Wang-y-tong

Who is Wang-y-tong?

Wang-y-tong was a Chinese youth who visited England in the late 18th century. After the Christian convert Michael Shen Fuzong in 1687, the merchant Loum Kiqua in 1756-1757, and the artist Tan-Che-Qua in 1769 to 1772, Wang is one of the earliest Chinese people known to have visited England.

Little is known of Wang's early life. Having heard about Tan-Che-Qua's journey to and reception in England, Wang also decided to travel to England. He was brought to England from Canton by John Bradby Blake in the early 1770s. Blake was a supercargo for the East India Company, and also a naturalist, who was interested in Wang's knowledge of cultivating Chinese plants, and their culinary and medicinal uses. After Blake's death in 1773, Wang was taken into the care of Blake's father, Captain John Blake.

Wang visited the Royal Society on 12 January 1775. In a letter of 1775, he is said to be about 22 years old. He was visited at Blake's house, where he discussed the manufacture of Chinese ceramics with Josiah Wedgwood, and acupuncture with physician Andrew Duncan.