Book tells of marriage between local teen and a key Chinese reformer.
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Book signingMabelle Selland will sign copies "From China to Fresno: A Love Story" at the Heritage Fresno Book Fair, 1-5 p.m. Oct. 27 at Arte Américas, 1630 Van Ness Ave.
When Vi Nomura was growing up, she heard stories about her late aunt, Lily Haw, who as a young woman from Fresno's Chinatown married a man from China in 1907.
But when local historian Mabelle Selland was researching and writing her book, "From China to Fresno: A Love Story," about Haw and her husband, Nomura learned a surprising twist to those childhood stories.
"We were kind of shocked" to find out her aunt's husband was the famous scholar and reformer K'ang Yu-Wei of China, Nomura says.
"This is all new to me. All we knew was we had an aunt who married this Chinese guy," she says. "It's kind of exciting. We had a celebrity in the family."
But Nomura isn't surprised that she hadn't heard more about Haw and K'ang. They both died years before she was born, and her family didn't talk about them.
Selland's book is being published by Heritage Fresno Press, and its release coincides with the 100th anniversary of Haw's and K'ang's marriage.
Sitting in her living room overlooking the Asian-inspired garden of her Fresno home, Selland says the idea for the book literally dropped on her desk in 1973, when she was director of the Fresno City and County Historical Society.
She was reading an article in a newsletter when one paragraph grabbed her attention.
"I don't know if I even finished the article. But when I saw K'ang Yu-Wei's name and that he married a Fresno girl, I couldn't believe it," says Selland, who learned about K'ang while studying Chinese history at Fresno State.
K'ang tried to form a constitutional monarchy in China, but his writings "were just too rash for the times," Selland says.
"He wasn't ahead of his times, but he was ahead of the powers that be. He was politically naive. They just should have gone slower." Six of K'ang's followers, including his younger brother, were executed.
Selland wondered if Lily Haw's relatives still lived in Fresno. She found Robert Haw and, through him, Nomura, his sister.
"Robert knew they had an aunt who married someone important and who died in China," Selland says.
And he had a family picture of Lily Haw. His cousin, Thelma Haw, supplied other family photos.
Lily Haw and K'ang met at the Chinese Opera House on China Alley in Fresno when he spoke there in 1905.
She was 15, and he was 47. They married for love, Selland says. Haw was K'ang's constant companion and secretary as he directed the Chinese Reform Association in America and Europe. She died on a trip to China in 1915 at 24.
Selland wrote about Lily Haw "so she has a place in history," and is excited to see the book in print. "I'm so pleased. Many more people in Fresno know more about Chinese history, but aren't interested in local history."
But while the book is done, the story isn't complete, Selland says. Haw and K'ang had a son and a daughter. The daughter died in 1929, but Selland couldn't find more information about the son. "It will turn up eventually," she says.
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