modern Day China

This is the untold story of how 120 young scholars were sent to the United States to help modernize the Qing Dynasty (now modern day China). One of these boys, Tang Shaoyi, was sent to New England and assimilated to daily American life to fulfill the government's educational mission, ultimately helping with the transformation from dynasty to republic. For historical context, the group of 120 boys sent to America to study, called the "Chinese Educational Mission" (CEM), was completely funded by the Qing Government and dated from 1872 to 1881. Author Dori Jones Yang was fascinated by the lives of these well-adjusted boys while living with their host families and attending school in New England, so out came the novel, "The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball." Names mentioned:Zhan Tianyou (a CEM student) - went on to study civil engineering at Yale, wildly known as "the father of Chinese railroad"Tang Shaoyi (a CEM student) - the chief negotiator for the Qing Emperor and later served as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of China 1911 Dr. Sun Yet-Sen - led the revolution to overthrown Qing Emperor, and the founder of the Republic of ChinaPeter Tonglao - (related to Tang Shaoyi) was a Mercer Island resident from 1972 to 2012. After retiring as a Boeing EE engineer, he was an active volunteer and bus driver for the Senior Program at the community center, and the first recipient of Flash Family Inspirational Award in 2009.