Sun Yat-sen 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.)

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.