Background
Mr. John Wong was born at Taiku hsien, Shaanxi province in 1885. His father was then a magistrate of that district. At the age of 10 he went with his parents to their permanant home in Peking.
Mr. John Wong was born at Taiku hsien, Shaanxi province in 1885. His father was then a magistrate of that district. At the age of 10 he went with his parents to their permanant home in Peking.
For following two years Mr. Wong studied at home and was then tutored in English by a graduate of Peking University. In 1898 Mr. Wong entered St. John’s College at Shanghai. Shortly after, the Boxer Uprising broke out, and being severed from his family in Peking for over six months, he was much embarrassed financially. However, his classmates at St. John’s came to his assistance and he eventually graduated from St. John’s with honor.
After two years in the collegiate department of St. John’s Mr. Wong received a government scholarship to the Tianjin Polytechnic College, where he studied chemistry, completing five years’ work in two.
In 1909 Mr. Wong took the competitive examination for a Boxer Indemnity scholarship and was one of the first group of 47 to go to the United States. In the winter of 1910 he studied at Cushing Academy, Ashburham, Massachusetts and then took four years in chemistry at the State University of Wisconsin from which he received the degree of B. A. in 1914. The following year he specialized in leather chemistry at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, working during the summer in several American tanneries The following year he obtained an M. A. from Columbia University.
In the fall of 1916 Mr. Wong returned to Tianjin where he started a small tannery of his own. His venture proved successful and used to have a big paid-up capital with the plans for further increasing.
Mr. Wong was a Christian. He was baptized in the Congregational Church at Ashburnham. On his return to China he was elected to the board of the Y. M. C. A. and served in that capacity ever since.
Mr. Wong was baptized in the Congregational Church at Ashburnham.