Empire Reform Association
Date Published
The Empire Reform Association (Protect the Emperor Society) was organised around the Chinese diaspora to push for a Chinese constitutional monarchy.
After the failure of the One Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898, Kang Youwei led the monarchists who hoped to restore the influence of the reformist Emperor Kuang Hsu, by reducing the power of the Empress Dowager Ci Xi. The influence of the monarchists was the first to reach Australia. In 1899, Kang Yuwei wrote to Australian businessman Mei Quong Tart, seeking support. One result was the formation, in 1900, of the New South Wales Chinese Empire Reform Association, run by Chinese merchants Thomas Yee Hing, Ping Nam, Gilbert Quoy and C Leanfore. In 1900 Liang Qichao, a leading figure in the monarchist movement, arrived from China and travelled throughout Australia raising support for the Emperor. The Tung Wah Times, a pro-monarchist paper, was used by the Sydney-based monarchists to influence Chinese people throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Source: National Museum Australia
"At its founding in 1900, the Sydney branch of the Protect the Emperor Society comprised 59 committee members and some 249 members. To qualify for election to the working committee of the Association, a special membership fee of £10 was required (as opposed to the four shillings for ordinary membership). Among those who paid the special membership fee to become office-bearers were Thomas Yee Hing (Liu Ruxing 刘汝兴), Ping Nam (Ye Bingnan 叶炳南), W.R.G. Lee (Li Yihui), George Kwok Bew (Guo Biao) and newspaper editors like Ng Ngok-low (Wu Elou) and T. Chong Luke (Zheng Lu).[63] Indeed it was the involvement of men like Thomas Yee Hing and Ping Nam in the founding of the Society that led Quong Tart to dissociate himself from it, despite personal appeals from Kang Youwei and Yip Ung, the president of the Society's Vancouver branch."
