Ou-yang Yü-ch'ien (1887-21 September 1962), teacher, actor, playwright, and director whose career reflects the development of drama and cinema in twentieth-century China. Liuyang, Hunan, was the birthplace of Ou-yang Yü-ch'ien. His paternal grandfather, Ou-yang Chung-ku, was provincial treasurer of Kwangsi during the last years of the Ch'ing dynasty, and his maternal grandfather, Liu Jen-hsi, was […]

Meng Sen (1868-14 January 1938), supporter of constitutional government and a leader of the Chin-pu-tang. He became an authority on the Ming-Ch'ing transitional period and a professor of history at Peking University. A native of Yanghu hsien, Kiangsu, Meng Sen was born into a prominent family in a region where scholars abounded. After becoming a […]

Lu Tso-fu (1894-8 February 1952), entrepreneur who founded such enterprises as the Ming-sung Industrial Company, a shipping firm. From 1938 to 1943 he served under Chang Kia-ngau as vice minister of communications in the National Government. He fled to Hong Kong in 1949, but returned to Chungking in response to Chinese Communist promises of financial […]

Lin Ch'ang-min (16 July 1876-December 1925), scholar and government official who devoted his life to the development of constitutionalism and parliamentary government in China. He met an untimely end after joining Kuo Sungling at the time of Kuo's 1925 revolt against Chang Tso-lin. Although he was born in Hangchow, Lin Ch'ang-min was a native of […]

Ch'en San-li 陳三立 Ch'en San-li (1852 - 15 September 1937) helped to develop reform and modernization programs in Hunan while his father, Ch'en Pao-chen, was governor (1895-98). After the failure of the Hundred Days Reform of 1898, he was banished from government service. He then became a noted poet and essayist. The Ch'en San-li branch […]