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November 14, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sun Mei

Most of the attention is placed on his famous brother, however several historians feel that without the fostering and support, the younger brother would not have succeeded in his endeavor.

The older brother, born in 1854, was named Sun Dezhang, he was also known as Sun Ahmi and Sun Mei (we’ll use the latter for the rest of the story.)

The younger brother, born in 1866, was known as Tai Cheong, Tai Chu, Sun Wen and Sun Deming (we’ll use the Cantonese pronunciation of the name he was given at baptism (in 1884) – pronounced Yat-sen.)

Gold was discovered in 1849 in western American state of California. The Chinese called USA the “Flowery Flag Country.” Thousands of Chinese immigrants had been flocking into California. By 1855, there were 40,000-Chinese or one-sixth of state’s population in the California.

The Sun’s two uncles, Sun Xue-cheng and Sun Guancheng, had gone earlier to seek their fortune in the California goldfields. Xuecheng died at sea near Shanghai in 1864 and Guancheng died in 1867 at 39 in California.  (Zanella)

Despite their untimely deaths, the attraction of a better life was kept alive for the Sun brothers by their uncles’ mothers who told stories of their sons while living in the Sun household.

At 17, following his father’s urging, Sun Mei went off to Hawaiʻi – to escape from the local poverty and poor agrarian conditions of his home.  Another of his uncles had a business in Honolulu and he took Sun Mei back to Hawaiʻi with him in 1871.  (Zanella)

Sun Mei began a career as a hired vegetable gardener. Before the end of the year, he went into business for himself by leasing land at ʻEwa, Oʻahu. He cleared the land and planted rice. He began to prosper after a short period of time and opened a store on Nuʻuanu Street in Chinatown.

Then, he returned to China to find a bride. While there, he recruited over a hundred men to work in Hawaiʻi’s new sugar plantations (at the time, the growing sugar plantations needed field labor.)

He moved to Maui and went from labor broker to shop owner, in 1881 opened a grocery store in Kahului (“De Chong Long” (named after his son,)  dealt in real estate, then established a ranch in Kamaole, where he was as skilled at riding and roping as any man on the mountain.  (Maui Magazine)

Some called him the “Maui King” and the “King of Kula,” partly for his larger-than-life persona and partly for the size of his cattle ranch – it spread all the way from Polipoli Forest to the shoreline at Kihei.  (Wood)

Sun Mei was one of the wealthiest Chinese in Hawaiʻi during his time (at the turn of the century.)  He had owned almost 100-properties on Oʻahu and Maui.

He arranged for his younger brother to join him; in 1879, then 13 years of age, Yat-sen journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother.  The younger Sun entered ʻIolani at age 14.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-Sen’s four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St. Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.)

Shortly after, Yat-sen left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest.  The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi, including his brother (that uprising effort failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.  After reorganization, the group spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings.

From 1894 to 1911, Yat-sen traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

Through the years, Sun Mei eventually sold all of his properties and businesses to support his brother’s revolution.    Sun Mei sold his ranch in 1908; now the land belongs to the Haleakala Ranch Company, which uses the land to breed cattle.

Sun Mei returned to his ancestral village. Later he built a house and lived in Kowloon across from Hong Kong.  His house became a place where the revolutionists met.  Sun Mei had given his whole fortune to his younger brother’s revolution.

Eventually (in 1911,) Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Government and established the Republic of China.  In 1912, Sun Yat-sen was elected the first President of the Republic of China.

© 2022 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Maui, Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China, Sun Mei

May 3, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Chinese Revolution Started with a Hawaiʻi Hui

The first unified Chinese imperial state was established by Qin Shi Huang of the Qin state in 221 BC (it had been made up of provisional states/dynasties before that.) Over the succeeding centuries, China was under dynastic rule; to name only a few: Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan (Mongol) and Ming.

It was rare for one dynasty to change peacefully into the next, since dynasties were often established before the overthrow of an existing regime, or continued for a time after they had been defeated.

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing (including the Manchus,) was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917.

It was replaced by the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China who became the ruling governmental authority of China between 1927 to 1948. It was led by the Kuomintang (also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, KMT), until the Government of the Republic of China under the newly promulgated Constitution of the Republic of China was established in its place.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on October 10, 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 –March 12, 1925) was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen is the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

As part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous and powerful nation Sun Yat-sen adopted “Three Principles of the People:” “Mínzú, Mínquán, Mínshēng“ (People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy, People’s Livelihood.)

