Yesutang Lane (literally, Christian Church Lane) is a narrow street tucked away in Hangzhou’s city center. In June 1876, John Leighton Stuart, who went on to become an honorary citizen of Hangzhou and U.S. ambassador to China, was born in a residence on this street.

While Stuart said that he considered himself more Chinese than American, both of his parents had strong roots in the United States. His father was part of the first wave of Protestant missionaries to China, and Stuart was born in Hangzhou, where he became fluent in the local dialect. Later he returned to the United States to attend school in Virginia, where the neighborhood children taunted him for being a “strange foreigner” who could not speak English.

The young Stuart followed in his father’s footsteps in 1904, when he brought his new bride back to Hangzhou and commenced mission ary work. Looking back at Stuart’s 50 years in China, however, nothing stands out more than the contribu tions he made to education. In May 1919, Stuart was appointed president of newly-formed Yenching University in Peking (now known as Beijing). Under his leadership, “Freedom Through Truth for Service” was adopted as the university motto, and what had once been a shambolic institution was transformed into a world-renowned comprehensive university in less than a decade. From 1919 to 1952, a total of 9,988 students attended Yenching University. Over the 33 years it was in operation, the university served as a seedbed for China, fostering a great deal of high-caliber talents, including 42 academicians at the Chinese Acad emy of Sciences, 11 academicians at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and more than a hundred alumni in various disciplines who have gone on to become leaders in their fields.

Stuart passed away on September 19, 1962, in Washington D.C. He indicat ed in his will that he hoped his ashes would one day be buried in China. His ashes were finally laid to rest in Hangzhou’s Anxianyuan Cemetery on Banshan Hill on November 17, 2008.

Stuart said, “China has been my home for the greater part of my life. I am bound to that great country and peo ple by ineluctable ties of the spirit.”