The Open Doors report released last week by the Institute of International Education is quite telling. The number of Chinese students studying in universities and colleges in the United States jumped 21.4 percent in the 2012-13 academic year, rising to nearly a quarter of a million, or 235,597, to be exact.

It means that 28.7 percent of all international students studying in the US are from China. Chinese undergraduates have been fueling the trend, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total number of Chinese in US universities and colleges.

The momentum is expected to continue because more and more Chinese parents are able to afford to send their children - often the only one in the family - to US schools. Many US schools are struggling with funding shortfalls and have cashed in on the Chinese students, who, in general, pay higher tuition than their US counterparts.

As the report indicates, China did not send any students to the US from the 1950s until 1974-75 because relations between the two countries were cut off. Then, in the 1980s, the number of Chinese students heading to the US increased dramatically.

In 1988-89, the Chinese mainland replaced Taiwan as the leading provider of students to the US and retained that status until first place was taken by Japan in 1994-95.

China recaptured the top spot in 1998-99, lost it in 2001-02 to India - which held it for eight years - and then regained it in 2009-10.

What few people may realize, however, is that the New England city of Hartford, Connecticut, was the place where the first group of Chinese students arrived in the US - 140 years ago.

In the early 1870s, the teetering Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was struggling to cope with domestic rebellion and foreign invasion. The surprising rise of the once- peripheral Japan and concessions forced upon China by the British and French, who enjoyed extraterritoriality, had top officials of the Qing court deeply worried. They also realized the need to reform and to learn from the West.

In 1847, Yung Wing, aged 19, followed an American priest to the US and, in 1854, became the first Chinese to graduate from Yale College. In 1868, he proposed that young Chinese be sent to study in the US, and the imperial court agreed.

Before then, the Middle Kingdom long believed it had nothing to learn from the outside world.

For four years, beginning in 1872, the Qing court sent 120 boys aged 12 to 15 to the US in a fully government-funded program, aiming to let each study there for up to 15 years, from prep school through college.

The boys, arriving in Hartford, where many host families were waiting, were well received by the locals.

"These boys were in the heart of America in those days," said Liel Leibovitz, co-author of the book Fortunate Sons, which tells their story. He cited the celebrated US author Mark Twain, who lived with his family in Hartford for 20 years between 1871 and 1891, and praised the city by saying, "If you have ever seen Hartford, you never want to see another American town."

These Chinese boys adapted well to local life, learning English, going horseback riding and even doing some hunting. Some soon became bored with the Confucian classes they had to take once a month at the Chinese Educational Mission.

But the Qing court's worried that the boys were becoming too Westernized led to a decision to bring the students back to China in 1881.

Despite their shortened stay in the US, many of the boys returned to China and later became important figures, including Zhan Tianyou, known as Jeme Tien Yow, who was chief engineer for the first railway constructed in China without foreign assistance, in the early 20th century.

While Zhan, a graduate of Yale University, was one of the first Chinese students to study engineering in the US, China now has more engineering graduates each year than the US.

The winds of academic exchange are blowing again, it seems. In 2011-12, about 15,000 US students went to China to study in degree and for-credit programs. The trend has picked up pace since US President Barack Obama announced the 100,000 Strong Initiative in 2009, a plan to send 100,000 US students to China over a period of four years.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com