Liang Qichao (Liang Ch'i-ch'ao) 1873-1929

Liang edited the journals of the Society to Protect the Emperor, Qingyi bao (Topics of the Day) and Xinmin congbao (New People). He was perspicacious about the fact that the Western powers knew a lot more about China than China knew about them. He believed this contributed to China 's repeated military defeats in the mid-nineteenth century. Liang was one of the most prolific man of letters of the late Qing and early Republican era. His influence extends from Buddhist studies to the development of modern fiction.

After resigning his post of office in the Yuan government, Liang moved to live in Tianjin and lived in there from 1915 to 1929. Liang's residence and studio is located on Minzu Road in the Hebei District in the city.

(In order to commemorate the renowned politician, thinker and scholar, Tianjin has invested 20 million yuan (2.4 million US dollars) in the renovation of Liang's former residence and study.)


Image of Liang Qichao's residence, the so-called Yinbin shi, in the Italian Concession (up the street from the Marco Polo Square). Note: This image was taken before the restauration (which was completed in 2004).




Zhou Enlai (1898 - 1976) Born on March 5, 1898, in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province..

Zhou was educated at Nankai University in Tianjin , an American-supported missionary college, before studying at a university in Japan . His active participation in student demonstrations during the May 4th Movement (1919) led to his arrest and imprisonment. After his release, he went to Paris , where he joined the Chinese Socialist Youth League. He also lived in Britain and Germany before returning to China in 1924. Zhou Enlai also worked closely with the Kuomintang Party and was appointed deputy director of the political department of the Whampoa Military Academy .

Zhou was the first premier and foreign minister of People's Republic of China . In 1954 he headed the Chinese delegation to the Geneva Conference. The following year he advocated Third World unity at the Bandung Conference. It's a common opinion among Western journalists that Zhou was a great talker and fascinated journalists all over the world with his gentlemanly manner and charm.

Zhou Enlai is proudly claimed as a son of the Tianjin . He is revered as a hero of the revolution who stood up to extremists such as the Great Leap Forward (1958), the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), and the Gang of Four. His wife, Deng Yingchao is also respected for her dedication to women's liberation.


Pu Yi (1906-1967)

Henry Pu Yi, Manchu Aisin Gioro, last emperor (1908–12) of China , under the reign name Hsuan T'ung, born on February 7, 1906 .Pu Yi was only three years old when he became the last emperor of China . Pu Yi's father, Prince Ch'un, served as his regent. The prince disliked politics, and dissidents considered him weak. There was great resentment in China against foreigners and the Manchu government at the time, and in 1911 rebellion swept through the country, forcing Prince Ch'un to resign as regent. Yuan Shih-k'ai took over the government. He hoped to start his own ruling dynasty and suggested that Pu Yi should abdicate. Fearing the consequences if they refused, the Manchu Grand Council agreed, and on February 12, 1912, the five-year old emperor renounced his throne.

After his abdication, the new republican government granted him a large government pension and permitted him to live in the Forbidden City of Beijing until 1924. After 1925, he lived in the Japanese concession in Tianjin , where the Japanese had a lot of power. Pu Yi rented a mansion called Chang Garden and set up his court there. He remained there for years, plotting to regain his throne.

Tianjin was a cosmopolitan city, and Pu Yi and his wife Elizabeth had busy social lives.

In 1934, reigning under the name K'ang Te, he became the emperor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo , or Manchuria . He was captured by the Russians in 1945 and kept as their prisoner. In 1946, Pu Yi testified at the Tokyo war crimes trial that he had been the unwilling tool of the Japanese militarists and not, as they claimed, the instrument of Manchurian self-determination. In 1950 he was handed over to the Chinese from Russian government, and he was imprisoned at Shenyang until 1959, when Mao Zedong granted him amnesty.



Lord Elgin 1811-1863

JAMES BRUCE, 8th earl of Elgin , British statesman, eldest son of the 7th earl by his second marriage, was born in 1811, and succeededto the peerage as 8th earl of Elgin and 12th of Kincardine in 1841. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church , Oxford , where he had as companions and rivals his younger predecessors in the office of governor-general of India , Dalhousie and Canning. He began his official career in 1842 at the age of thirty, as governor of Jamaica . During an administration of four years he succeeded in winning the respect of all classes. In 1846, Lord Grey appointed him governor-general of Canada .

