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Transpacific Scholars: A Journey Through the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship
By Daniel Guo, Class of 2024
Editor’s Note: The George Hill Burnett History Prize is given to commemorate the graduation in 1902 of a grandson of the founder. It is awarded on the basis of a special essay in American history.
Introduction
Over the past two decades, the number of Chinese students in the United States has seen a remarkable surge, growing from a modest original number of around 20,000 students in 1991 to an enormous student body of more than 300,000 in 2021.1 Since 2009, Chinese students have consistently represented the highest portion of international students, making up nearly a third of all international students in American colleges and universities.2 These Chinese students choose to pursue a wide range of subjects and academic disciplines such as engineering, English, and law in the many different educational institutions that the United States offers, including prestigious universities such as Harvard and Yale. However, due to recent geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, the drive for Chinese students to study in the United States has diminished, with many turning to other prestigious schools in the United Kingdom and Europe instead.3
This shift away from Chinese students in the United States is not just unique to the Chinese perspective: a Pew Research Center survey indicates that 55%, a majority of Americans surveyed, support limiting Chinese students studying in the United States. One in five Americans strongly supports limiting Chinese students in the United States. This situation is seemingly targeted specifically towards Chinese students, as the majority of Americans view international students favorably, with 80% of Americans expressing a positive opinion towards them.4
As the current educational relationship between Chinese students and America has become a focal point for geopolitical issues and debates, it is essential to revisit the history of these students in the United States—starting from the earliest Chinese Educational Mission to the eventual formation of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, which served as the earliest, complete educational mission of Chinese students in the United States. This paper analyzes the historical development of the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, which ran from 1909-1929, examining how it transformed from a reparations payment into a significant educational exchange program, and assesses its long-term impact on Chinese development, including the Chinese military, government, and education.
The first section of the paper provides essential context to the history of Chinese educational missions in the United States. Before the Boxer Rebellion, the very first instance of Chinese students studying in the United States was the Chinese Educational Mission led by Yung Wing. However, concerns about the students losing their Chinese identities and becoming too American led to the premature termination of their mission.5 Shortly After, the Boxer Rebellion erupted, and following its suppression by the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Qing government was forced to pay all participating nations a series of indemnities. Considering these indemnities excessive, the United States decided to return the excess funds as an educational fund to promote friendship with China, thus giving rise to the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship.6
The following section of the paper goes into detail on the perspectives of the scholarship, focusing on the daily lives and personal opinions of students during their time studying in the United States. Aside from the purely educational and professional trajectories of these students, many of these students were involved in a series of extracurricular activities and organizations. 7 This section of the paper utilizes a set of New York Times articles as well as monthly Chinese student publications to provide a complete, primary source of both the Chinese and American perspectives on the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. The final section of the paper analyzes the students who participated in the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship through a wide variety of sources and tools. Data analysis was conducted with ChatGPT using a book titled Who’s Who of American Returned Students, which contains records of the students who studied in the United States during this period, including both the Chinese Educational Mission and the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship.8 This section dives into an analysis of the students’ birthplaces, educational backgrounds, future career destinations, and occupations, as well as other important venues of information. By providing a comprehensive image of the students who benefited from the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, this study can gain valuable insights and knowledge of its success or failure and how it relates to the current global landscape.
(more…)Ely Prize Speech
By Dylan Capodilupo, IV Form
Editor’s Note: The Ely Prize in Public Speaking, originally given by a member of the Class of 1892 in memory of his mother, is presented to the student who gave the best speech in the Global Seminar Public Speaking Competition.
Imagine waking up to the crisp air of a winter morning in the mountains, excited to see how much snow had fallen the night before, only to find rain pouring down instead of snow. Or picture spending your summer days on the shores of a beautiful coastal town, only to watch as the sea ocean slowly envelops the land you once cherished, and threatens the houses of its residents.
