Kang Youwei in Chicago: running a variety of businesses to raise funds

Kang Youwei in Chicago: running a variety of businesses to raise funds (Alberta Times) On September 21, 1898, the Reform Movement of 1898 failed, and Kang Youwei, the leader of the reformists, fled from Beijing...

(Alberta Times)

On September 21, 1898, the Reform Movement of 1898 failed, and Kang Youwei, the leader of the reformists, escaped from Beijing to avoid pursuit, and he began his 16-year exile abroad. During these 16 years, Kang Youwei lived a life of real upheaval, but it was also quite prosperous and magnificent. In order to imitate "the god who endured hardship and never died, he tasted all kinds of herbs", he crossed the Pacific Ocean four times, the Atlantic Ocean nine times, the Indian Ocean eight times, and rafted the Arctic Ocean for seven days. He visited 42 countries and regions including Britain, France, Italy, Japan, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brazil, and Egypt. At that time, no Chinese could travel all over the world like him. This photo is the image data Kang Youwei left in the American city of Chicago. At that time, Chicago had become one of the financial, manufacturing, futures and commodity trading centers in the United States. Why did a political activist at the end of China's feudal society appear in the United States during the rise of capitalism? The reason is not as simple as fleeing. As a firm supporter and advocate of the constitutional monarchy, Kang Youwei's life in exile did not stifle Kang Youwei's determination to protect the emperor. During his exile in the United Kingdom, Canada and other Western countries, Kang Youwei learned about the short-sightedness and oppression of foreigners towards the descendants of the Yellow Emperor overseas, and realized the radiating power of the rise and fall of a country. Therefore, wherever he went in North America, Kang Youwei united with local overseas Chinese to raise political funds. With the help of funds, he established the "Huang Hui", an overseas Chinese organization with both political and commercial aspects. Mexico, Canada, and the United States have left traces of his history of opening companies, running industries, doing stocks, and speculating in real estate. Pang Kang's business was all kinds of, just to raise funds to "save the Qing Emperor." Like a tireless dreamer, he worked hard to realize his political ideal of a constitutional monarchy. However, at this time, the global political ecology had changed drastically, and the declining Qing Dynasty was destined to miss the last train of constitutional monarchy. Quantitative changes in history have only accumulated to the critical point of qualitative changes.

Do the characters in the picture look familiar to you? Yes, the person sitting side by side with the foreigners in a standard American car was Kang Youwei, the leader of the Reform Movement of 1898. However, the location was not in China, but in Chicago, USA.