Furen Literary Society
The Furen Literary Society, also known as the Chinese Patriotic Mutual Improvement Association, or the 'Furen Cultural Society Restoration Association ', was founded in colonial Hong Kong in 1892.
It was founded by Yeung Ku-wan, together with Tse Tsan-tai and others, with Yeung as their leader. The guiding principles of the society were: "Open up the people's minds" and "Ducit Amor Patriae". Other tenets were:
- To purify the character in the highest possible degree
- To prohibit indulgences in the vices of the world
- To set an example for future young Chinese
- To improve in all possible ways Chinese and foreign knowledge both in a civil and a military point of view
- To obtain a good knowledge of western science and learning: and
- To learn how to be and act as a patriot and how to wipe out the unjust wrong our country has suffered.
In November 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded the Revive China Society in Honolulu, Hawaii, and, in 1895, the Furen Literary Society was merged into the Hong Kong chapter of the Revive China Society, with help from Yau Lit. Yeung Kui-wan and Sun became respectively, President and Secretary of the Revive China Society.
A memorial park to the early revolutionists of the Furen Literary was opened in May, 2011 - just in time for the centenary anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution, which realised the dreams of the members of the Furen Literary Society.