Phan Boi Chau (1867–1940)

Vietnamese nationalist. Together with Phan Chau Trinh, he dominated the anti-colonial movement in Vietnam in the early 20th century. In 1912, in China, he was involved in the establishment of the Revival Society (Quang Phuc Hoi), which sought to bring about a democratic republic in Vietnam. Following his arrest in 1925, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The ensuing public outcry led to his release and he spent the rest of his life in gently guarded retirement at Hué.

Born into a scholarly Confucian family, he was in essence a Confucian revolutionary. In 1905 he went to Japan where he wrote a history of Vietnam's loss of independence to the French, copies of which were then smuggled back to Vietnam. In 1915 he raised forces that launched, from South China, poorly organized attacks on French units.