Zeng Laishun

Zeng Laishun
曾來順
Zeng, c. 1880s
Born	c. 1826 Singapore, Straits Settlements
Died	June 2, 1895(1895-06-02) (aged 68–69) Tianjin, Qing China
Occupations	Interpreter businessman educator
Spouse	Ruth Ati ​ (m. 1850)​
Children	6
Chinese name
Chinese	曾來順
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zēng Láishùn Wade–Giles Tseng1 Lai2-shun4 Southern Min Teochew Peng'im Zêng1 Lai5sung6
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	曾蘭生
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zēng Lánshēng Wade–Giles Zeng1 Lan2-sheng1
Courtesy name
Chinese	曾恒忠
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zēng Héngzhōng Wade–Giles Zeng1 Heng2-chung1

Zeng Laishun (c. 1826 – 2 June 1895) was a Chinese interpreter, businessman, and educator. He was the first Chinese person to attend college in the United States. Born in Singapore to a Teochew father and a Malay mother, he was orphaned as a young child. He was educated by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a Christian missionary organization, where he converted to Christianity. He was sent to the United States in 1843 and in 1846 was admitted to Hamilton College, but was unable to graduate due to a lack of funds. Laishun then traveled to China, and following several years of working as a missionary assistant in Guangzhou he left with his family to pursue a trading career in Shanghai.

In 1866, Zeng was hired by the imperial government as an English instructor at the newly-established Fuzhou Navy Yard School. Seeking to gain experience with western practices and institutions, the imperial government began the Chinese Educational Mission in 1871, amassing a group of 120 Chinese boys to study in the United States. He worked as an interpreter and English tutor for the mission under bureaucrat Chen Lanbin and Zeng's colleague Yung Wing. He returned to the United States in 1872, where he was frequently and erroneously hailed as the "Chinese Commissioner of Education".

Zeng settled with his family in Springfield, Massachusetts, and began giving public lectures on Chinese society alongside his participation in local civic life. He was briefly dispatched to Cuba around the end of 1873 to investigate the poor working conditions of Chinese indentured servants brought to the island as part of the coolie trade. He was abruptly recalled to China in late 1874, likely for diplomatic purposes; during his return, he traveled through Europe to assess universities for future educational missions. He became the Chief Private English Secretary of the preeminent statesman Li Hongzhang, and served as an interpreter in various diplomatic negotiations with the western powers over the following two decades.