Hundred Days' Reform in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895, not long after the First (1839–1842) and Second (1856–1860) Opium Wars; this blow came as a major shock to the Chinese, because Japan had been regarded as a tributary state, was much smaller than China, and was regarded as inferior. China also fought France in the Sino-French War from 1884 to 1885. Moreover, the defeat of China by Japan led to a scramble for "privileges" in China by other foreign powers, notably by the German Empire and Russia, further awakening the conservatives. Before the First Sino-Japanese War, China engaged in technological modernization only,
From China to Canada in urban and rural areas and across different provinces. Sucheng Chan of the University of California, Santa Cruz wrote that "From China to Canada" "deals systematically with developments during the "dark ages" in the history of the Chinese in North America". Tetsuden Kashima of the University of Washington wrote that the book "is a straightforward history." Peter Kong-ming New of the University of South Florida described the book as having a "sociohistorical view" of the history. The Department of the Secretary of State of Canada's Citizenship Branch commissioned the publication of the book. There were five authors, and each specialized