History

From a lonely man's hunger for friendship, Rotary has become the most influential international service organization today. For one club with only four members 94 years ago, Rotary today has more than 29,000 clubs with an estimated 1,200,000 Rotarians in 160 countries.

But Rotary did not become truly international until it extended to Asia in 1919 when clubs were organized in the Philippines, China and India, thus attesting to the universality of Rotary by proving that its principles possessed the vitality and appeal, to transcend not only national boundaries and language limitations but also the barrier of race, religion and creed.

Rotary was an alien import when the first club in China was established in 1919 in Shanghai, and there was considerable doubt as to whether it would acclimatise itself to the Chinese soil. Other clubs were started in Tientsin in 1923 and in Beijing in 1924, but until 1931 these three remained the only Rotary clubs in all China.

Then Rotary began to develop and the number of clubs was increased to seven by 1932 - the four additional clubs were established in Hong Kong and in the three Manchurian cities of Dairen, Harbin and Mukden. The life of the three clubs in Manchuria was, however, very brief as they were forced to cease functioning following the Japanese occupation in the same year.

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