But let’s step back a bit and look at the Hawaiʻi ties of Sun Yat-sen and those ties to the China revolution.

As the title suggests, it was here that Sun formed his first revolutionary organization that succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, bringing an end to more than 4,000 years of imperial rule in China.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, Sun Yat-sen journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant. Sun entered ʻIolani at age 14. After three years there, he attended Oʻahu College (Punahou School,) and may have had classes at St Louis, as well.

In Sun Yat-Sen’s four years in Hawaiʻi (1879-1883,) he was exposed to Western ideas, was strongly influenced by them and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted. The Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings at each rounded his western education. (Sun was later baptized.)

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui. Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Ku Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.)

Shortly after, in January 1895, Dr. Sun left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest. The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (that first uprising failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.

Another Hawaiʻi tie for Sun relates to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that blocked Chinese travel to the US. In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

He used it to travel to the continent; then, when it was no longer needed, he renounced it.

In 1905, in Tokyo, Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui and other organizations into a political party called the Tung Meng Hui. Likewise, the Chinese Revolutionary Army was reorganized and all of its members became Tung Meng Hui members.

This party spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings. He then made his last visit to Hawaiʻi to form the Hawaiʻi Chapter of Tung Meng Hui.

From 1894 to 1911, Sun traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaiʻi, Canada, the United States and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest. (Damon)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated. After Sun’s death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Originally based in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic of China troops and two million refugees fled from mainland China to Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa.”)

On December 7, 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and it now governs the island of Taiwan. Sun Yat-sen is one of the few Chinese revolutionary figures revered in both the People’s Republic of China (mainland) and Republic of China (Taiwan.)

Hawaiʻi and its people played an important role in the life of Sun Yat-sen, as well as in his revolutionary activities. His first revolutionary organization was formed in Hawaiʻi, it developed into the political party directly responsible for the collapse of the Manchus.

People in Hawaiʻi joined the Hui, contributed their efforts and funds and in many instances even their lives to China’s revolution. Sun once said: “overseas Chinese are the mother of revolution”. (Lots of information here from Damon, SunYatSenHawaii-org) (By the way, Hui is Chinese and it means “to gather together.”)

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Sun Yat-sen (2nd from left)-Yeung Hok-ling (L) Chan Siu-bak (2nd from right) Yau Lit (R) & Guan Jingliang (stand)
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Establishment of the republic of China with display of two flags of the Wuhan Uprising
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Hong Kong’s Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park-HongKong
Kamaole, Maui-sign noting it as the Maui Branch revolutionary headquarters where Sun had stayed-(SunYatSenHawaii)
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Soldiers of the Wuchang uprising
Street view of Young Goon Fancy Dry Goods store fronting Market St. in Wailuku Maui-(SunYatSenHawaii)
Sun Yat Sen statue at Keokea Park, located along Lower Kula Road. Photo courtesy, County of Maui.
Sun Yat-sen (middle, dressed in white) and Chiang Kai-shek (on stage in uniform) Whampoa Military Academy-1924
Sun Yat-sen statue in Kepaniwai Park, located in Iao Valley. Photo courtesy, County of Maui
Sun Yat-sen to James Cantlie announcing he has assumed the Presidency of Republic-Jan_21_1912
1911 Revolution Plaza. Sculpture of Tsun Yee Sen, the National Father of modern China.
1911 Revolution Plaza. Sculpture of Tsun Yee Sen, the National Father of modern China.
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Wing Cheong Lung store-Honolulu's Chinatown at Maunakea and Hotel Streets-revolutionay meetings and transient quarters

Filed Under: Prominent People Tagged With: Oahu, Maui, Chiang Kai-shek, Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China, Taiwan, Wuhan Uprising, Hawaii

September 20, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

‘Aim High to Reach the Heaven’

“Hawaiian Birdman Wins His Pilot License.”

“There will soon be a new sound to mingle with the music of the plaintive ukuleles in Hawaiʻi. It will be the roar of an aeroplane motor, for Hawaiʻi now has its first and only aviator”.

