(This article was written by a visiting scholar at UW in 2010, with the goal of publishing in a Chinese journal)
The head line on the first page of Branding Iron on October 17, 1929, reads “Ling Kuei Mang, aspiring to Chinese diplomacy, is impressed with America.” Mang, who arrived in Laramie in September that year, became the first Chinese student to be enrolled in the University of Wyoming. The 28 year old political science student, as the headline had suggested, later became an active participant in the Chinese political scene in the 1930s-40s, a period of war and conflict.
Mang was born in 1901 in the northeastern province of Jilin (Kirin) to a wealthy family, and was a descendant of Mongolian nobles from the 13th century. After graduating from an elite high school, Mang joined the army and quickly rose to first lieutenant and later chief of staff in the Nationalist Army Northeastern Division headquarters. At one point, Mang served as personal assistant to the deputy commander of the Northeastern Division.Zhang Xueliang, the famous one-time warlord who in two turbulent weeks in December of 1936 helped turn the course of Chinese history. Zhang kidnapped the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the so-called “Xi’an incident” and compelled him to form a wartime alliance with the Communists against Japan.
Mang’s army career was cut short when, in 1927, he received a scholarship for ethnic Mongolians to study in the United States. He first went to University of Washington, majoring in British and American Literature. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Wyoming and became the first Chinese student in the state in the fall of 1929. In an interview by the Branding Iron on July 23, 1930, he was asked why he had chosen UW. Mang explained that he preferred a small institute and wanted to experience authentic America. However, the foremost reason for his choice was “this is the only state institution without any Chinese students!”
Mang, who had tremendous personal charm and political awareness, quickly became a local star. In Wilson O. Clough’s A History of the University of Wyoming, 1887-1937 (1937), Mang was referred as a “well-known Chinese student on the campus” active in public speeches and seminars to educate people about China. Mang’s hometown Jilin fell under the occupation of Japan in 1931, and although few people in America had paid much attention to the event, it was a heartbreaking time for Mang. He used every opportunity available to inform his fellow students about the grievous situation in China.
Mang completed his degree in political science in the summer of 1932. He would later fondly remember his mentor, the department chair Dr. Henry Peterson. Peterson was very open-minded and had encouraged Mang to focus on the Soviet political system. Mang returned to China that summer and took up a faculty position in a university in Shanghai.
His academic life was soon disrupted when Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. At the age of 36, Mang once again joined the army to fight for the survival of his country. First serving in an artillery unit, he was later transferred to the Central Military Academy as a political instructor. Mang remained in the army until the end of the war (1945).
When China fell under communist rule, Mang returned to his hometown Jilin, where he lived the quiet and respectable life of an English professor and chairperson at the Northeastern China University. He was cautious politically and had managed to avoid conflicts with the regime until the Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless, in the summer of 1968, after suffering two years of relentless political prosecution, physical abuse, and hardship, Mang ended his life in despair in a small lake near his university. In 1978, the authorities held a postmortem funeral to restore Mang’s good name and honor his lifetime contribution to his country. In many ways, this UW first Chinese student’s life had mirrored China’s tumultuous 20th century, and was a mixture of hope, struggle and tragedy.