Yung Wing
In 1873 Tsai was sent to America to study as a member of the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) and lived with an American family in New Britain, Connecticut. After graduating from high school, where he was known as "Fighting Chinee," he behaved so wildly that it was decided to send him back to China. But when Yung Wing, the CEM leader, interviewed him, he saw that Tsai had learned excellent colloquial American English and instead sent Tsai to learn practical mechanics in a machine shop at Lowell, Massachusetts. Since the machinery in the shop was dangerous, Tsai and his CEM fellow student were given permission to cut the long queues which the government of China required all Chinese men to wear, the only time that such an act was officially condoned.