A friend of Dr. Mary Starr Tudor’s, Dr. Yung Wing, a Chinese citizen working in Hartford, was a close friend of K’ang Yu-wei, a central figure in the Chinese Reform Association. The Association’s purpose was to confirm the prominence of the Emperor based on the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
In October of 1903, Kang Tongbi (1887-1969), the second daughter K’ang Yu-wei, arrived in Hartford to study and to promote the reform movement to the largest concentration of Chinese living in New England. Dr. Yung, serving as Kang Tongbi’s guardian and tutor, thought that it was most appropriate that his associate, Dr. Tudor provide a place for the young woman to live. Kang Tongbi remained in South Windsor until 1905, when she moved to New York City to study at Barnard College.
A couple of exciting incidents were reported in the Hartford Courant during her stay in CT. In January of 1905 an article opened with these ominous lines:
Members of the Chinese Reform Association in this city were considerably excited yesterday when it was learned that Miss [Kang Tongbi] had been warned that an attempt was to be made to take her life. She received the letter of warning from a member of the Association in Chicago, who wrote that men from China were now on their way here to kill her.
In July of 1905 another article appeared during the visit of K’ang Yu-wei:
During the afternoon, K’ang’s party was shown through the Vandyke Avenue gun factory by its president, Lewis C. Grover. The latest weapons were displayed for the visitors, creating much interest among the members of the party. K’ang reportedly took “numerous notes” and [Kang Tongbi’s] questions “were the rapid-fire kind”. Much to the surprise of everyone, she requested that she be allowed to fire a machinegun. After her exhibition with this weapon, she also fired a 38-calibre automatic and a 41-calibre derringer. The Courant reported that when [Kang Tongbi] was informed that the price of the machine-gun was $700 “she showed she was a good girl by not asking her father to buy it for her.”
In recent years, Chinese historians have traced and recorded 
Kang Tongbi’s time in the U.S., including South Windsor. In 2015, an opera called Datong: The Chinese Utopia was produced out of Hong Kong was released about K’ang Yu-Wei, though framed around Kang Tongbi, a “pioneering Chinese feminist.”
Images courtesy of Bob and Edie Starr.