Climate change is a reality reshaping my childhood memories’ landscapes. Last year as summer arrived, I spent my summer in Chatham, just like every other summer I could remember, only to find it under siege by the relentless forces of erosion. Monomoy and Morris Island, two key pieces of land in Chatham are now succumbing to the sea. Homes along the coastline are reminders of nature’s power, standing inches from the water, and being threatened by the advance of the tide. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, erosion has taken between 30 and 45 feet of land every year from Monomoy and Morris island. Even navigating the waters of Stage Harbor became hazardous, as low tides started to expose the impact of winter storms, altering the very channels my family once sailed through safely. More often then not I found myself getting beached on random shoals, damaging my family’s boat and creating unsafe situations. How does climate change cause this, you may ask? More frequent storms and higher seas from unusual temperatures create more winds, waves, and floods, leading to coastal erosion.
Prior to witnessing these changes, I was among those who doubted the urgency of climate change. It seemed like a distant concern, something that wouldn’t affect me in my lifetime. However, seeing the direct impact on a place I hold dear shattered my denial. Climate change is not just a problem for future generations—it’s happening now, and it’s happening in the places we call home.
In the winter, Vermont is my favorite place to be, a haven where memories are made with my closest friends on the trails of Mount Snow, Killington, and Stowe. However, this past winter something was once again—off. Instead of snow, rain poured over half the ski trips I went on, not only shortening the ski season, but leaving bare patches on trails, unfavorable conditions, and dangerous elements like exposed tree stumps and rocks. A study from the University of Vermont reveals winter temperatures have increased 2.5 times faster than our average annual temperatures, and the number of days in Vermont without freezing has jumped by three weeks or 21 days since 1960. This firsthand experience forced me to confront the reality of rising temperatures and their effects on winter sports in the future.
Some may argue that these changes are simply part of natural cycles, not necessarily caused by human activity. For example, this winter was part of an El Niño weather pattern, meaning that the Pacific jet stream moves south and spreads further east, causing warmer and drier conditions in the North. While natural processes certainly can play a role, the overwhelming scientific consensus points to human-caused climate change as the reason behind these disruptions. However, we can encourage ourselves to take action. Believe me, though, I get it; Many of you do not care about climate change and a few might not even believe in it. But just look at the damage that has been done in 1 year alone. These places are all at risk, and it’s up to us to protect them. Whether it’s advocating for renewable energy, reducing our carbon footprint, or supporting New England climate change activists, each of us has a role to play. Together, we can build a more sustainable future for ourselves —a world where snow in winter and beaches in summer aren’t just memories of the past, but promises for the future.
Dylan Capodilupo is a IV Former. He wrote and delivered this speech in his III Form year.
Reason and Passion: Epistemological Love in Pride and Prejudice
By Ariel Cheng, VI form
Editor’s Note: The Coleman Prize in English is awarded to the student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the most outstanding essay during the academic year.
In Pride and Prejudice, Austen synthesizes the Romantic and Enlightenment ideals of truth by arguing that love requires passion tempered by reason. Elizabeth Bennet, the novel’s protagonist, embodies the Enlightenment ideal of truth; a “rational creature”, she strives to judge other characters through careful thought and active deliberation (Austen 106). In stark contrast to this portrait of reason stands Fitzwilliam Darcy, a symbol of the Romantic ideal of truth. Unlike Elizabeth, Darcy judges others based on his feelings and intuitions. In the world that Austen crafts, no character is completely correct: neither perspective is sufficient for making accurate judgements. The Romantic passion of Darcy’s proposal is not enough for Elizabeth to change her mind; likewise, Elizabeth’s use of logical reasoning leads her to misjudge Darcy’s character. Indeed, the turning point of the novel occurs when both characters acknowledge the ideological perspective they have ignored – Elizabeth appreciates the Romantic ideal of truth after she visits Pemberley, and Darcy recognizes the importance of reason as he hands Elizabeth his letter. In this way, Austen presents love as a form of knowledge: to love another is to truthfully understand their character by exercising both passion and reason.
