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A Chinese Reformer in Exile
Kang Youwei and the Chinese Empire Reform Association in North America, 1899-1911
Series: - Chinese Overseas, Volume: 23
A Chinese Reformer in Exile is an encyclopaedic reference work documenting the exile years of imperial Chinaâs most famous reformer, Kang Youwei, and the political organization he mobilized in North America and worldwide to transform Chinaâs autocratic empire into a constitutional monarchy. Chinese in Canada, the United States, and Mexico formed at least 160 Chinese Empire Reform Association chapters, incorporating schools, newspapers, military academies, womenâs associations, businesses, and political pressure campaigns. Based on Robert Wordenâs 1972 Georgetown University Ph.D. dissertation, a multinational team of historians contribute new insights from 50 years of additional scholarship and previously unknown archival materials.
Listen to Jane Leung Larson and Robert L. Worden's interview on how A Chinese Reformer in Exile came to be here.
Listen to Jane Leung Larson and Robert L. Worden's interview on how A Chinese Reformer in Exile came to be here.
Robert L. Worden, Ph.D. (1972) Georgetown University, retired in 2007 after 34 years at the Library of Congress where he authored more than 100 Asia-related studies for government agencies, and numerous China-related books, articles, and book reviews of personal interest.
Jane Leung Larson is an independent scholar whose broad-based research on the Chinese Empire Reform Association evolved from studying the papers of her grandfather Tom Leung, Kang Youweiâs student in Guangzhou and host, travel companion, and confidant in North America.
Jane Leung Larson is an independent scholar whose broad-based research on the Chinese Empire Reform Association evolved from studying the papers of her grandfather Tom Leung, Kang Youweiâs student in Guangzhou and host, travel companion, and confidant in North America.
"This worthy book is a monument to a man, a movement, and a moment when the fate of an empire was debated in the back rooms of San Francisco and the schoolhouses of Havana. Kang Youwei may have failed to save the Qing dynasty, but in exile he reimagined China as a moral civilization destined to lead the world into unity, equality, and peace."
â Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights (March 2026)
âA Chinese Reformer in Exile is authoritative on the full range of Kang Youweiâs overseas interventions in Chinese and global history. It also stimulates our imagination of historical paths not taken.â
â Jeffrey Kinkley, Northwest China Council newsletter (April â June 2026)
â Massimo Introvigne, Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights (March 2026)
âA Chinese Reformer in Exile is authoritative on the full range of Kang Youweiâs overseas interventions in Chinese and global history. It also stimulates our imagination of historical paths not taken.â
â Jeffrey Kinkley, Northwest China Council newsletter (April â June 2026)
Academic institutes, libraries, archives, overseas Chinese historical societies and museums; researchers of modern China and Chinese diaspora history interested in political reform, transnational organizations, nationalism, political parties, and exile.