Artist’s rendering of Historic Zhuhai Figures Statue Garden.

Chen Fang (Chun Afong), the first Chinese consul in Hawaii (1825-1906, born in Meixi Village, Qianshan Town)
Chun Afong was the most famous Chinese aristocrat in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He learned to do business from his uncle when he was very young and became a millionaire -- the richest Chinese merchant who was called “sugar refining giant” in Hawaii. He became a royal member by getting married to a cousin of the King of the Kingdom of Hawaii and was appointed as the consultant of the Privy Council. He was nominated the first consul of China to Hawaii by the Qing government in 1881, and he succeeded in getting King Kalakaua of Hawaii to visit China that year.

Xu Run, an outstanding representative of Chinese national industry and commerce (1838-1911, born in Beiling Village, Gongbei)
Xu Run was a famous industrialist in modern China. He went to Shanghai at the age of 14 and worked at Dent, Beale & Co. He had been engaged in industry for 60 years. In collaboration with Tang Tingshu, he inaugurated China’s insurance industry. He ran more than 50 businesses related to mining, trading, transport, finance and insurance. At the same time, he got involved in running a school and a hospital and was dedicated to philanthropy. He contributed enormously to modern national industry and commerce and its development.

Lu Muzhen, the first wife of Dr Sun Yat-sen (1867-1952, born in Waisha Village, Jinding Town)
At age 18, Lu Muzhen had an arranged marriage with Dr Sun Yat-sen and then stayed with Sun in support of the revolutionary struggle he headed against the Qing Dynasty. She and Sun divorced in 1915 when she moved to Macao for social welfare undertakings. She helped the Chinese Communist Party develop the patriotic united front in Macao and gained the reverence of people in Zhuhai and Macao.

Su Manshu, a literary genius (1884-1918, born in Lixi Village, Qianshan Town)
Su Manshu has made remarkable contributions to international cultural exchange. He was born in Japan and lived in Zhuhai in childhood. He entered into religion for three times in his lifetime. A born genius in poetry and art, he was versed in English, Japanese and Sanskrit. He was the first to translate Victor Hugo’s novel Les Miserables into Chinese. He also translated The Selected Poems by Byron into five-word Chinese poems and a hundred ancient Chinese poems into English. When he died at age 35, Dr Sun Yat-sen wrote inscriptions on the calligraphy paintings that Su had left behind.

Cai Chang, a tycoon of China’s department store (1877-1953, born in Waisha Village, Jinding Town)
Cai Chang was founder of the Da Sun Department Store, one of the four major department stores in modern China. He went to do business in Southeast Asia at a young age and was appointed to the corporate board of Sincere Department Store at age 22. Afterwards, he opened the Hong Kong Da Sun Department Store and set up a branch in today’s Nanfang Mansion in Guangzhou and another in today’s Shanghai No. 1 Department Store Building in Shanghai. Changxing Street near Nanfang Mansion was named after Cai Chang and his brother Cai Xing.

Su Zhaozheng, a proletarian revolutionist of the early CPC (1885-1929, born on Qi’ao Island)
Su Zhaozheng was one of the early leaders of the Communist Party of China and an outstanding leader of the Labour Movement. He helped to set up the Chinese Seaman’s Union in Hong Kong and led the famous Seamen’s Strike and the Hong Kong-Guangdong General Strike. He served as chairman of the 2nd and 3rd Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. He died of disease at age 44 in Shanghai.

Lin Weimin, a pioneer of China’s Labour Movement (1888-1926, born on Sanzao Island)
Lin Weimin was a remarkable leader of early China’s Labour Movement. A seaman on a Hong Kong ocean ship, he established the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union, the earliest trade union of Chinese industrialists. He led the Shanghai Seamen’s Strike, the first workers’ strike after the founding of the Communist Party of China, and joined the CPC in the Soviet Union. As a co-leader of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike and the Hong Kong-Guangdong General Strike, he was appointed chairman of the 1st Executive Committee of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Yang Pao’an, a heralded disseminator of Marxism in China (1896-1931, born in Beishan Village, Nanping Town)
Yang Pao’an was an outstanding early theorist of the Communist Party of China. He introduced Marxism to South China during the May 4th Movement of 1919 and helped Dr Sun Yat-sen restructure the Kuomintang in the period of the Great Revolution. He helped organize the Canton-Hong Kong Strike and contributed to realizing the first Cooperation between the CPC and the KMT, solidifying the Guangdong Revolutionary Base Area and boosting the Northern Expedition. He died at age 35 when the Great Revolution failed.

Tang Disheng (1917-59, well-known Cantonese Opera playwright, born in Tangjiawan Town)
An opera scenarist who contributed considerably to the reform and development of the art, Tang Disheng wrote more than 400 plays. He became a household name in 1950 when he wrote and performed in Red Tears of an Aspen. He also wrote film scripts and worked as a movie director. Tang died of a heart attack 1959 at age 42.