Before introducing either reason or passion as ways of arriving at truth, Austen justifies the necessity of following these approaches. Austen’s characters do not have ready access to the truth – instead, they make do with information transmitted through conversation, colored by social standing and perspective, transmuted by the biased worldviews of individuals. This social warping of reality – symbolized by free indirect discourse – gives rise to a struggle for truth that every character must resolve. This dilemma is so central to the novel that Austen introduces it from the very beginning. The first line of Pride and Prejudice reads: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1). At first glance, the tone of this opening line reads like a statement of fact, confident almost to the point of arrogance; however, a closer examination reveals a surprising layer of nuance. Here, the author does not claim that the narrator’s statement is universally true, but that it is “universally acknowledged”; Austen is not making a brass ontological claim about what exists in reality, but an epistemological one about what is believed “in the minds of the surrounding families” (Austen 1). This blurring of lines between what exists in the minds of others (beliefs) and what exists in reality (ontological truth) is not an accidental imprecision, but a comment on the difficulty of knowing accurate information in Regency England. To access ontological reality, individuals must pierce this veil of constructed truth – represented by free indirect discourse – propped up by society through exercising reason, passion, or a combination of both.
Having set up this struggle for truth, Austen proposes a solution in the character of Elizabeth Bennet. This character represents the Enlightenment ideal of truth, serving as a symbol of reason and rationality. Seemingly free of social pressures, Elizabeth runs to Netherfield Park in a muddy dress when Jane is sick; she even rejects the proposals of both Darcy and Mr. Collins, a radical act for a woman at that time. In both of these pivotal scenes, Elizabeth’s blatant disregard for societal convention enables her to actively deliberate and reason. But for all of Elizabeth’s rationality, she still misjudges the characters of Darcy and Wickham. Austen points out that this failure is due to her refusal to acknowledge the Romantic idea of certain truths as transcendent and unknowable. In continuing to judge both Darcy and Wickham based on their first impressions, Elizabeth commits the same error as Laplace and Newton by thinking that humans act predictably. The social world, Austen contends, is not a clockwork universe that steadily ticks forward according to a consistent set of rules: individuals are unpredictable, flawed, and should not be judged through pure reason alone. Indeed, Elizabeth only starts judging Darcy accurately after she visits the Pemberley estate; overcome by the “natural beauty”, the passion she feels in this scene serves as a signal that Darcy is a good match for her (Austen 235). This new knowledge did not come from a cognitive source, but a deeper, emotional one. It is important to note here that Austen is not unequivocally advocating for the Romantic perspective, but rather a synthesis of the Romantic approach with the Enlightenment approach. Elizabeth starts to change her mind about Darcy after she reads his letter, a wholly rational act; however, to complete this process and confirm her conclusions, she also becomes a Romantic by trusting her emotions as a source of knowledge. Like Kant, Austen acknowledges that there are limits to what truths pure reason can deliver. To overcome these limitations, she argues that it is necessary to respect some truths as unknowable and fundamentally emotional in nature. In this way, the ultimate cause of Elizabeth’s attainment of truth is rooted in both Romantic and Enlightenment ideals.
