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The man who could have changed China's history

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The year 1911 has been celebrated as belonging to Sun Yat-sen, the father of China's revolution. But if history had played out slightly differently, it could have been known as the year of Kang You-wei, the father of constitutional monarchy in China.

A brilliant intellectual, Kang proposed that China follow the constitutional models of Japan, Sweden and Britain, and he inspired the young Guangxu Emperor to adopt many of his ideas in 1898.

But after the Hundred Days' Reform, the Empress Dowager Cixi put the emperor under house arrest and ordered Kang to be slowly sliced to death. He fled abroad, beginning an exile that took him to more than 30 countries, where he was treated like a head of state.

The story of Kang's extraordinary life and odyssey is told in a new film, Datong, the Great Society, by Hong Kong director Evans Chan, opening at IFC and Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei on November 12.

It is part drama and part documentary, mixing scenes from Kang's life with interviews with scholars of history and scenes from Stockholm, where he bought an island that became a refuge during his exile.

The three main characters are Kang, his daughter Kang Tong-bi and Liang Chi-chao, his main disciple and right-hand man in the Hundred Days' Reform.

The film performs a valuable service in informing Chinese and foreigners about a key historical figure who has been largely forgotten in a year devoted to Sun, his bitter rival.

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