Throughout the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese officials operated under a policy that could best be described as:  "cover up and fill up; drift along and take it easy."  Lord Elgin forced the Chinese Emperor to enter Tianjin Treaties. Particularly, the opening of ten new treaty ports from Manchuria to Taiwan and Hainan Island made it possible to penetrate China more extensively than had been allowed under the earlier separate treaties of 1842 and 1844. For the first time in China's long history, foreign shipping was granted passage up the Yangzi River, putting vast new sections of China in direct contact with Westerners. Under the protection of extraterritoriality,foreigners carrying proper passports could travel throughout China from their protected residential enclaves in the treaty ports.

Li Hongzhang (Born in Hefei, Anhui Province; Feb. 15 1823-- Nov. 7, 1901)

Li was Chinese statesman and general. He fought to keep order during the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion . In 1896 hetoured the United States of America , advocating reform of the country's immigration policies. He firmly believed in keeping peace with other countries and carry out reforms at home. However, in his remaining years, he compared himself to a paperhanger and the Qing Empire to a shabby house with the wind blowing through. Li unwillingly signed unequal treaties towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. The nation was declining, but he could do nothing to reverse the trend. In particular, t he treaty of 1901 was signed in September 1901. Under the treaty, China had to pay the eight imperialist powers indemnities totaling 450 million taels of silver ( I tael = 1 1 / 3 ounces) for exchange of nothing . In terms of the population in those days, each person paid one tael of silver. The annual revenue of the Qing government amounted to only 80 million taels of silver. Although he was very ill, Li Hongzhang attended the signing ceremony of the treaty. The signing of the treaty shocked the whole nation. There was a well-known cartoon published in a newspaper to ridicule Li Hongzhang suing for peace by betraying his country.

Eric Henry Liddell: A long-time resident (1902-1945)

Eric Henry Liddell was born on the 16th January 1902 in Tientsin (Tianjin), second son of the Rev & Mrs. James Dunlop Liddell who were missionaries with the London Mission Society.

The family moved back to the Scottish highlands in 1908, where he was educated at Eltham College, Blackheath, a school for the sons of missionaries. Eric, with his older brother Rob, were left at their boarding school while their parents and sister Jenny returned to China. In 1920, Eric joined his brother Rob at Edinburgh University to read for a BSc in Pure Science. He graduated after the Paris Olympiad in 1924. As a result of having insufficient time for both running and rugby he chose the former, aiming for the 100 meters in the Paris Olympics. When he learned that the heats were to be run on a Sunday, he switched to the 400 meter competition as he was not prepared to run on that day. He won a gold medal for the 400 meters and a bronze medal for the 200 meters at the Paris Olympics.

After the Olympics and his graduation he returned to North China where he served as a missionary from 1925 to 1943 - first in Tientsin (Tianjin) and later in Siaochang. During his first furlough (1932) he was ordained as a minister. In 1941 life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Government advised British nationals to leave. Florence and the children left for Canada. During 1941 - 1943 Eric stayed in Tientsin, then in 1943 he was interned in Weishien Camp until his death in 1945.

Eric Liddell's career and his triumphs in the athletic arena have been made into the well-known movie Chariots of Fire , which won an Oscar for best picture in 1981.

John Hersey (Born in Tianjin June 17th, 1914, d1993)

Hersey was a famous American novelist and journalist. He was educated at Yale University and Clare College of the University of Cambridge. He was noted for his ability to portray on an individual level the tragedies of war. During World War II (1939-1945) he served as a Time magazine war correspondent in the Pacific and Europe. He later was a senior editor with Life magazine. Hersey wrote Men on Bataan (1942) and Into the Valley (1943), vivid accounts of the war in the Pacific;Hiroshima (1946), and A Bell for Adano (1944; Pulitzer Prize, 1945), a novel about the Allied occupation of Italy.