If Elizabeth represents the thesis that truth can be reached through rationality, then Fitzwilliam Darcy represents the antithesis that truth can be reached through passion. Where Elizabeth favors logic and reason as epistemological instruments, Darcy uses his emotions to judge others; for example, without any concrete information or evidence, he separates Jane and Mr. Bingley based on an intuition that Jane was not truly in love. His over-reliance on subjective feelings as a source of knowledge even led to his initial misjudgment of Elizabeth. Unimpressed and unmoved by her physical beauty, he declares that she is “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt [him]” and refuses to dance with her (Austen 13). Indeed, it is only after he sees beyond Elizabeth’s physical appearance and comes to appreciate the “liveliness of [her] mind” that he falls in love with her (Austen 359). This act in itself is a partial capitulation to the Enlightenment mode of thought; however, an aesthetic appreciation of Elizabeth’s logic is different to applying logic as a tool for attaining truth. Indeed, Darcy continues to misjudge reality throughout Elizabeth’s time at Rosings. His attempts at reaching out to her – waiting for her on her favorite paths, visiting her with Colonel Fitzwilliam, his proposal of marriage – fail due to the inherent subjectivity of his approach to truth. The Romantic conception of truth proclaims that “you create your own version of the universe”; truth is thus inherently subjective, and a particular truth is inextricable from the individual for whom that fact is true (Berlin 121). Austen’s characterization of Darcy’s awkward attempts to connect with Elizabeth can thus be read as a critique targeting the impractical subjectivity for which Romantic truth advocates. To Darcy, it is unequivocally true that he is in love with Elizabeth; he does not think it is necessary to rationally justify these subjective feelings to Elizabeth, and thus is unable to see that she is annoyed by his attempts to connect until she angrily rejects his proposal. Darcy giving Elizabeth his letter represents his realization that objective truth is important, and that reason combined with emotion is necessary for reaching accurate beliefs. By explaining his reasons and justifications for his actions to Elizabeth, Darcy grounds his “version of the universe” in the objective frame of ontological reality; the process of deliberation involved in writing the letter also makes him realize that some of his past judgments (such as his view that Jane was not in love with Mr. Bingley) are too illogical and not based enough in reason. In this sense, Darcy’s ability to make accurate judgments by the end of the novel is also a synthesis of Romantic and Enlightenment ideals.
Throughout the novel, the epistemological journeys of Darcy and Elizabeth parallel the development of their romance – Darcy only acts on his love for Elizabeth after he hands her the letter (his first use of reason to reach truth), and Elizabeth only falls in love with Darcy after she visits Pemberley (her first use of passion to reach truth). Austen uses this characterization of Darcy and Elizabeth to argue that both reason and passion combined are necessary to reach truth. This synthesis of Romantic and Enlightenment ideals aside, Austen has a larger point to make: she reframes love as an epistemological activity. For Austen’s characters, love functionally acts as a form of knowledge because knowing someone’s character is a necessary – even sufficient – condition for romance. Darcy falls for Elizabeth as soon as he fully understands her intellectual character; likewise, Elizabeth starts feeling affection for Darcy after she comes to appreciate his kindness. In this way, Pride and Prejudice also reveals that sometimes, the search for ontological truth and the search for romantic love are one and the same.
Ariel Cheng is a VI Former. She wrote this essay in her V form year as part of an English assignment.
References
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Classics, 2014.
Berlin, Isaiah. Roots of Romanticism. Princeton University Press, 2013.
The George Hill Burnett History Prize: How Unions Struggle: The 1913-1914 Copper Strike in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
By Avery King, Class of 2023
How Unions Struggle: The 1913-1914 Copper Strike in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Editor’s Note: The George Hill Burnett History Prize is given to commemorate the graduation in 1902 of a grandson of the founder. It is awarded on the basis of a special essay in American history.
The small piece of copper my grandmother kept in her kitchen fascinated me as a child. When she saw me staring at its glowing hues masked by green verdigris, she would smile, explaining that it was shaped like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. My dad’s side of the family immigrated to the Upper Peninsula from Finland in the 1880s. I was enthralled by stories about my great-grandfather, who worked for General Motors, and his dad, my great-great-grandfather, who worked in the copper mines. It was only when I got older, however, that I began to realize how important her stories about the copper mines are, not only for my family but for organized labor everywhere.
