Tsai Tingkan

[1] In 1873 Tsai was sent to America to study as a member of the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) and lived with an American family in New Britain, Connecticut.

Since the machinery in the shop was dangerous, Tsai and his CEM fellow student were given permission to cut the long queues which the government of China required all Chinese men to wear, the only time that such an act was officially condoned.

[3] In 1901, following China's further defeat in the Boxer Uprising, on the recommendation of Tang Shaoyi, a fellow CEM student, Tsai was taken into the service of Yuan Shikai, the military reformer and political general, who sponsored his rehabilitation and rise.

In 1911 he was promoted to rear admiral and in the following year, Chief of the Department of Naval Administration in Navy Board [4] Under the new republic, Tsai helped Yuan Shikai negotiate the abdication of the Manchu ruler.

When Yuan became president, he took pride in the foreign educated returned students he placed in prominent positions, and Ts’ai was one of several graduates of the CEM to join his entourage.

[5] Tsai served as the Associate Director-General of Customs Revenue Council, inspector in the Salt Gabelle, in the Department of Taxation, and as Master of Ceremonies in the presidential palace.