Sun Yat Sen In Hawaii

During numerous visits to Hawaii, Sun Yat-sen formed the revolutionary society responsible for the first armed resistance against the Manchu regime and raised funds to support future uprisings in China. Here is the most comprehensive account in English of Sun's life and his revolutionary activities and supporters in Hawaii.

Dynamite on the Tropic of Cancer is the radical, explosive retelling of the first decade of the 'Father of Modern China' Dr Sun Yatsen’s globally shaped formation as a professional revolutionist, and of the impact of the adult Sun’s revolutionary relationship with Hawaiʻi and with his varied communities of supporters there during its own most turbulent political decade, the 1890s, years in which this remote island nation transformed from native monarchy, via sovereign independent republic, to become the USA’s first overseas territory. Drawn from neglected primary sources, Dynamite reveals the hitherto untold story of the secret revolutionary alliance forged in Honolulu’s backstreets between Sun’s Xingzhonghui and the idiosyncratic italophile soldier Robert Wilcox, "Hawaiʻi’s Garibaldi" and leader of the Kanaka/Native Hawaiian counterrevolution of January 1895. This failed uprising to restore Hawaiʻi’s tragic last Queen, witnessed firsthand by Sun Yatsen, became the archetype upon which ten months later Sun would base his own first attempt at armed insurrection in China: the Canton uprising of 26 October 1895. With an epic sweep across the Pacific’s Tropic of Cancer, Dynamite is the most important study yet written on the origins of Sun Yatsen’s Chinese Revolution and its dynamic interface with Hawaiian history.

Sailing for the Sun celebrates in 1989 the bicentenary of the arrival of the first Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1789, the Islands had not yet been united as a kingdom under Kamehameha; the various Islands were ruled by high chiefs for several more years. The Islands, "discovered" just a scant 11 years before by the British Captain James Cook, were a beautiful chain of lush lands, soaring volcanic mountains, with a moderate climate and a relatively sparse population.

Amongst the Chinese exists great cultural variety and diversity. The Cantonese care more for profit than face and are good businessmen, whereas Fujian R‚n are frank, blunt and outspoken but daring and generous. Beijing R‚n are more aristocratic and well-mannered, having stayed in a city ruled by emperors of different dynasties. Shanghai R‚n are more enterprising, adventurous and materialistic but less aristocratic, having been at the center of pre-war gangsterism. Hainan R‚n are straightforward, blunt and stubborn. Hunan R‚n are more warlike and have produced more marshals and generals than any other province.Pioneers of Modern China is a fascinating book that paints a vivid picture of the unique cultural characteristics and behavior of the Chinese in the various provinces. Using leaders in the modern history of China, such as Sun Yat Sen, Chiang Kai Shek, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao as representatives, it offers an in-depth look into the psyche of the Chinese people. It also pays tribute to writers, painters and kungfu experts, who have helped to develop the country socially and artistically.

"In view of the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's relations with the Nanyang communities, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and the Chinese Heritage Centre came together to host a two-day bilingual conference on the three-way relations between Sun Yat-sen, Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution in October 2011 in Singapore. This volume is a collection of papers in English presented at the conference"--Backcover.

The enigmatic personal qualities that marked Sun Yat-sen during his lifetime have encouraged controversy concerning him ever since his death more than a generation ago. Mr. Schiffrin's book deals with the first forty years of Sun's life, and attempts to find the key to this controversial personality. His study is at once biography and history, for it goes beyond Sun to the whole texture of Chinese history of Sun's time. Drawing on diplomatic archives, police reports, personal interviews, contemporary newspapers, and other hitherto unused sources in Chinese, Japanese, and Western languages, the author reveals unsuspected facets of Sun's versatile plotting on three continents, and traces the convolutions of his pragmatic style in unprecedented detail.

Arguing that the life and work of Sun Yat-sen have been distorted by both myth and demythification, the author provides a fresh overall evaluation of the man and the events that turned an adventurer into the founder of the Chinese Republic and the leader of a great nationalist movement.