My great-great-grandfather on the paternal side of my family was a member of the Western Federation of Miners, a prominent mining union that operated in both the Colorado Coal Mines and the Michigan Copper Mines. On the night of Christmas Eve, 1913, my great-great-grandmother, Ida K. Putansu, took her six children (including my great-grandfather Richard Putansu, who was seven years old at the time) to a Christmas Party at Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan. Italian Hall was a public meeting place and, this night, its second floor was the site of a Union supported Christmas celebration. This meant that one had to show proof of membership in the union or have another union member vouch for them to enter the hall. The party was a nice diversion for the union members, who had been involved in a bitter strike, and their families. The crowded party was full of laughter and celebration until an unknown person shouted, “Fire!” The ensuing chaos left seventy-three people dead.
(more…)The Coleman Prize in English: The Transformative Symbolism of White Flowers: Innocence or Guilt?
By Kelly Yang, Class of 2023
The Transformative Symbolism of White Flowers: Innocence or Guilt?
Editor’s Note: The Coleman Prize in English is awarded to the student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the most outstanding essay during the academic year.
If Dorian Gray were a flower, what kind of flower would he be? In the “Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde uses the Victorian language of flowers to comment implicitly on aestheticism and moral corruption. He reveals the corrupting influence of purely aesthetic lives through the symbol of white flowers. From daisy to narcissus, orchid, and rose, the transformative symbolism of white flowers charts Dorian Gray’s trajectory from a figure of innocence to one of degradation.
Before Dorian Gray is corrupted by a purely aesthetic life, Wilde chooses the symbol of the white daisy to represent Dorian’s innocence and youth. Even before Dorian Gray enters the story, Wilde uses the white daisy to foreshadow Dorian’s loss of innocence. The symbol of the white daisy first appears in a garden, alluding to the Garden of Eden. Just as the Devil corrupts Adam and Eve, Wilde implies that Dorian Gray is doomed to be corrupted by the aesthetic philosophy that Lord Henry inculcates in him. In the grass of the religiously symbolic garden, “white daisies [are] tremulous” (Wilde 6). Daisies are drought-resistant wildflowers that thrive without needing much cultivation (Southern Living Editors). Intentionally placing the wild daisies in the “Garden of Eden,” Wilde suggests the unaffected nature of Dorian Gray, who has not yet been exposed to Lord Henry’s corrupting influence. By using the word “tremulous,” Wilde personifies the daisy, implying that Dorian Gray’s ethical principles are unstable and impressionable, and his understanding of his beauty will be easily subverted by Lord Henry. The symbolism of the white daisy reappears when Lord Henry preaches the significance of vanity and beauty. When Lord Henry mocks Mrs. Hallward as “a peacock in everything but beauty,” he symbolically “pulls the daisies to bits” with his fingers (Wilde 8). By comparing women to peacocks in this simile, Lord Henry dehumanizes women as vain animals that flaunt their tails. His word choice “but” in the phrase “everything but beauty” also disdainfully expresses that he only sees aesthetic values in the external beauty of women and nothing else (Wilde 8; emphasis added). When Lord Henry expresses his philosophy of aestheticism, the daisies, which represent innocence and a lack of worldliness, are torn into pieces, foreshadowing Dorian’s self-destruction due to his indulgent pursuit of beauty (Kirkby 43).
(more…)The Redmond Prize for English Narrative: The Color Of Absurdism
By Ariel Cheng, IV Form
The Color of Absurdism
The Redmond Prize for English Narrative, presented in memory of Henry S. Redmond, Class of 1923, is awarded to the student, who, in the judgment of the English Department, has submitted the outstanding piece of narrative during this academic year.
There you are. Just stay perched on the platform, like a bird about to take flight, for a little while longer. I’ll wade through the dusty coats and heavy smoke and excessive coffee stains. I’ll push past the glowing vending machines and clicking suitcases. While you wait, let me tell you a story.
