Huang Zunxian 黃遵憲 (Huang Tsun-hsien, courtesy name Gongdu 公度 1848-1905)

He was born into a Hakka family in Guangdong, and is best known as a major poet and diplomat of the late Qing. Benefiting from his experiences in Japan, the United State, the United Kingdom and Singapore, he incorporated into his poetry many new objects such as the train and the steamboat. As a leading political reformer and modernizer, Huang believed that literature should reflect current social changes and help to raise popular awareness, a view reflected in many of his literary and historical works, including Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects from Japan 日本雜事詩 and Treatises on Japan 日本國志.

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