Gu Yuan, master artist (1919-96, born in Nazhou Village, Tangjiawan Town)
Gu Yuan was acclaimed as a Master Artist who was fostered by the Yan’an Revolutionary Base Area. When the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, the 19-year-old hurried to Yan’an and enrolled in the Lu Xun Art College Art Department. Upon graduation, he went to the countryside of liberated areas and created a large number of artworks. He took part in the Yan’an Forum on Literature & Art and had been a member of the China Federation of Literary & Art Circles since liberation. He took the post of president of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1983.

Rong Guotuan, the first world champion in China (1937-1968, born in Nanping Village, Nanping Town)
Rong Guotuan went to Zhenxian School at age 7 and began to show interest in table tennis. He dropped out of school to work in Hong Kong at age 14. He won three champions at the Hong Kong Table Tennis Tournament when he was 20. He came back to his hometown in 1957 and enrolled in Guangzhou Sports College. He joined the China National Team in 1959 and became China’s first world champion at the 25th World Table Tennis Tournament. His team won the Men’s Overall Champion at the 26th World Table Tennis Tournament in 1962.

Bao Jun, a famous Lingnan poet and calligrapher in the late Qing Dynasty (1797-1851，born in Shanchang Village, Xiangzhou)
Bao Jun had a pavilion built on Shixi Hill in Xiangzhou and named it Yi Lan Ting, or After Orchid Pavilion. It is an imitation of one from 1,500 years before and heir to the spirit of Lan Ting culture. In 1850, Bao organized a gathering of poets and calligraphers from Xinhui, Panyu, Nanhai and other areas in Guangdong at After Lan Ting.

Mo Shiyang (Mok Si Yeung, the first comprador of Butterfield & Swire Co, the largest British firm in Hong Kong (1820-1879, born in the Huitong Village, Tangjiawan Town)
Three generations of the Mo family -- Mo Shiyang, Mo Zaoquan and Mo Gansheng -- held the post of comprador for Swire Pacific Ltd. for 60 years, and became the largest family in Huitong Village.

Xu Zonghan (1876-1944, niece of Xu Run and pioneer of the Women’s Liberation Movement in modern China, born in Beiling Village, Gongbei)

15. Huang Huaisen (Guangxi Governor in the late Qing Dynasty, born in Lishan Village, Doumen District)

Bao Guobao (1899-1978, forerunner of electric industry in China)

Chinese Educational Mission (CEM) Students
Rong Hong (Yung Wing), forefather of Overseas Chinese Students (1828-1912, born in Nanping Town)
Rong Hong was the pioneer of China’s modernization. Having witnessed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Westernization Movement, the 1898 Reform Movement and the Revolution of 1911, he had been dedicated to revitalizing China through education, industry and politics. He initiated the Chinese Educational Mission (CEM), which sent 120 Chinese students to study in the United States, the first ever from China. The mission fostered Tang Shaoyi (Tong Shao Yi), Zhan Tianyou (Jeme Tien Yau) and other outstanding figures that accelerated China’s modernization process.

Tang Tingshu (Tong King-sing), forerunner of China’s modernization (1832-1892, born in Tangjiawan)
Tang Tingshu was the promoter of the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty. He was commissioned to restructure the Bureau of Ships & Commerce by the Qing government. He operated 47 exclusively run businesses or joint ventures including the first hospital in Shanghai, the first insurance company, the first large mechanized coal mine, the first railway and the first cement plant. He also compiled the first English-Chinese Dictionary. He played an important role in China’s economic and social development.

Tang Guo’an (Tong Kwo On), founder of Tsinghua University (1860-1913, born in Jishan Village of Tangjiawan Town)
As one of the 120 CEM students, Tang Guo’an became a major overseas education starter in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. He sent 180 students to study in the US under the Boxer Indemnity project in three detachments and founded Tsinghua School for students-to-study-in-US training. When the Qing Dynasty collapsed, he stayed at the school rather than holding a post in the new government. He proposed that the new government restructure the school and copy the western educational system, which gave rise to Tsinghua College with Tong serving as the first president.

Tang Shaoyi (Tong Shao Yi), the first premier of the Republic of China (1862-1938, born in Tangjiawan Town)
As one of the 120 CEM students, Tang Shaoyi became a renowned politician in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. After the Revolution of 1911, he took part in Peace Negotiation between the North and South, contributing greatly to the founding of the Chinese republic, which ended the Qing Dynasty. He became a sworn friend of Dr Sun Yat-sen and was nominated the first premier of the Republic of China. He resigned and came back home after Yuan Shikai succeeded Dr Sun as the first president of the Republic of China. Being appointed as Zhongshan County Prefect, he began to focus on establishing a free-trade zone and boosting the local economy. He was made an example of being ready to take either a higher or lower post by Mao Zedong half a century later.

Rong Xingqiao (Yung Sing Kew, Yung Yew Huan, or Yung Koy), important member of the China Revival Society (1865-1933, born in Nanping Village, Nanping Town)
Rong Xingqiao was the first principal of Zhenxian School established by Yung Wing. A CEM student, he dedicated his life to casting down the Qing Court and found the Republic of China in support of Sun Yat-sen.