Revive China Society

The Revive China Society (Hsing Chung Hui, 兴中会) was an underground revolutionary organization that tried to overthrow the Qing Dynasty government to regenerate the country’s prosperity. It was founded by Sun Yat-sen on Nov. 24, 1894, while in exile in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Angered by the government corruption and incompetence, which were highlighted by China’s loss in the First Sino-Japanese War (Jiawu War), Sun made the slogan of his society “Expel the Manchurians, revive China and establish a unified government.”

In 1895, the society merged with another anti-Manchu organization, Furen Literary Society (also known as Chinese Patriotic Mutual Improvement Society), which was founded in Hong Kong in 1890. In October that year, the group planned an uprising in Guangzhou, but the scheme was aborted after it was leaked to the authority. The Manchurian government arrested 70 members and pressured the British colonial authorities to expel Sun, who then stayed in Hong Kong.

Hsing Chung Hui is often regarded as a nascent Tongmenghui (同盟会), also known as the Chinese United League or the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, which was later restructured into the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, which ruled China from 1927 to 1949.