Introduction

All the World knows that the history of moving pictures began in Paris in 1895 with the opening of their first cinema by the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis. The first of the two cities with which this book is concerned is Honolulu, which in 1895 had been for 50 years Hawai’s national capital on the Island of O‘ahu, an entrepôt which was already by far its biggest port and travel hub, then as now. The verdict of the military court that tried him was that Wilcox was guilty of treason. A revival of interest in Hawai’s connections with Sun Yatsen was marked in the 1980s and 1990s with a series of outstanding local publications. There is still one striking omission in this book the author must address. It concerns the lack of Sun Yatsen’s recorded views and opinions set down about Hawai during his lifetime.