My Life in China and America

The author recounts his upbringing near Macao and early Western-style education, followed by study at an American academy and college, then a return to China where he sought positions in business and public service while promoting educational reform. He describes travels in tea regions, encounters with the Taiping movement, his proposal and leadership of a government-sponsored program to send youth abroad, an investigation into the coolie trade in Peru, and later diplomatic and political reversals including recall and the 1898 coup. Throughout he reflects on cultural exchange, modernizing institutions, and education as a means of national renewal.