Yeung Ku-wan

Yeung Ku-wan
Early anti-Qing dynasty revolutionary
Born	19 December 1861 Dongguan, Guangdong, China
Died	11 January 1901(1901-01-11) (aged 39) British Hong Kong

Yeung Ku-wan (19 December 1861 – 11 January 1901) was a Chinese revolutionary of the late Qing dynasty. In 1890, Yeung started the Furen Literary Society (輔仁文社) in British colonial Hong Kong to spread ideas of revolution against the Qing Dynasty and to establish a republic in China. He became the first President of the Hong Kong Chapter of the Revive China Society in 1894 and was, with Sun Yat-sen, in charge of planning an uprising in Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1895 and in Huizhou in 1900. Yeung was assassinated in 1901 in Hong Kong by an agent sent by the Qing government.

Born Yeung Fei-hung (楊飛鴻), his style name was Siu-chun (肇春). He signed himself 'Yeung Küwan' when he lived in Hong Kong and is now known as Yeung Ku-wan.

Yeung's ancestral home was in Haicheng (海澄; a town in present-day Longhai City, Fujian), but he was born in Fumen Walled City, Dongguan, Guangdong. At a young age, he followed his father to Hong Kong and was educated in St. Paul's College. When he was 14, Yeung learned how to operate machinery in a shipyard but an accident caused him to lose three fingers from his right hand. He switched to reading English and became a teacher after graduating. Later, he worked in the Zhaoshangju (招商局; now the China Merchants Group) as its chief secretary, as well as being a vice-manager in the Sassoon Maritime Company (沙遜洋行).

Yeung's knowledge of Chinese was scanty and he tried to improve it when he became involved in politics. His experiences in Hong Kong had given him a pugnacious nationalism: boxing was one of his hobbies and he was quick with his fists when he encountered foreigners taking advantage of Chinese people. His extensive reading of Western literature enabled him to speak with authority on revolutionary theory and history, and he is said to have dominated discussions on these subjects. He would instinctively assume the seat of honour at social gatherings and was not to be interrupted during his discourses.