Ma Sanli 1914-2003 

Ma Sanli was born into a family of folk artists in Tianjin , and lived there all through his life. He was a master performer of the traditional Chinese art of crosstalk - a rhythmic, often humorous mix of dialogue and storytelling. Ma studied crosstalk as a child and gave his first stage performance when he was 16. He continued to perform into his 80s and made his last appearance in December 2001. Ma often used crosstalk to express opinions on the ugliness and viciousness of society. Some of his most popular pieces include "In Praise of Residential Houses", "Map Sketches" and "Eating Sweet Rice Glue Dumplings." He was adept at making audiences joyous and laugh heartily while he himself stayed self-possessed. Many of the contemporary Chinese folk artists are his students.

Hongyi (Li Shutong) 1880 -1942

Master Hongyi was born in 1879 in a wealthy family in Tianjin . He became a monk at the age of 39. He was only 5 years old when his father passed away. He was brought up by his half brother who was 12 years his senior. His mother passed away when he was 26 years old. He then went to Japan to study arts and music. While in Japan , he organized a drama group, which later on moved back to China . Their performance marked the beginning of modern drama in China . Upon return to China , he worked for seven years as a music and arts teacher in the First Normal University of Zhejiang Province at Hangzhou . Li was the first artist in China to compose a chorus and nearly all of the first generation music teachers in China were his students. Li was also a famous calligrapher at that time.

Ni Ren Zhang Zhang Mingshan (born in Tianjin 1826 - 1906)

Ni Ren Zhang (Zhang's clay figurines) began during the Daoguan year of the Qing dynasty with folk artist Zhang Mingshan. The clay figurines, less than 1 foot, are renowned for that they are realistic and lifelike. They often model their subjects from scenes of local customs, and depict characters ranging from myths and classical Chinese novels.

Zhang's artistry has been handed down to descendants from generation to generation. For over 150 years, the tradition of exquisite detail and realistic modeling of miniature figurines is preserved, and Zhang's family name has been synonymous with the craft of clay sculpture in Tianjin . . Now, many of Ni Ren Zhang's art works are housed in the Museum of Tianjin China .

Yuan Shikai 1859-1916 (born in Hunan province)

Yuan was the president of china from 1912-1916. He supported Dowager Empress Cixi, against the reform movement (1898) of Emperor Guangxu, and Cixi rewarded him with the vice regency of Zhili (now Hebei , Tianjin and Beijing ). As governor, he suppressed the Boxer Uprising, winning foreign favor, which enabled him to build the strongest force in China . During the revolution of 1911, he procured a truce in which Emperor Pu Yi abdicated on Feb. 12, 1912 , and Sun Zhongshan, president of the provisional government, resigned in Yuan's favor as President of Republic of China. Oposition to Yuan's dictatorial methods soon developed. In 1914, he dissolved the parliament and on January 1, 1916, he assumed the title of emperor. A rebellion in Yunnan froced him almost immediately to restore the Republic. He died in June that same year.

After Yuan came back from Korea , he was assigned to work on military modernization projects, impressing new imperial and Manchu patrons in North China. He was chosen to command and train a modernized military force, the Newly Created Army, stationed in Tianjin. A methodological training manual, favoring German training methods, presented to the throne in 1899, was one result of this experience. It resulted in China 's first modern army.

Li Yuanhong1864-1928

Li Yuanhong was born in 1864, north of Hankou, in Hubei province. He was the only man to be President of the Chinese Republic in Beijing twice, 1916-1917 and 1922-1923.

He began his formal education at a private school in Tianjin ( Tientsin ) in 1879. In 1884, he enrolled as a cadet at the Tianjin Naval Academy , graduating five years later with a degree in marine engineering.

In 1897, 1899 and 1902, Li was sent to Japan as an observer of military modernization, and later became leader of revolutionary forces. As the revolution gathered momentum and showed signs of success, Li became more enamored of the new government. After Sun Zhongshan resigned as president to make way for Yuan Shikai, Li was elected vice president of the republic. However, neither able to resign nor to resist in any meaningful way, he became a passive participant in Beijing politics. After Yuan's death in 1916, Li became President of the Republic.

A major issue in Beijing during his first tenure as president was whether or not China should enter the First World War against the Central Powers. He did not oppose the idea of war against Germany , but did not like Duan's method of achieving parliamentary consensus, through bribery. In March 1917, he refused to sign the Chinese government's announcement it would sever ties with Germany unless the National Assembly also agreed. This led to a declaration of war without the approval of the President.

