Xue Youfu (Y.F. Sik) 1863/4-1884

Xue was one of the thirty boys in the third batch (1875) of students sent to the USA under the arrangement of Yung Wing's education mission. He studied in Holyoke College in Massachusetts. In 1881, due to unfavourable conservative reports about the students being corrupted by Western practices, all the students were taken back to China. After his return, Xue was sent to study in the naval college in Fuzhou. He died three years later in the Sino-French conflicts when the ship on which he served was sunk under French fire. His letters to his American friend Kate are collected in Zhongguo youtong liu Mei shuxinji (Collection of Letters by Chinese Students in America) edited by Timothy Kao.

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