“(H)e made his ‘solo’ flight (on October 2, 1916) for his official pilot’s license, which is issued by the Aero Club of America. The flight was successfully executed in every respect and he was given his diploma.” (Pilot Certificate Granted: No. 600) (Buffalo Evening News; Star Bulletin, October 20, 1916)

He “travelled 6,000-miles from Honolulu to make the necessary solo flight at the Curtiss training field, Buffalo, NY, recently. His name is Sen Yet Young.” (He was also known as Yang Xianyi.)

Born in the Islands (1891,) he studied and graduated from ʻIolani School and received his higher education at College of Hawaiʻi (later named University of Hawaiʻi) and Harry University of California, majoring in mechanical engineering.

After his graduation, he was enrolled at the Curtiss Aviation School in New York for further study of aircraft manufacturing and driving skills and got the pilot’s license (for land and seaplane.) (Zhongshan Municipal Government)

“As the only Hawaiian who has mastered the art of flight, he remained to study the mechanics of the aeroplane at the Curtiss factory, before returning to Honolulu, where he will have to act as his own mechanician.” (Popular Mechanics, February 1917)

“Air Pilot Young’s father (Yang Zhukun (aka Young Jeu Kwun & Young Ahin)) is the owner of a fish farm that is one of the attractions for visitors at Honolulu. He grows all sorts of fish that are common to those visitors. He also has 4 large sugar plantations and deals in real estate.”

“If there is one thing that Mr Young takes more pride in than his flying school diploma – which he traveled more than 6,000 miles to get, it is the fact that he is an American citizen.” (Buffalo Evening News; Star Bulleting, October 20, 1916)

While proud of his accomplishment of becoming Hawaiʻi’s first licensed flyer, it was subsequent actions that earned Sen Yet Young even higher honors.

Young’s father was a friend of Sun Yat-sen. As a youth, Young listened to Sun Yat-sen talk about the revolution in China and was impressed and decided to join. (Lum)

After a successful coup in 1911, Sun Yat-sen served as the provisional president of the Republic of China (January 1, 1912.) With varying changes in leadership, Sun Yat-sen and others sought national unity which could only be brought about by the abolishment of warlordism.

Shortly after attaining his pilot’s license, Sen Yet Young went to China and joined the Revolutionary Alliance.

In the revolutionary cause of overthrowing the Qing dynasty, Sun Yat-sen saw that the aircraft would become a new type of military weapon and be greatly helpful to the nation’s revolution. Seeing the lack of effective weapons, Sun Yat-sen coined the phrase, ‘Aviation saves the nation.’ (Pike)

In 1917, Sen Yet Young organized the airplane fleet, and went back to Guangzhou to support the campaign to protect the republic. He was appointed Captain of the airplane fleet by Sun Yat-sen.

A landmark event during this campaign was the first use of military air power by the fledgling Guangdong Air Force. On the night of the Mid-autumn Festival (September 26) in 1920, Sen Yet Young and another flew two planes over the warlord headquarters in Guangzhou and released three crude bombs.

The display of air power played a role in hastening warlord departure from Guangzhou by early October. As the warlord’s army retreated westward, Sun supporters pressed their air superiority by strafing from above.

Young later went to Hawaiʻi and the continental US to raise funds from the overseas Chinese and purchased 12 airplanes, including 4 donated by his father. He also actively campaigned for the Kuomintang and raised funds for flying lessons for the young Chinese he recruited. (Lai)

In December, he was commissioned by Sun Yat-sen as Head of Aviation Bureau and also the director of Guangdong Aircraft Manufactory in Guangzhou.

On July 1923, the factory made China’s first self-designed military airplane, named “Rosamonde,” after Sun Yat-sen’s wife’s (Soong Ching Ling) English name. (Zhongshan Municipal Government)

Sen Yet Young, with Chinese-built and foreign-built airplanes, helped the Nationalist government beat the warlords in the Kwantung province.

