Photographer and political activist, travelled from Fremantle to Sydney from October 1900 to April 1901 meeting and taking photographs of Chinese-Australian communities, e.g. Mei Quong Tart with Emissaries from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce 1903, Sydney. As a proponent of China’s reform and modernisation Liang was a notably visitor and his travels received wide coverage in both China and Australia. Colonial governors, city mayors, local chambers of commerce and academics treated him as prominent visiting dignitary, although Quong Tart, Sydney’s most influential merchant, refused to be associated with the Liang Qichao-inspired NSW Chinese Empire Reform Association, perhaps because he was hoping to become the first consul of the Chinese government in Australia.
An exhibition of Liang Qichao’s photographs organised by the Chinese Heritage of Australia Federation project, A Chinese reformer at the birth of a nation: Liang Qichao and the Chinese heritage of Australian federation , opened in Shanghai Library on 27 October 2000 – the exact centenary of Liang’s arrival in Australia. It then travelled to Beijing, Taipai and Hong Kong (Central Plaza, closed 4 March 2001).
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1999
- Last updated:
- 2011
