As some of you know already, the documentary on the Chinese Educational Mission produced by Hu Jingcao of Central China Television, who filmed in the Hartford area in the summer of 2002, is being aired in China this week. At the same time, a slightly altered English version is being shown on CCTV-9, the Chinese English-language station, which can be viewed by those with the satellite system called DirecTV. If you have DirecTV, or. like me, have a gracious neighbor who does, the program airs at 430 am, 1030 am, 430 pm, and 1030 pm Beijing time. 430 am Beijing time is 430 pm the same day for those of us on the East Coast. The episode viewable starting at 4:30 pm today, May 4, is Part III, in which the boys arrive in Hartford. I believe there are five parts, and they may be repeated after the fifth is aired, but it's a little hard to tell from the CCTV website. I am taping the episodes for a Hartford-area showing. Those of you in the Mark Twain Forum may not all be aware of this extraordinary educational effort, in which 120 Chinese boys aged 9 to 12 were sent to the United States to study. Headquarters of the CEM was in Hartford. The Rev. Joseph Twichell was a strong and intimate supporter of this effort, which ran from 1872-1881. Mark Twain and Gen. U.S. Grant were involved in an effort to save the CEM in 1880 that seemed momentarily to have succeeded, but the effort foundered in Sino-American politics related to the U.S. interest in closing off immigration. Steve Courtney