Li discontinued all political activity and lived quietly in Tianjin between 1917 and 1922. That year, he was asked to serve as president of the Republic again to help broker a peace agreement between Northern and Southern factions of Chinese warlords. He agreed, received assurances from the principal parties that private armies and the military government system would be abolished, but still remained a figurehead. He resigned again and retreated to Japan for medical treatment. He returned to China in 1924 and lived in retirement in Tianjin until his death in 1928.

Cao Yu 1902-1945

A native of Tianjin . Cao Yu was a pioneering Chinese playwright in drama. He was interested in theater as a boy. Having studied for a time at Nankai University in Tianjin and Tsinghua University in Peking , where he studied contemporary Chinese literature and both classical and modern Western drama. While at Beijing , Cao witnessed the gaping disparity between rich and poor. The impression was to mark his life and influence his future works, the first of which Lei Yu ( Thunderstorm ), was penned when he was still a student. Cao Yu's next works were Ri Chu( Sunrise , 1936), adapted as an opera [1982] and film [1938 and 1985], and Yuan Ye (1937, rev. ed., 1982; The Wilderness), a story of love and revenge that clearly reflects the influence of American playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Often hailed as the "Shakespeare of Chinese literature," Cao Yu is one of the most prominent writers in modern China . His realistic and kaleidoscope descriptions of Chinese society in the 1930s have earned him unequalled status in Chinese literary history.

Zhang Xueliang 1901-2001

Peter Chang (his name also rendered as Zhang Xueliang, and Chang Hsueh-liang) was born in Manchuria in 1901 and died in Hawaii in 2001 After his father Chang Tso-lin Zhang Zuolin, a leading war-lord known as the Old Marshal, was assassinated in 1928 by the Japanese, Chang took his place as the Young Marshal, becoming one of the most powerful military figures in China. In 1930 Chang became Deputy Commander in Chief of the Chinese Armed Forces. In 1933 he traveled to Europe . Upon his return to China , Zhou Enlai convinced him of the need for the Nationalist and Communist Chinese to present a united front against Japan .

On December 4, 1936 , Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader, met with Marshal Chang in Xian, ostensibly to plan a campaign against the Communists due to begin on December 12. Chang arrested Chiang Kai-shek, an event that became known around the world as the Xian incident. Two weeks later, Chiang agreed to work with the Communists in fighting the Japanese and was freed.

After the Xian incident Marshal Chang might have chosen to join the Communists. Instead he surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek who placed him under house arrest. This was his status for the next fifty years, even after the Nationalists fled to Taiwan taking Chang with them. As he said in 1991 in his first interview after recovering his freedom, "It was a rebellion and I had to take responsibility for it".

During his long period of confinement on Taiwan , Marshal Chang lived comfortably in a house with an extensive garden selected by Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, who succeeded his father as President of Taiwan. During this time Chang became a Baptist and spent many hours writing, reading the Bible, and studying history. The house was filled with paintings and calligraphy honoring the Chiang family, including a number that were drawn by Madame Chang Kai-shek. Many of these items are now at Columbia in the Chang Papers.

After his release Marshall Chang settled in Hawaii in 1995 with his second wife Yi Dizhao, known as Edith Chang, who predeceased him by one year. The daughter of a senior official, she had left her family while still in her teens to become his companion, later following him into exile on Taiwan. Her devotion so moved Chang's first wife Yu Feng-chih that she released him from his marriage vows.

Zhang Xiangwen (1867-1933)

Zhang Xiangwen, a native of Siyang county, Jiangsu, was a leading educational reformer and scholar in the geosciences. In 1909, he moved to Tianjin to act as principal of the Beiyang Women's High School, probably the very first high school for women in China.
In the same year, Zhang founded the Chinese society for Earth Sciences (Di xue hui) in the First Hebei Mengyang Academy, Tianjin, and is elected its chairman (which he remains - with only a one-year interruption - until 1932). The society never had many members (about 540 at the most), but among them were historians and scientists like Ding Jian, Yuan Fuli, Ding Wenjiang, Liang Qichao, Wang Chengzu, etc.
For more on Zhang Xiangwen, see this web site.

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