On this Day in Chinese History; 2 May

This day, 2 May, 1895, political thinker and reformer Kang Youwei gathered over 1,000 Imperial Examination candidates in Beijing to jointly submit a letter requesting the Qing government’s refusal to ratify the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This was the first popular domestic-protest event triggered by a diplomatic failure in modern Chinese history, now recognised as the beginnings of Chinese mass-political movements.