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When I Was a Boy in China
1887 · 154 pages
When I Was a Boy in China
by Yan Phou Lee
About the text. The free text is clean — we find fewer than 1 damaged word in 400. We publish the count so you can judge it for yourself. The full text is public domain and free — linked below.
On this page: a summary of When I Was a Boy in China.
Yan Phou Lee's affectionate recollection of his childhood in China — its homes, games, schooling, and customs — written for American readers after he came to the United States with the Chinese Educational Mission and studied at Yale.
The changed life
Raised in traditional Chinese culture, he came to America with the Chinese Educational Mission, was converted to Christianity, and graduated from Yale in 1887 — the first Asian American to publish a book in English.
Summary
When I Was a Boy in China (1887) is Yan Phou Lee's short autobiography of his childhood, written in English for American readers. It gathers vivid recollections of a Chinese boyhood — the home and family, games and food, schooling in the Confucian classics, religion, and the customs of daily life — offered as a window into a world most of his readers had never seen.
Lee was raised in a scholar-official family and steeped in classical Chinese education before his life turned westward. The book ends with the journey that changed everything: his coming to the United States as one of the students of the Chinese Educational Mission, the same program that carried Yung Wing's dream across the Pacific.
Brief and accessible, the book stands as a companion piece to Yung Wing's fuller memoir. It is remembered too as a landmark of Asian American letters, often called the first book published in English by an Asian American, and its author went on to convert to Christianity and graduate from Yale.
Who was Yan Phou Lee?
Yan Phou Lee (born 1861) was a Chinese-born writer and one of the young students brought to America through the Chinese Educational Mission. He came from a scholar-official family and was formed in the classical Chinese education of his day before crossing to the United States, where he converted to Christianity and studied at Yale, graduating in 1887.
He is often identified as the first Asian American to publish a book in English, and When I Was a Boy in China is that book. A companion to Yung Wing, whose mission made his education possible, Lee wrote to introduce American readers to the ordinary texture of Chinese childhood from the inside, as one who had lived it.
Which edition of When I Was a Boy in China is this?
Lee wrote his boyhood memoir in English, and our public-domain edition presents his own words in a clean, readable modern format with clear type, alongside a link to a free source.
Common questions
- Was Yan Phou Lee really the first Asian American author?
- He is widely regarded as the first Asian American to publish a book in English, and When I Was a Boy in China is that book. He came to the United States with the Chinese Educational Mission, converted to Christianity, and graduated from Yale in 1887.
- How does this book relate to Yung Wing's memoir?
- It is a companion piece. Lee came to America through the Chinese Educational Mission that Yung Wing founded, and his short account of a Chinese boyhood pairs naturally with Yung Wing's fuller life story.
A note on the text. When I Was a Boy in China is in the public domain. The text below is free to read at the source we link. The original text is also available free here.
That free text is already well proofread — we measure about 0.1 errors per 1,000 characters. We publish the measurement so you can judge the free text for yourself.