"Kang’s vision was rooted in a radical reinterpretation of Confucianism. He saw Confucius not as a conservative sage but as a reformer and believed that a properly reformed monarchy could be the vessel for China’s modernization. His 1902 treatise “Datong Shu” (Book of Great Unity) imagined a utopian world of gender equality, global governance, and technological harmony—a vision that was both startlingly progressive and deeply hierarchical. … Kang Youwei may have been cast out of China, but from the Chinatowns of Vancouver to the lecture halls of New York, he built a movement that reshaped the global Chinese imagination. … It is not surprising that he finds admirers in contemporary Xi Jinping’s China although whether they share or even understand the spiritual roots of his message remains unclear."
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Massimo Introvigne, "Kang Youwei: A Confucian Monarchist in the New World", Bitter Winter (March 2, 2026)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kang_Youwei
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Massimo Introvigne
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