Phạm Hồng Thái (1896–1924) was a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

activist, revolutionary and a member of

Đông Du Đông Du (, , ''journey to the east''; ) was a Vietnamese political movement founded by Phan Bội Châu at the start of the 20th century that encouraged young Vietnamese to go east to Japan to study, in the hope of training a new era of revolutio ...

. He was responsible for the assassination attempt on

Martial Merlin Martial Henri Merlin (20 January 1860 – 8 May 1935; also Martial Merlin) was a French colonial administrator of the 19th and 20th centuries. He served as the governor-general of Guadeloupe (1901–1903), French West Africa (1907–1908 and 1919 ...

, the

governor-general Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initial ...

then visiting

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, China. Disguised as a journalist at the party given in Merlin's honor, Pham Hong Thai detonated the explosive device but failed to kill Merlin at the banquet. Hunted down by authorities, he chose to drown himself in the

Pearl River The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...

to avoid capture. He was interred in the Huanghuagang Cemetery (Hoàng Hoa Cương in

) Cemetery in Guangzhou next to 72 Chinese revolutionaries who died in the

Second Guangzhou uprising The Second Guangzhou (Canton) Uprising, known in Chinese as the Yellow Flower Mound Uprising or the Guangzhou Xinhai Uprising, was a failed uprising took place in China led by Huang Xing and his fellow revolutionaries against the Qing dynasty ...

. Even though the assassination were unsuccessful, it fanned nationalist sentiments in Vietnam against French rule and intensified agitation among activists.

References

1896 births 1924 deaths Vietnamese activists Vietnamese nationalists Vietnamese revolutionaries Burials in Guangzhou People from Nghệ An province {{Vietnam-activist-stub