In order to destroy the Huizhou City Wall, he went to Meihu of Boluo to check bomb facilities, and died September 20, 1923 from an accidental explosion at the age of 32. (Zhongshan Municipal Government) The Kuomintang government later designated that date as Air Force Day. (Lai)

Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Wen) conferred on him posthumously the rank of general and also wrote a scroll, “To the family members of Yang Xian-yi; Aim High to Reach the Heaven; Sun Wen” (Lum)

Young (Yang Xianyi) is buried at Huanghuagang Mausoleum to commemorate the 72 martyrs who died in Guangzhou uprising on April 27, 1911. (It was later determined that there were 86 martyrs, including 30 who were overseas Chinese, including Yang Xianyi.) (72 Martyrs)

Sun Yat-sen called him, the ‘Father of China’s air force.’ (Lum) A middle school was named after him, the Xianyi Middle School, which was renamed No 2 Middle School during the “cultural revolution.” In 1980 the school won back its original name and Young’s son came over from the US to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony. (China Daily)

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1st Hawaii resident to earn a pilot's license, stands with Chinese fliers & first airplane manufactured in China. The Honolulu born son of wealthy Chinese, Young soloed at Curtiss Flying School in Buffalo, NY on 10-2-1916. He later worked for Dr Sun Yat-Sen.
1st Hawaii resident to earn a pilot’s license, stands with Chinese fliers & first airplane manufactured in China. The Honolulu born son of wealthy Chinese, Young soloed at Curtiss Flying School in Buffalo, NY on 10-2-1916. He later worked for Dr Sun Yat-Sen.
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Rosamonde-first plane built in China
Rosamonde-first plane built in China
Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling-first plane manufactured in China - 'Rosamonde', named after Soong's English name
Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling-first plane manufactured in China – ‘Rosamonde’, named after Soong’s English name
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Sen Yet Young Pilot License-October_4,_1916
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Filed Under: General, Prominent People Tagged With: Republic of China, Sen Yet Young, Hawaii, Sun Yat-sen

November 24, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Certificate of Hawaiian Birth

Sun Yat-sen, the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China, was born November 12, 1866, to an ordinary farmer’s family in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan, in the south of the Pearl River Delta of the South China province of Guangdong.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, he journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant.  He entered ʻIolani at age 14.  With long hair pulled back in a traditional queue, he was enrolled in 1879 without knowing any English.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-sen’s four years in Hawai’i (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, Oʻahu College (Punahou School) and St Louis College.

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui.  Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

He was known by a lot of names.  As a young student, he was called Tai Cheong or Tai Chu.  His official name is Sun Wen; when he signed letters and documents in Chinese, he used the name Sun Wen. When he signed letters and documents in English, he used the name Sun Yat-sen.  (Lum)

In 1897, when he was in Tokyo, he picked up a Japanese name, Nakayama, from a nameplate on a house he passed. In Chinese, Nakayama is read as Chung-Shan. This is how his name Sun Chung-shan came about.  (Lum)

The place of his birth, previously known as Xiāngshān, had been renamed Zhōngshān – Sun Yat-sen was known in Chinese as Sun Zhongshan.

Let’s look a little closer at his birth place – while officially (and factually) Sun was born in China, he was able to later obtain a birth certificate that claimed he was a “native born Hawaiian.”

Sun needed to travel to get backing for his revolutionary plans, as well as raise funds to support it.  With the US Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) severely limiting Chinese immigration, Sun had difficulty entering the US and was even detained by US authorities at one point.

To top it off, the Manchu Government first put a prize of $35,000 on his head and later, raised it to $75,000.  Realizing his danger, Sun cut off his queue, raised a moustache, dressed himself in foreign style and look passage for Japan, where he preached his doctrine to the Chinese students in the Japanese universities.  (In Young, 1911)

Sun’s detention prompted an overseas Chinese to say that if Sun wanted to promote a Chinese revolution on US soil, it would be best if he had US citizenship.

Sun’s friends in San Francisco set in motion plans for him to obtain US citizenship by faking a birth certificate showing that he was born in Honolulu.  (Taipei Times)

In 1900, the Hawaiian Organic Act was passed stating that any person that was a citizen of the Republic of Hawaiʻi on or before August 12, 1898 would also become a citizen of the United States.

In various statements and affidavits, Sun and others set the foundation for a claim of his birth in Hawaiʻi.  It was a makeshift plan for the good of the revolution.  (Taipei Times)

“I was born in Honolulu and went to China came back from Hong Kong to Honolulu in the early part of 1896 or the last part of 1895, I staid at Honolulu for 4 or 5 months and then came on to San Francisco …  I came in on Student and Travelers Sect. 6 certificate … as a subject of China.”  (Sun Yat-sen April 14, 1904)

“Some time after the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, there was a registration taken of all the residents for the purpose of ascertaining the nationality and birth of each resident.”

