Xu was born in poverty. When I was a child, due to the hardship of my family, nine-year-old Xu began to be an apprentice in a shoe store. On one occasion, he ate sweet potatoes at a fellow villager's house for the New Year, which was too fragrant, but he couldn't eat as much as he wanted. So I made a wish at an early age: "In the future, let everyone eat sweet potatoes as they please!" At the age of twelve, he became a mason. Thus began his architectural career. Xu was promoted from a coolie to a master. By middle age, he had become a leading figure in Xiamen's construction industry. Although his identity has changed, his grassroots nature has not changed. Xu became brothers with 100 construction workers. 19 18, Xiamen Architectural Society was established, and Xu was elected as its president. By 1925, Xiamen Architectural Association has 9 branches with more than 8,000 members. The motto of the guild is Xu's famous sentence: "There is public anger but no personal enmity." Members of Xiamen Architectural Association are like brothers, working together for people and society, regardless of personal grievances.
Why does a builder have such noble sentiments? This can be traced back to Xu's boyhood, which was in the late Qing Dynasty. One night, on his way home, Xu suddenly saw a group of people stuck in the window of the church and a stiff Minnan dialect with a foreign accent, so he stepped forward and saw a church priest and invited him in to listen. When the priest preached, he suddenly mentioned that there was a reformer in China, Sun Yixian (that is, Sun Yat-sen). Later, Xu learned from various aspects that Sun Yat-sen was a revolutionary. He saw that the Qing government was corrupt, the country was weak, and he was repeatedly bullied by foreign powers, so he launched an innovation movement. But at that time, Sun Yat-sen was one of the "Four Bandits" wanted by the Qing Dynasty.
From then on, Xu admired Dr. Sun Yat-sen very much, thinking that China was on the verge of national subjugation at that time, and people like Dr. Sun Yat-sen were the ideal leaders to save the country and the people. He admired him and secretly made up his mind. If there is an opportunity, he will follow Mr. Sun and join the group he leads.
In this way, in 1907, Xu formally joined the League through the introduction of Sun Yat-sen's good friend Huang Nai Song and later served as the president of Xiamen University, becoming one of the earliest members of the League, and actually presided over the meeting of the League in southern Fujian. After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911, Xu personally led the revolutionary army and attacked the "prefect yamen" of the Qing government in Xiamen, occupying the power center of the Qing government in Xiamen. At the same time, his friendship with Mr. Zhongshan is growing day by day. Later, there was a coup in Guangzhou, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen took refuge on a warship on the Pearl River. He personally wrote a power of attorney and appointed Xu as the commander-in-chief of the Fujian thief army.
After the death of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Xu stopped engaging in practical political activities, returned to the construction industry, set up a construction company, built many buildings in Gulangyu and Xiamen, and personally designed and built the "Cao Chuntang" in Gulangyu. His concern for the country and Xiamen and his efforts will remain in our hearts forever.