China and the West

Huang Yadong hält sich in England auf.
He is described as Wang-y-Tong, who worked as a page in the John Frederick Sackville's household at Knole and attended the local Sevenoaks School. Huang Yadong is known to have visited the naturalists Mary Delany and the Duchess of Portland at the latter’s country seat of Bulstrode, discussing Chinese plants and their uses with them. He also visited the Royal Society, talked to Josiah Wedgwood about the manufacture of Chinese porcelain and explained the principles of acupuncture to the physician Andrew Duncan.
The man who was instrumental in enabling Huang to travel to England was John Bradby Blake, who was engaged in trade for the East India Company in Guangzhou. Blake was interested in the natural history of China and being stationed in Guangzhou enabled him to collect seeds and plants that had medicinal or economic uses and to send them back to Europe for propagation and research. Huang’s botanical knowledge made him a suitable conduit to supply firsthand information to British naturalists. Blake fell ill and died in Guangzhou just before Huang arrived in England, and his father, Captain John Blake, initially looked after the young Chinese man.