Perspective from China’s First Pro-Democracy Activists

Yung Wing, my grandfather, and the seeds of revolution against the China’s last empire

My grandfather Liu Chengyu, age 28, left, and Yung Wing, age 76

In 1900 my grandfather Liu Chengyu became one of China’s first pro-democracy activists when he joined a student-organized plot to blow up an imperial armory near his home in Wuchang. The plot was exposed and several of my…