“I was registered in the Kula district, in the Island of Maui, as a Hawaiian-born Chinese, about March or April in the year 1901.  That is the first thing that I did after the annexation of the Islands to show that I still claimed citizenship there … .”  (Sun Yat-sen, April 21, 1904)

Supporting Sun’s birth place claims, Wong Kwai signed a sworn statement noting, “He (Sun) was born at Ewa (Waimano) Oahu.”  Benjamin Starr Kapu further supported this noting, “Sun Yat-sen, a full Chinese person, who was born at Waimano Oahu … in the year 1870.”

His Punahou teacher, Francis Damon, certified to his good character but did not swear on the issue of birth.  (Smyser)

As a “citizen of Hawaiʻi” Sun could travel to the US continent in the early-1900s to rally both support and funds for his revolutionary efforts.

In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, AD 1870.”

Rather than using his own birth date, Sun selected November 24, 1870 to reflect the founding date of the Hsing Chung Hui to establish a connection with his revolutionary activities.  (Taipei Times)

(On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Ku Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.))

Although not born in the Islands, Sun Yat-sen apparently felt at home in Hawaiʻi. “This is my Hawai‘i … here I was brought up and educated, and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean.” (Sun Yat-sen, 1910)

When the birth certificate was no longer needed, he renounced it.

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected the interim president.  After Sun’s death on March 12, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

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Admit Sun Yat-sen and persons in his party. Avoid Publicity-02-04-1914
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Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Prominent People, Schools Tagged With: Iolani School, Sun Yat-sen, College of St Louis, Republic of China, Hawaii, City Mill, Punahou, St Louis, CK Ai, Chiang Kai-shek, Francis Damon, Oahu College

August 26, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Anthony Lee Ahlo

Anthony Lee Ahlo was born in 1876, in Honolulu (he was “Pake hapa-Hawaiʻi.”)  His father Lee Ahlo (April 23, 1841- July 3, 1906) was born in Chong Lok near Canton, China, and came to Hawaiʻi in 1865.

His mother Lahela Kauhi Kehuokalani (April 22, 1852 – December 16, 1911) is reported to be a descendent of Kamehameha.  (Anthony is also identified as Li Fang Ahlo and Lee Fong Ahlo, at various places and times.)

His father worked for seven years as a cook for Mr Lewers of Lewers & Cooke. He and Lahela were married June 22, 1872. In 1873, he started a small grocery at the corner of Maunakea and King Streets, in 1876 it moved to corner of Nuʻuanu and Chaplain Lane; he later expanded into rice planting/processing and general merchandising.  (Krauss)

“(The mill) belonged to a man by the name of Lee Ahlo … (it) was near the Waikalua River, and there was a ditch and flume higher up the river that brought water from the river to the rice mill to make the water wheel go around, and that is where the rice mill got its power to clean the rice. The mill hulled the rice and it came out white. When it was still in the hull we called it paddy rice.”

“The river was near the rice mill and sometimes ulua and other large fish came up the river, following the water at high tide. They came into the ditches leading into the rice fields. Workmen netted them.”  (Ching, History of Kāneʻohe)

His father died a very prominent merchant and had many friends. His estate was valued at $50,000 (about $1,500,000, today;) the inventory list includes $17,500 real property in Honolulu, $17,500 in Kāneʻohe, $3,000 in Waialua, $2,000 in personal property in Honolulu and $10,000 in Kāneʻohe.  (Krauss)

Anthony Lee Ahlo graduated from Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1897.  He then was admitted at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1898 and earned his BA in 1901 and MA 1911.

In 1901, Anthony married Gladys Fitzgerald.  A reception, with over five hundred guests, being all the prominent society people of the city, was given by Mr. and Mrs. Lee Ahlo, in honor of their son and his young English wife, at their magnificent new residence off Liliha street, it “was a most brilliant and delightful affair.”  (Honolulu Republican, October 20, 1901)  Young Ahlo and his bride moved to Shanghai, China.

