Phan Boi Chau

Phan Bội Châu (Hán tự: 潘佩珠; December 26, 1867 – October 29, 1940) was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called the “Reformation Society” (Duy Tân hội).

From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the liberation of Vietnam from the French colonial regime. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-Sen. He formed a new group called the “Vietnamese Restoration League” (Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội), modeled after Sun Yat-Sen’s republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế.

During his career, he used several pen names, which included, among others, Sào Nam (巢南), Thị Hán (是漢), Độc Kinh Tử, Việt Điểu, and Hàn Mãn Tử.

Youth

Phan was born as Phan Văn San (潘文珊) in the village of Sa Nam, in Nam Đàn District of the northern central province of Nghệ An. His father, Phan Văn Phổ, descended from a poor family of scholars, who had always excelled academically. Phan spent his first three years in Sa Nam, the village of his mother, Nguyễn Thị Nhàn, before the family moved to the home village of his father, Dan Nhiem, also in Nam Đàn District. Until Phan was five, his father was typically away from home, teaching in other...
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