Cracking down on her nephew’s brief reforms, Cixi ordered the executions of reformers like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Kang and Liang escaped to Japan, the first in a line of exiled dissidents. Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun and many other important Chinese reformers would follow in their footsteps, some on the run… Read more »
Like so many other leaders of his generation–Liang Qichao, Chen Duxiu, Chiang Kai-shek–Sun fled arrest in China for sixteen years of exile in Japan. Sun severed his Qing queue, donned Western dress, and began studying Japan’s successful response to the West. During these sixteen years, Sun traveled broadly raising funds and awareness for his revolutionary… Read more »
Liang briefly rose to the very highest levels of prominence during the Guangxu Emperor’s Hundred Days Reforms. But when Empress Dowager Cixi quashed those reforms, Liang fled to Japan with his mentor Kang Youwei. The Japanese government welcomed Liang in Tokyo and gave him the wherewithal to give voice to the growing community of Chinese… Read more »