Ge Kunhua
Ge Kunhua, also known as Ko K’un-hua, was a Chinese scholar-official and the first instructor of Mandarin Chinese to teach at Harvard University in the United States, from September 1879 until his death in February 1882.
Life and career
Ge Kunhua was a Chinese scholar-official from Ningbo and, from his own account, a native of Huizhou in Anhui Province. While he had purchased his civil service rank rather than passing the imperial examinations, he commanded the respect of Westerners, including Edward Bangs Drew, a Harvard alumnus and senior official with the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and Francis Parkman Knight, a successful Boston merchant and future U.S. consul in China.Hearing that Harvard president Charles William Eliot was seeking a Chinese scholar to educate Harvard students wishing to work in the lucrative trade in Chinese goods, Drew recommended Kunhua for the position, and Knight successfully advocated for his hire. Kunhua spoke little English, but he had clerked for a Chinese military official and spent five years working for the British embassy and two more for the American consulate in Shanghai. He had successfully tutored Westerners in Mandarin Chinese and evinced curiosity and open-mindedness about Western customs and technology. According to Drew, he had offended Shanghai imperial officials, who suspected him of using the local press to criticize their conduct. The threat of prosecution may have an additional motive for Kunhua's willingness to travel to America to teach. He accepted Harvard's offer of a three-year contract commencing in September 1879, with a monthly salary of $200.
Kunhua arrived in Boston with his wife and five children, along with a maidservant, on September 1, 1879. During his first year, his only student was Latin professor George Martin Lane, who befriended Kunhua and taught him English. While teaching, Kunhua always wore the official robes of the Qing dynasty. He penned elegant poetry in Chinese and English, and his beautiful calligraphy gained widespread admiration. In just under three years at Harvard, Kunhua taught only five students, but he impressed Bostonians with his warmth and dignity.
Kunhua contracted pneumonia and died ten days later in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in February 1882. On February 16, Harvard held a memorial service in Appleton Chapel, which President Eliot and other dignitaries attended. Harvard paid for Kunhua's remains and his family members to be returned to China, and Knight and Drew raised $5,000 to educate his sons and offset his family's living expenses back in China. Drew later arranged to enroll the children at the American-run St. John's University, Shanghai.