An article in the Maui news noted, “The Chinese government by imperial edict has requested Chinese residing in foreign countries to interest themselves in the matter of developing the mineral resources of China, and has pledged itself to grant the necessary rights, privileges and protection to those who desire to invest.”

It further noted, “China Waking Up. Mr. Anthony L Ahlo, an intelligent young Chinese, and by the way, a graduate of Cambridge, England is on Maui this week, and while here, is submitting an Investment for the purpose of developing the vast coal, copper and tin mines of the Chong Lock District in the province of Kwangtung (his father’s home town”.)

“Mr. Ahlo will proceed to China and secure the desired concessions. There is no question but what Chong Lock is a rich mineral district, and with the energy, ability and integrity of Mr. Ahlo back of the enterprise, there is no question but what the enterprise will prove successful and lay the foundation for vast fortunes for its promoters.”  (Maui News, June 20, 1903)

Anthony was well-connected with the revolutionary movement that was underway in China.  From 1894 to 1911, Sun Yat Sen traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

However, movement by Chinese to and through the US was restricted.  Sun needed a certificate to enter the United States at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would have otherwise blocked him.  Although born in China, to allow movement through the States, Sun sought a birth certificate from Hawaiʻi.

Ahlo provided sworn testimony supporting Sun Yat Sen’s ʻEwa birthplace (signed by A. Ahlo on March 22, 1904.)  In part, he swore, “I have lived in Hawaii for 41 years. Have known Dr Sen a Chinese person, and knew his parents – since about 1870.  I owned a rice plantation at Waipahu at that time and went there after to give it my attention.  The father and mother of Dr Sen lived at Wamano and I often stopped at their house – sometimes overnight.”

On March 14, 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

A May 26, 1908 article in the Chinese Public Opinion, an English paper of Peking, noted, “We are pleased to note the appointment of Mr. AL Ahlo to a position as justice in the Supreme Court in Peking. This gentleman is one of the new generation and was educated at the University of Cambridge, England where he passed his degree with honors.”

“He has been for some time acting as legal adviser to the High Court of Justice and has been doing good work in this department. It is a noteworthy fact that he is the returned student who has been appointed to a position of any importance in the Judiciary of China.” (Hawaiian Gazette, June 26, 1908)

In a speech he noted, “The world has become accustomed to seeing China plodding contentedly in rough conservatism and has not noted the size of reawakened China. Everywhere in the empire there are abundant evidences of material progress, and educational, industrial and scientific institutions tell the tale of life and activity.”

“The old-time superstitions and customs which stood in the path of its development are now being rudely brushed aside, and today behold China, a nation throbbing with the thrill of a new era, an era of advancement in the cause of humanity!”   (Congress of American Prison Association, 1910)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Revolution members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-Sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated.  After Sun’s death in March 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China; during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist party led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Ahlo’s provided further support and participation in the new China did not end there.  Ahlo drafted the constitution of the Chinese republic which was submitted to the national assembly.  It follows partially the federal law of America and part of that of France. It provides for a national assembly to consist of two houses, called the council of the people and the council of the provinces.  (San Francisco Call, May 19, 1912)

In the early-1920s he was Chinese consul in Samoa and then Borneo, before being a secretary of foreign affairs at Peking, and then subsequently an assistant commissioner of foreign affairs in Canton.

“Dr. Ahlo’s 12-months sojourn in Samoa has enabled him to study the Pacific. He sees it as the meeting ground of England, Japan, and America, all striving to gain supremacy.”

“The enormous trade possibilities of this romantic region, with peoples of diverse races, numbering 800,000,000, waiting to be exploited as factors in trade and ideas, call the colonizers and traders of the Great Powers, and right through the Pacific the fight for this supremacy is going quietly on.”

“Tariffs and other things are playing their part, but the suspicions and antagonisms engendered by this competition are reflected in the naval importance given to the Pacific. It is now talked of as the scene of the next great war.”

“’The spending of millions on armaments will inevitably result in bankruptcy,’ said the doctor, and, on account of the enormous cost.”  (The Advocate, Tasmania, August 4, 1921)  The image shows Lee Fong Aholo.

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Filed Under: General, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People Tagged With: Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China, Anthony Lee Ahlo, Hawaii, Chinese

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