Kwong Yung Chung (1861-1884, Class of 1883) matriculated at MIT in 1879, the first student of the CEM to attend the Institute. Joining Cheong Mong Cham (Class of 1883), Kwong also studied Mechanical Engineering (Course II).[1] A native of Guangdong Province, Kwong belonged to the second detachment of the CEM and came to the US in 1873, when he was only thirteen years old.[2] He attended Wesleyan Academy and Williston Seminary before coming to MIT. An athlete as well as a scholar, Kwong had played football at Williston, and was a member of the CEM’s "Orientals" baseball team. Kwong attended the Institute from 1879 to 1881, when he was recalled to China. There he was assigned to the Fuzhou Naval School and later became a Naval Officer in the Beiyang Squadron. He was killed in action at the "Battle of Pagoda Anchorage"[3] (August 23, 1884) during the Sino-French War of 1883-1885, along with two other MIT men.[4]
[1] MIT Annual Catalogs and Bulletins 1880/81. For more on Kwong (aka Kwong Wing Chung), see CEM Connections.
[2] Photographs of Kwong are available in the LaFargue Collection at Washington State University:
Kwong Wing Chung, ca. 1873-76, and in the “Orientals" baseball team.
[3] Reproduction of an image from DSZHB.
[4] Sik Yau Foke and Yang Seu Nam on the Yangwu.
Sources: MIT Chinese Students Directory: For the Past Fifty Years, 1931; Class of '84 MIT: Twenty-fifth Anniversary Book, 1909; the Technology Review; The Tech; the MIT Course Catalogue; MIT's Reports to the President; Who's Who of American Returned Students (You Mei tongxue lu), Beijing: Tsinghua College, 1917; CEM Connections; Thomas La Fargue, China's First Hundred. Pullman: State College of Washington, 1942; and The Thomas La Fargue Digital Collection (Washington State University Libraries).