Category: History

When and How Mongolia was grouped into R.I. District 3450? January 2015 marked the 20th year of Rotary in the democratic nation Mongolia (Монгол Улс). However, for the first 5 years, the only Rotary Club in this country—The Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar (Улаанбаатар Ротари клуб)—was non-districted. Until 1 July 2000, this land- locked country was…

The British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, for all its fame and importance astride one of the major trade routes to China, is not very large. Its total area is 391 square miles; the area of Hong Kong Island itself is only 36½ square miles. Yet on that latter speck of land there are three…

The 1934 pamphlet issued by the Rotary Club of Tientsin provides a detailed historical and contemporary overview of the city of Tientsin (Tianjin), North China, and the activities of its Rotary Club. Authored by Past President W.V. Pennell, editor of the Peking & Tientsin Times, the booklet was prepared for international circulation among Rotary Clubs…

Shenyang City – the unique home of 3 Rotary Clubs under 3 Different Regimes 1 December 2019 Shenyang City (瀋陽/沈阳), a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning Province (遼寧省), has been the home of 3 Rotary clubs under 3 different regimes: (1) 1929 — The State of Manchuria (Manchukuo) (滿洲國) –…

The First Decade of Rotary in the Tientsin Foreign Concessions 1 September 2014 The Treaty Port Tientsin The concessions in Tientsin (Tianjin) (天津) were concession territories ceded by the Imperial Qing (Manchu Dynasty) (大清國) to a number of European countries, the United States and Imperial Japan within the city of Tientsin. There were nine concessions…

Tsinan (Li-cheng-hsien city) is the capital and largest city of Shantung Province in the Republic of China. Geographically and commercially it is well situated as the centre of the Province which is 56,000 square miles in area. Tsinan (Lat: 36°40’N; Long: 14°00’E lies in about the same latitude as Tokyo, Japan; Nash-ville, Tenn, U.S.A.; Gibraltar…

The 2 Rotary Mobile Clinics operated by Shanghai Rotarians 1 December 2015 December is “Disease Prevention and Treatment Month” designated by Rotary International to arouse the global Rotary clubs’ attention of service action with special focus on disease prevention and treatment in the communities. Rotary’s top priority is certainly the eradication of polio, but the…

Rotary in the State of Manchuria on the Northeastern Chinese Mainland 18 September 2016 (85 years of the Mukden Incident) Located at the northeastern Chinese mainland, officially the “State of Manchuria” prior to 1934 and the “Empire of (Great) Manchuria” (大滿洲帝國) after 1934, Manchukuo (滿洲國) was a puppet state of the Japanese Empire in Manchuria…

Boys Work by Tientsin Rotary Club in the 1920s 1 September 2014 Initiation of the Boys Work Program in 1919Prior to the establishment of the “Interact Club” program in 1962 for both boys and girls, Rotary’s service to the younger generations was focused on “Boys Work”. Initiation of the “Boys Work” program could be traced…

Boys Work by Shanghai Rotary Club in1920–1940 by Herbert K. Lau (劉敬恒) (Rotary China Historian)1 July 2015 May is the “Youth Service Month” of Rotary International designated since the Year 2015-2016. This is to replace the previous special focus“September –New Generations Month” of which had been observed for some twenty years.Rotary International’s structured programs for…

Asteroid 3797 Was Named After Former Nanking Rotarian Dr. Ching-Sung Yu 南京紫金山天文臺創建人南京扶輪社 (1934)創社社員-余青松博士 22January 2017 Dr. Ching-SungYu 余青松博士Asteroid 3797 was named in memory of Dr. Ching-Sung Yu (余青松博士) (1897-1978), Chinese-American astrophysicist, whose spectro photometric measurements of 91 stars at the Lick Observatory in the early 1920s represented a milestone in research on stellar energy distribution.…