# Woo Tsze Tung — My Life in China and America character guide

> Woo Tsze Tung in My Life in China and America by Yung Wing.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Woo

**First appearance:** 0010-viii-experiences-in-business

## Snapshot

A Chinese merchant and diplomat whose dawdling habits let others shoulder his Cuba mission, exposing how credit and reward rarely track real labor.

## Who they are

Woo Tsze Tung moves through Yung Wing's world of Chinese officials and foreign postings as a man of position but little appetite for the work that position demands. Asked to investigate the condition of coolies in Cuba, he delays three months, then sends Yeh Shu Tung and a teacher to do the actual labor while he takes a perfunctory trip and returns. His inertia matters because it quietly illustrates Yung Wing's larger grievance: in official life, laurels often fall to the man who did least.

## Relationships

### [Chin Lan Pin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se/characters/chin_lan_pin)

_professional_

Chin Lan Pin and Woo Tsze Tung were colleagues in the Chinese Educational Mission, managing students abroad.

## In the story

### [XIX: End of the Educational Mission](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se/chapters/xix-end-of-the-educational-mission)

Installed as commissioner in 1876, spread malicious misrepresentations about the students.

### [Journey to Peking and Death of My Wife](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se/chapters/xx-journey-to-peking-and-death-of-my-wife)

Met with Yung Wing in Tientsin; appeared careworn and was never heard from again after their last interview.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se/characters/woo_tsze_tung
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_life_in_china_and_america_se/characters