First Chinese Students

Posted by Amy the Archivist on September 3, 2008 in

When did the first students from China come to RPI?  This question was asked during our open house event recently.  A quick answer was readily available in an alumni directory, but my curiosity was piqued and I decided to dig a little deeper. Two students from Guangzhou (once referred to as Canton) arrived at RPI in the fall of 1878 and roomed together at a boarding house on Second St.  The students were Kwok S. Loh and Wing Chung Pawn. 

Animosity towards Chinese immigrants, especially in the west, resulted in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.  Though this act did not prohibit international study, it appears to have kept Chinese students away from RPI for many years.  The next group of Chinese students did not enter until 1907.

[This blog post was edited by the archives in 2021]

Comments

Cathy Huang
Thu, 12/07/2017 - 11:39 Permalink

can you tell us about the next group of Chinese students ?

Add new comment

Name
Email
Comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Your name
Back to top