Tse Tsan-tai (; 16 May 1872 – 4 April 1938),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...
Sing-on (),
art-name
An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. Th ...
d Hong-yu (), was an
Australian Chinese revolutionary, active during the late
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
. Tse had an interest in designing
airship
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
In early ...
s but none were ever constructed. His book ''The Chinese Republic: Secret History of the Revolution'' (), published in 1924 by the ''
South China Morning Post
The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
'', of which he was co-founder, is an important source of studies on the anti-Qing revolution.
Early life
Born in
Grafton, New South Wales
Grafton ( Bundjalung-Yugambeh: Gumbin Gir) is a city in the Northern Rivers region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is located on the Clarence River, approximately by road north-northeast of the state capital Sydney. The closest m ...
, to Tse Yat-cheong () who was a Chinese nationalist, Tse Tsan-tai was baptised "James See" on 1 November 1879. His family was on close terms with the family of
Vivian Chow Yung, another prominent Chinese-Australian from Grafton. In 1887, Tse moved to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
with his family and he was educated at
The Government Central School (now the Queen's College). Afterwards Tse worked as a secretary in the Public Works Department of the
Government of Hong Kong
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the executive authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino-Br ...
for nearly 10 years.
Interest in airships
Tse claimed to have “invented” and designed the world's first steerable
airship
An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air.
In early ...
in 1894 which he named “CHINA”. After he had perfected his design, in 1899 he wrote to
Hiram S. Maxim of the then recently merged Vickers & Maxim Company which had also started building airships. He provided drawings and explanations about how his design would enable airships to be steered by propellers and that the balloon, “cigar-shaped”, would be enclosed in an aluminum shell, thus “protecting it from enemy missiles”.
However, Maxim was obviously not overly impressed, replying politely to Tse that he was already in possession of Tse's “secrets”. The ‘secrets’ Maxim referred to were, coincidentally, revealed that same year with the launching in Germany of
Count Zeppelin
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...
’s first giant rigid airship. Zeppelin had been way ahead of Tse, having first started planning these ships as early as 1874; he even patented the detailed design details in 1895 long before Tse had even started putting down on paper his “invention”.
As an anti-Qing dynasty revolutionary
![Political Map of 19th Century China(時局全圖)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Political_Map_of_19th_Century_China%EF%BC%88%E6%99%82%E5%B1%80%E5%85%A8%E5%9C%96%EF%BC%89.jpg)
On 13 March 1892, Tse, together with
Yeung Ku-wan
Yeung Ku-wan (19 December 1861 – 11 January 1901) was a Chinese revolutionary of the late Qing dynasty. In 1890, Yeung started the Furen Literary Society in British Hong Kong to spread ideas of revolution against the Qing dynasty and to est ...
and others, started the
Furen Literary Society
The Furen Literary Society, also known as the Chinese Patriotic Mutual Improvement Association, or the 'Furen Cultural Society Restoration Association (Foo Yan Man Ser Kwong Fook Hui)', was founded in Colonial Hong Kong in 1892.
It was founded b ...
in
Pak Tse Lane,
Sheung Wan
Sheung Wan is an area in Hong Kong, located in the north-west of Hong Kong Island, between Central and Sai Ying Pun. Administratively, it is part of the Central and Western District. The name can be variously interpreted as ''Upper Dist ...
, with the guiding principle of "''Ducit Amor Patriae''" ( in Chinese, literally "Love your country with all your heart"). The Furen Literary Society was merged into the Hong Kong Chapter of the
Revive China Society
The Hsing Chung Hui (Hanyu Pinyin romanization: Xīngzhōnghuì), translated as the Revive China Society (興中會), the Society for Regenerating China, or the Proper China Society was founded by Sun Yat-sen on 24 November 1894 to forward th ...
in 1895, with Yeung and
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
as the president and secretary of the society respectively. When Yeung and Sun fled overseas after the unsuccessful
First Guangzhou Uprising, Tse remained in Hong Kong.
After Yeung was assassinated by Qing agents in 1901, Tse strove for his burial in the
Hong Kong Cemetery
Hong Kong Cemetery, formerly Hong Kong (Happy Valley) Cemetery and before that Hong Kong Colonial Cemetery, is one of the early Christian cemeteries in Hong Kong dating to its colonial era beginning in 1845. It is located beside the racecourse ...
, albeit with a nameless gravestone. Determined to avenge his friend, Tse, together with his father, his brother,
Hung Chuen-fook () and
triads, plotted another uprising in Canton. They called for the establishment of the State of
Great Ming Heavenly Kingdom (), a democratic state with an elected sage and talent as the president, and persuaded
Yung Wing
Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between Ch ...
to serve as the provisional president of the state. According to the plan, with financial sponsorship from
Li Ki-tong Li Ki-tong (1873-6 October 1943) () (formerly Li Po-lun) was a Hong Kong publisher and key financial backer of the revolutionary movement leading to the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Qing dynasty of China.
Early life
Li was born in Xinhui, ...
(), they would destroy the
Emperor's Temple () with explosives on 28 January 1903, killing all the officials there, and then occupy the city of
Canton. The plot was leaked to the Qing government by a betraying informant.
As a newspaper person, Tse wrote the first declaration of the Revive China Society, with an open letter to the
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, wi ...
in English. He also published ''The Situation in the Far East'' () to warn patriots against the Western powers' ambition to partition China. In November 1903, Tse co-founded the ''
South China Morning Post
The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remained ...
'' with Alfred Cunningham.
Tse was also a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, and published a book entitled ''The Creation, the Garden of Eden and the Origin of the Chinese'' in 1914. In it, he argued that the
Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
was located in modern-day
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
and that many Biblical events and narratives occurred within China's vicinity.
After the revolution
After the
Xinhai Revolution
The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...
in 1911, Tse was not involved in the
Republic of China Government
The Government of the Republic of China, is the Central government, national government of the Republic of China whose ''de facto'' territory currently consists of Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu Islands, Matsu and List o ...
. He died on 4 April 1938 and was buried in Hong Kong.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tse, Tsan-tai
Chinese revolutionaries
Hong Kong newspaper people
Australian people of Chinese descent
1872 births
1938 deaths
People from Sydney
Australian emigrants to Hong Kong
Chinese Christians
Alumni of Queen's College, Hong Kong
Christian creationists