Shana J. Brown

Reformers in Sandalwood Mountain: Sun Yat-sen, Liang Qichao, and the Significance of Hawaii in Revolutionary China

China’s revolution of 1911 was in many respects a global revolution whose impact was felt keenly in Hawaii. Not only did it affect overseas Chinese communities worldwide, but many of the key historical figures of the revolutionary era were one-time Hawaii residents, like Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Or like Liang Qichao, they were noted commentators on the global diaspora in places like San Francisco and Honolulu. For these reformers and revolutionaries, Hawaii and other areas of the Chinese diaspora provided support but also prompted their debates on modern society, politics, and economy.

Chinese Wartime Photography

Perhaps without knowing who took the images, you have probably already seen some of the famous photographs produced by Shafei (1912-1950), a CCP photographer during the Sino-Japanese war. Born in Guangzhou, Shafei was a self-taught artist who shot to fame after producing some acclaimed images of an ailing Lu Xun, China’s legendary modernist writer. During the wartime period, his depictions of heroic CCP troops, peasants enthusiastically embracing land reform, and Japanese atrocities sealed his legend as the most well-known and admired Communist documentary photographer.

Does Collecting Have a History?

In the popular imagination, the collection of art objects is often viewed as an essentially private, leisure activity. However, recent historical studies have shown that private collection has had important cultural and social effects, leading to new forms of scientific knowledge, patterns of social engagement, and even varieties of personal identity. This is especially true for China, where the tradition of private collection has a long and distinguished history. In the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries, Chinese collecting of art and other objects contributed to significant new forms of visual representation, scholarly research, and economic development.