Category: History

Peking – Peiping – Peking A Rotary Club under 3 different National Flags 10 October 2016 In 1947 Peiping, a large portrait of Chiang Kai-Shek was displayed above Tiananmen Gate. This is the story about Peking Rotary Club (北京扶輪社) or Peiping Rotary Club (北平扶輪社). The English name “Peking” for the Chinese city “北京”(today known as…

Kweiyang Rotary Club (貴陽扶輪社) Celebrated United Nations Week in October 1949 1 October 2014 Rotary International and the United Nations “The invitation to Rotary International to participate in the United Nations conference as consultant to the United States delegation was not merely a gesture of goodwill toward a great organization. It was a simple recognition…

The Story of Lanchow Rotary Club (蘭州扶輪社) the Club that had been Provisional for Seven Years 1 October 2016 Street scene of Lanchow in 1946 《The Good Samaritans at Lanchow, China》was an article published in the July 1947 Issue of 《The Rotarian》magazine (see the full text attached below on Pages 11-12). This two-page report gives…

Yōsuke Matsuoka – From Rotarian to War Criminal 3 September 2015 Yōsuke Matsuoka 松岡洋右 Today is the 70th anniversary of the war victory day. As the final official unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japan (日本帝國) was accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, concluding the Second World War, the…

1 April 2016 Kunming (昆明) was the capital city of Yun Nan Fu (雲南府) in the Republic of China (中華民國). Kunming played a major role during the World War II. Before the Imperial Japan invaded the British Burma, the capital city of Yunnan was the terminus of the “Burma Road” that was used by the…

Shanghai Concert Hall Wartime Hub of Shanghai Rotary Club by Herbert K. Lau (劉敬恒) (Rotary China Historian) 1 November 2016 Shanghai Concert Hall (上海音樂廳) Beaux-Arts Architecture Shanghai Concert Hall (上海音樂廳) is located on the intersection of Yan’an Road and South Tibet Road of Huangpu District, Shanghai (上海市黃浦區延安路/西藏南路). The fabric structure of the Shanghai Concert Hall,…

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…

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 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…

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) –…

TIENTSIN NORTH CHINA 津天 竹 旅旗 ROTARY THE ROTARY CLUB OF TIENTSIN No 1444 JANUARY 1934 TIENTSIN, NORTH CHINA. THE PORT, ITS HISTORY, AND ROTARY CLUB ACTIVITIES. TER ROTARY RNATION Issued by the ROTARY CLUB OF TIENTSIN. No. 1444. January, 1934. 501 Grade 1/36 tions, This pamphlet has been prepared by Past President W. V.…

Former Shanghai/Chungking/Taipei Rotarian Aid Mainland Refugee Chinese Intellectuals to Taiwan 1 May 2015 George Ashmore Fitch ( 費吳生) and wife Geraldine This is the story of George Ashmore Fitch (費吳生) (1883-1979), born in an American missionary’s family at Soochow (Suzhou) (蘇州), Imperial Ch’ing (大清國), who was an active member of Shanghai Rotary Club (上海扶輪社), and…

Dissolved the 3 Rotary Districts in China in 1951 The Proximate Cause by Herbert K. Lau (劉敬恒) (Rotary China Historian) 1 July 2016 The Decision Though there had been vision and mission on 1 July 1937 to develop 2,000 Rotary clubs in The Republic of China (中華民國), the 3 Rotary districts spread on most of…

Hangchow Rotarian Rev. Robert Johnson McMullen American Missionary served refugees relief in Wartime China 1 May 2014 This small photo is illustrated by a piece of very short news reported in the Page 52, September 1938 Issue of《The Rotarian》Magazine: “In the forefront of relief activities, among 26,000 refugees, in Hangchow, China, are these seven Rotarians…

1 War Refugee Rotarians’ Fellowship Groups by Herbert K. Lau (劉敬恒) (Rotary China Historian) 3 September 2015 (70th Anniversary of Victory Over Japan Day) It was the Second Sino-Japanese War which was a military conflict initiated by the Imperial Japan’s full scale aggression to the Republic of China (中華民國) from 7 July 1937 until Japan’s…

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…

中文版在第10-23頁扶輪基金1948年受獎人鄭哲敏院士獲小行星命名殊榮Minor Planet No. 12935 was named after The 1948 Rotary Foundation Fellow Cheng Che-Min 1 November20161952–Dr. Cheng Che-Min (Zheng Zhemin) 鄭哲敏博士Five minor planets have been named after top Chinese scientists, including Cheng Che-Min (known today as Zheng Zhemin) (鄭哲敏), a Rotary Foundation Fellow of 1948-1949, at a ceremony held on Monday, 4 January 2016, at…