Selected Bibliography and Archival Collections on Kang in Exile and the Baohuanghui

This post on Baohuanghui Archives originally written in 2015 is significantly updated by the "Selected Bibliography and Archival Collections" from A Chinese Reformer in Exile, 2025. 

Expanding on the listed archives above, see also: 

Documenting the Chinese and Baohuanghui in Montana: Mark T. Johnson

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The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky

UCLA Tom Leung Baohuanghui Collection Online

詩手稿 題: 思羅生西湖故宅 "Thinking of My Home in Westlake Park," a poem to Tom Leung by Kang Youwei, March 9, 1906; #107 [Courtesy UCLA Digital Collections]

The full collection of documents saved by Tom Leung (1875-1931) or Tan Zhangxiao 譚張孝, founder of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baohuanghui, is online at UCLA Library Digital Collections found here.  For the first time, it is possible to examine the original documents, many of which were published by Fang Zhiqin in 1997 and 2008 in Kang Liang yu Baohuanghui:  Tan Liang Zai Meiguo Suo Cang Tsailiao Huibian 康梁與保皇會: 譚良在美國所藏資料彙編  [Hong Kong, Xianggang Yinhe Chubanshe].  Thanks to UCLA's Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library and to librarian Hong Cheng for overseeing this project to completion.

Using Contemporary Newspapers and Magazines to Track Kang Youwei and the Baohuanghui

Coverage in local and national newspapers of Kang, the Baohuanghui and its affiliated businesses and activities was plentiful and widespread in North America, reflecting popular interest in Kang and his organization. This was especially true for Kang's first trip to the United States in 1905, when he visited about 50 towns and cities between February and December. Kang received breathless coverage in the American press, allowing us to trace his travels almost day to day. We can now correct the timeline found in Jung-pang Lo's“Sequel to the Chronological Autobiography," K'ang Yu-wei: A Biography and A Symposium.

For example, Lo ("Sequel," p. 198) writes:“By June 1905 [the fifth lunar month], feeling much better, [Kang] left Los Angeles for Washington, D.C., arriving there on June 10.” From local newspaper reports, supplemented by correspondence, we now know that Kang left Los Angeles on May 8 by train and stopped for speeches and meetings in Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, and Zion City, and arrived in Washington, D.C. on June 8. Coinciding with this month of travel was the announcement in Shanghai of a nation-wide anti-American boycott to protest Chinese Exclusion policy. Kang began promoting the boycott and recruiting American support during his trip to D.C.

Research on Kang Youwei and the Baohuanghui in North America: Sources and Methods

Kang Youwei in Los Angeles, 1905
Private collection, Jane Leung Larson

In March 2018, Chinese scholars specializing in Kang Youwei convened in Kang’s birthplace, Nanhai, Guangdong, to commemorate the 160th anniversary of his birth and 120th anniversary of the 1898 Hundred Days of Reform. Those of us coming from North America focused on Kang’s experience in the New World from 1899 to 1909. In particular, we made use of the source materials from South Windsor, Connecticut and Los Angeles that have illuminated our knowledge of Kang’s activities in Canada, the United States and Mexico. 

Jane Leung Larson spoke on “Research on Kang Youwei and the Baohuanghui in North America: Sources and Methods.”  She contrasted the relatively open access to resources on Kang and the Baohuanghui in North American archives, libraries, and the internet with the much more restrictive research environment in which Chinese historians work.

Boise, Idaho Signboard for the Imperial Constitutional Association

Signboard from Baohuanghui
Building, Boise, Idaho
Courtesy of Asian American
Comparative Collection,
University of Idaho,
AACC-2015-20.

This is the only extant example of a Chinese Empire Reform Association (CERA) signboard. It comes from a CERA building that was constructed after Kang Youwei visited Boise, Idaho from October 18 to 25, 1905. We do not know when this building at Seventh and Front Street was completed, but  on February 26, 1907, the local reform association led a parade with a 20-man dragon that ended at this address ("Chinese Lion to Protect Joss," Idaho Statesman, February 21, 1907). The CERA building was one of several new Baohuanghui buildings erected beginning in 1905 in Victoria, BC and Los Angeles, among other places. The Boise brick and stone building was to cost about $3,000 to build, with two stories (ground level for retail use, the second floor for the CERA meeting hall) ("Chinamen Plan $3000 Building," Idaho Statesman, November 14, 1905).

Seals "Kang Youwei yin" and "Gengsheng."

Courtesy of Asian American Comparative Collection,
University of Idaho, AACC-2015-20.

"Diguo Xianzhenghui" or Imperial Constitutional Association is carved and painted on the wood signboard. On the left are two seals, the top reading "Kang Youwei yin" (the seal of Kang Youwei) and the bottom " "Gengsheng" ("born again"--Kang Youwei's nickname during his exile). Because Kang changed the name of CERA in Chinese from Baohuanghui, or Protect the Emperor Association, to Xianzhenghui on the lunar new year (February 13, 1907), we know the sign dates from 1907 or later.

The Chinese Empire Reform Association of Marysville, California, 1904

Courtesy of Community Memorial Museum, Yuba City, California

An unusual poster from California's third largest Chinese community, Marysville, illustrates both the unity and the diversity of the Baohuanghui. The poster [here in higher resolution] was printed from a glass plate donated to Yuba City's Community Memorial Museum and brought to our attention by volunteer curator Patricia Justus and historian of Marysville Chinese, Paul Chace.

The Kang Tongbi Collection of South Windsor, Connecticut--New England AAS Presentation

American academics previewed the newly-discovered South Windsor collection of Kang Youwei and Baohuanghui documents at the New England conference of the Association of Asian Studies on October 4, 2014. 

Linked here is Jane Leung Larson's PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes. A more detailed exploration of the collection is in Larson's paper. In March 2016, Larson revised her paper and presentation for a panel on transnational Chinese political feminism organized by Zhongping Chen at the national Association of Asian Studies in Seattle, These are the documents linked to above.