Monarchist Kang Youwei failed miserably, leaving an intact and corrupt Qing to rule for a few more years before the republican Sun Yat-sen, together with the other, toppled the Manchu dynasty.

The year 1911 has been celebrated as belonging to Sun Yat-sen, the father of China's revolution. But if history had played out slightly differently, it could have been known as the year of Kang ...

In 1891, Kang Youwei rented part of the Qiu's Library premises as a school wherein to promote his ideas on constitutional reform and modernization, and cultivate young thinkers.