In the crowd there is a man cupping an orange. Do you see him? From my perspective it looks like a sun, attracting the rush-hour like a moth to a flame. We are in its orbit. Our stares swallow and gulp at the bright flesh, desperate for light and sweat and cold. Now it is sliding down his throat, peeling away like a rollercoaster over a track. But why am I still looking? The man is gone, the orange is gone, their shadows are gone. The train is gone. There and gone.
What is orange, you ask? Have they not covered this in school yet? Orange is a color, a fruit, a symbol of prosperity. But your experience of orange – the orange you see, feel, taste – is unique. I can never know what an orange tastes like for you, or for that lady with the stroller. We are all forever stuck in the cages of our own imaginations.
(more…)The Shen Prize: The Enduring Constitutional Shield of the Warren Court
By Katelyn Yang, VI Form
The Shen Speech Prize: The Enduring Constitutional Shield of the Warren Court
Editor’s Note: The Shen Prize is awarded to the winner of a public speaking contest among Advanced Placement United States History students on the topic of democracy. The prize is given by Y.L. Shen in honor of his daughters, Ing-ie (Ava) Shen of the Class of 1988 and Ing-Chuan (Judy) Shen of the Class of 1989.
Inscribed on the headstone of former Chief Justice Earl Warren are some of these words that bear a powerful message even today: “Where there is injustice, we should correct it; Where there is neglect, we should provide care; And wherever corrections are achieved, we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasures.”
We enjoy many rights and freedoms from the Warren Court’s ‘storehouse of treasures.’ This U.S. Supreme Court served from 1953 to 1969 and arguably did more to advance individual rights and liberties than any court before or after. Such rights and liberties are vital to a functioning democracy as they allow citizens to participate fully and effectively. However, they were not always respected by governing majorities.
The Warren Court sought to create a ‘constitutional shield’ against the tyranny of the majority. By striking down discriminatory laws, the Court expanded democracy by extending the Bill of Rights protections to more Americans. By recognizing privacy and voting rights, the Court broadened individual liberties. Moreover, the Court’s accomplishments remind us that when American institutions act with empathy and courage, they can bring the nation closer to a true democracy.
(more…)The Ely Speech Prize for The Global Seminar: From Green, White, and Red to Red, White, and Blue; An Immigration Story
By Ellie Tesoro, IV Form
From Green, White, and Red to Red, White, and Blue; An Immigrant Story
Editor’s Note: Ellie Tesoro is the recipient of the 2023 Ely Prize in Public Speaking. Originally given by a member of the Class of 1892 in memory of his mother, the Ely Prize is presented to the student who gave the best speech in the Global Seminar Public Speaking Competition.
Student-Submitted Note: This is a speech written about my grandfather who immigrated from Italy during World War II and some of the challenges he overcame. The Global Seminar has a yearly speech competition which all students compete in, with 8 finalists reading their piece before the grade and one winner is picked. The 2023 ELY Speech prompt was “How was your view as a global citizen changed this year at St Mark’s and in The Global Seminar.”
Imagine having to wake up every day for the first four years of your life not knowing who your father was or if he was alive. My grandfather, Tony Tesoro, carried that burden for 1461 days. Today I am going to be telling his story and the lasting impact it has had on me and my family. The purpose of this speech isn’t to bore you with the details of how my family survived in a country completely foreign to them. It is rather on the patriotism and resilience that has been engraved into my family since my great-grandfather, Giovanni Tesoro, was first captured by the United States military 80 years ago.
For this to make better sense I am going to start from the beginning. My grandfather Antonio (Tony) Tesoro was born on April 11, 1941, in rural Italy by the countryside. He had a mother, a sister, and a father. His father, Giovanni, was drafted into World War II in 1941 a few months before Tony was born. Giovanni was captured by the British Army and then handed over to the United States military. He served as a cook, gaining alliances as well as true friendships with both POW and American soldiers. Giovanni spoke highly about the treatment he received from his captors and always said that he was lucky. Things could’ve been much worse than they were if it weren’t for the generosity of the US.
(more…)
LEO 