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Wong Kwei Liang

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Pinyin & Chinese characters Huang Jiliang 黄季良
Variant Spellings & Other Names Wan Kwei Chieng
Wong Kwei Cheong
Whang K. Liang1
Other Chinese Name(s) Huang Zuoting 黄佐廷
Detachment 3
LaFargue No. 86
Date of Birth 1862
Place of Birth Panyu, Guangdong
Age at Departure for US 13 (Lunar Calendar)
Date of Death 23 August 1884
Place of Death Fuzhou (Sino-French War, “Battle of Pagoda Anchorage”)
Place(s) of Residence in US (1) Winchester, CT
(2) Greenfield, MA
(3) Westfield, MA.
American Host Family/ies (1) James Coles, Winchester, CT
(2) Elizabeth (Lizzie) Clark, Greenfield, MA
(3) William H. & Josephine S. Foote, Westfield, MA2
School(s), with dates  
Notable Activities/Awards in School  
College/University, with dates  
Notable Activities/Awards in College  
Degree/Diploma Obtained (date)  
First Assignment in China Assigned to Fuzhou Naval School
Later Positions Naval Officer: trained aboard the wooden corvette Yang Wu 杨武; killed in action during the “Battle of Pagoda Anchorage.”3
Employment Sector(s) Navy
Final Rank, if in Gov't Service “Seventh Rank of Naval Merit” 练生七品軍功 conferred on passing entrance examination to Fuzhou Naval School.4
Father's Name

Huang Daoping 黄道平5
Mother's Name  
Wife/wives  
Family Relations w/ other CEM Students Younger brother of Wong Chung Liang (Huang Zhongliang 黄仲良, I, 7).
Children's Names  
Descendants  
Other Six ex-CEM students served aboard Chinese ships during the French naval bombardment of Mawei 馬尾 Dockyard (“The Pagoda Anchorage”) near Fuzhou, on 23 August, 1884: Young Shang Him (Rong Shangqian 容尚谦 I, 6), Kwong Wing Chung (Kuang Yongzhong 邝咏钟 II, 56), Sit Yau Fu (Xue Youfu 薛有福 III, 75), Yang Sew Nan (Yang Zhaonan 杨兆南 III, 85), Wong Kwei Liang, and Woo Kee Tsao (Wu Qizao 吴其藻 IV, 100). Of the six, Young Shang Him and Woo Kee Tsao survived the battle, but four lost their lives: Kwong Wing Chung, Second Detachment, aboard the wooden gunboat Chen Wei 振威6; and three others, all Third Detachment men, aboard the Yang Wu 杨武: Sit Yau Fu, Yang Sew Nan, and Wong Kwei Liang.7
Notes and Sources

1. Signature: “Yours truly, / Whang K. Liang / Westfield, / Mass.”, in autograph book (ca. 1875) of Yung Kwai (Rong Kui 容揆 II, 34) in Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT.

2. Residences and hosts: Rhoads (2011), p. 53, Table 5.1 (Winchester, CT, James Coles); Robyn (1996), p. 146 (Greenfield, MA, Elizabeth Clark); U.S. Census 1880, Rhoads (2011), p. 140, Table 9.2 (Westfield, MA, William H. Foote).

3. “…the most impressive ship to be built [at Fuzhou] during the 1870s was Yang-wu, a fully rigged steam corvette of 1393 tons…. Completed at the end of 1872, she was taken over as the Foochow training ship…. Flagship of the Fukien squadron, she was a prime target for the French at Foochow in 1884, where she was quickly destroyed.”  Wright (2000), p. 40; Yung Shang Him (1939), p. 44.

4. Qian & Hu (2003), p. 167; cf. Yung Shang Him (1939), p. 43.

5. Qian & Hu (2003), p. 168; Qian & Hu (2004), p. 178.  Huang was said to have been a 5th rank Mandarin in charge of boiler workshops at the Jiangnan Arsenal near Shanghai.

6. The Chen Wei, built and launched at Fuzhou in 1872, was completely destroyed by a single shell fired from the French cruiser, Triomphante. Wright (2000), pp. 38; 39; 61-63.

7. Qian & Hu (2003), p. 167; Yung Shang Him (1939), p. 44.