Sun Yat-sen

February 24, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

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.)

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

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 was born to an ordinary farmer’s family in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan, 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. (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, St Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.) Then, he was called Tai Cheong or Tai Chu.

His three years at ʻIolani are well authenticated. Whether he ever attended St Louis cannot be substantiated by school records, but such a possibility exists. As for Oʻahu College, there is evidence to support the claim, though the time he spent there is not altogether clear. (Soong)

“During his years at ʻIolani and Punahou, he was exposed to Western culture, was strongly influenced by it, and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted.” (Lum, ʻIolani) It also “led him to want more western education – more than that required to assist in his brother’s business.” (Soong)

In 1883, Sun registered in the Punahou Preparatory School, one of the fifty children who studied in the two classrooms upstairs in the school building. He was listed as Tai Chu, he was one of three Chinese students, the others being Chung Lee and Hong Tong.

Sun was also influenced by the Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings he received; he 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 Kun 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 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.

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 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, Hawaii, 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 on March 12, 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.

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.

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)

November 24, 2024 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 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.

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.

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.)

Sun_Yat-sen_Hawaii_Birth_Certificate-Issued_by_the_US_to_allow_Sun's_travel_in_Us

Admit Sun Yat-sen and persons in his party. Avoid Publicity-02-04-1914

Sun Yat-sen-Denial_to_Land-Deportation_Order-04-15-1904-1

Sun Yat-sen-Denial_to_Land-Deportation_Order-04-15-1904-2

Sun Yat-sen-Denial_to_Land-Deportation_Order-04-15-1904-3

Sun Yat-sen-'Incite_Chinese'-Deny_Landing-01-23-1914

Sun_Yat-sen_Hawaii_Birth_Certificate-letter

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.

May 14, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

City Mill

“The articles of incorporation of the City Mill Co, Ltd., were approved (June 13, 1899.) The names that appear are as follows: Wong Leong, CK Ai, WW Ahana, C Mun Kai, Pang Chong and Ho Fon. The capital stock is $60,000 to be divided into 60 shares at $100 per share.”

The officers were: Wong Leong, president; Chung Kun Ai, vice president, treasurer and manager; C Mun Kai, secretary; WW Ahana and Yeong Chee, auditors and Pang Chong, foreman.

“The company intends to carry on the business of rice millers, rice merchants, planing mill, builders and contractors, lumber merchants and dealers in builders’ and contractors’ supplies and any other business that can be carried on in connection therewith.” (Evening Bulletin, June 14, 1899)

So it began; and it continues to provide much of the same core services it started with over a century ago. Let’s look back.

In 1879, at 14 years of age, Zhong Wenyu (better known in later life as Chung Kun Ai or CK Ai and his father sailed for Hawaii on a three-masted German schooner from the port of Whang Poo near Canton, China. (Rhoads)

Chung Kun Ai’s father had been to Hawaiʻi eleven years earlier and was a merchant in Kona, Hawaiʻi. With a prospering business, he returned to China to bring his family to their new home.

As a young teenager, and speaking neither English nor Hawaiian, Chung Kun Ai enrolled in ʻIolani where he spent two years (his only formal schooling.) It was here that Ai converted to Christianity, which was to remain the central force in his life.

It was also at ʻIolani where he met and developed a lasting friendship with a fellow student, Sun Tai-Cheong, later known to the world as Sun Yat Sen, father of the Chinese Republic.

Their friendship provided a foundation to formulate the principles of the Chinese Republic. 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 Kun Ai.)

Years later, Chung Kun Ai received the highest medal of honor from the Chinese government for his recognition of the needs of the people.

Following his education at ʻIolani, at the age of 17, Ai’s father bought him a partnership in a tailor shop. However, the business did not appeal to Ai and he left the business in 1887. That same year, at the age of 21, Ai joined the firm of James Isaac Dowsett as a secretary, clerk and bookkeeper.

Dowsett (said to have been the first white child, not of missionary parentage, born in Hawaiʻi) was engaged in a conglomerate of activities in the islands.

Dowsett had first worked for the Hudson Bay Company; then, in the early-1860s he entered the whaling business, owning a fleet of whaling ships. Besides his whaling activities, Mr. Dowsett engaged in the lumber business and owned a fleet of schooners and small steamers operating between the islands.

Dowsett also had extensive ranching interests; properties now occupied by Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter and Lualualei were once pastures for Dowsett’s cattle and horses.

Ai eventually became Dowsett’s protégé, earning his respect for his careful management skills. As a result, Dowsett allowed Ai to use a portion of his warehouse, and Ai started importing cigars, tea, peanut oil, shoe nails and other items.

Then, following Dowsett’s death, Ai and others started City Mill, a rice milling and lumber importing business in Chinatown, Honolulu. Unfortunately, within 8-months after opening, it succumbed to the 1900 Chinatown fire.

Without insurance, they raised the necessary funds, rebuilt and added new product lines. However, again, in 1919, a fire burned City Mill. Fortunately, this time, insurance covered the damage.

By the early 1920s, City Mill was so successful that Ai ventured into the pineapple business, and formed the Honolulu Fruit Company, which owned 5-pineapple fields and a cannery. (It did not survive the Great Depression of the 1930s.)

In 1926, City Mill took an interest in the Vigilant (a 244-foot sailing ship built in 1920) and placed her in service to carry lumber from Puget Sound to Hawaiʻi (it was capable of carrying 2,000,000-board feet of lumber each trip.) (Gibbs; Caphoneirs)

Prior to World War II, in conjunction with its building supplies, City Mill had the distinction of having the only rice mill in Honolulu and having the largest rice mill in Hawaiʻi.

The war forced City Mill to abandon its rice operation and to concentrate on providing construction materials for the armed forces and civilians. By the war’s end, City Mill emerged as one of the largest building materials suppliers in the Pacific.

Along the way, Chung Kun Ai also ventured into other types of businesses with varying degrees of success in laundry, fishing, tobacco and oil drilling.

In 1950, Chung Kun Ai opened the present City Mill store on Nimitz Highway. The building was dedicated to James I. Dowsett, Ai’s mentor, friend and benefactor.

In 1956, in recognition of his exemplary family life, Chung Kun Ai was awarded “Father of the Year” by the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce. In 1957, Governor Samuel Wilder King bestowed upon Chung Kun Ai the “Order of the Splintered Paddle” for Ai’s outstanding service to mankind.

In the summer of 1980, after 81-years of operation, City Mill phased out its Wholesale Division; this allowed City Mill to concentrate its energies on the expansion of its retail home centers.

With the success of the retail home centers, City Mill expanded into the Honolulu suburbs. The first branch store opened in Kāneʻohe in 1960; then Waipahu (1967,) Waimalu Shopping Center (Pearl City)(1975,) Kaimuki (1984,) Hawaii Kai and Mililani Town Center (1993,) Waianae (1999,) and relocation of the Waipahu store to Laulani Village Shopping Center in Ewa Beach (2012.) (Lots of information here from City Mill.)

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.

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.)

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)

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.)

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.”)

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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