In 1890, Yeung started the Furen Literary Society in British Hong Kong to spread ideas of revolution against the Qing dynasty and to establish a republic in China.

He became the first President of the Hong Kong Chapter of the Revive China Society in 1894 and was, with Sun Yat-sen, in charge of planning an uprising in Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1895 and in Huizhou in 1900.

Later, he worked in the Zhaoshangju (招商局; now the China Merchants Group) as its chief secretary, as well as being a vice-manager in the Sassoon Maritime Company (沙遜洋行).

His experiences in Hong Kong had given him a pugnacious nationalism: boxing was one of his hobbies and he was quick with his fists when he encountered foreigners taking advantage of Chinese people.

His extensive reading of Western literature enabled him to speak with authority on revolutionary theory and history, and he is said to have dominated discussions on these subjects.

Yeung travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa, via Singapore and later to Japan, where he stayed from 1896 to 1899, to expand the Revive China Society and spread its ideas.

On 10 January 1901, around 6 pm, Yeung was shot in the head and chest (while tutoring students on the second floor of his home with his young child seated on his lap)[8] by Chen Lin (陳林), an assassin sent by the Qing government.

[9] Almost a month after Yeung Ku-wan had been assassinated, Sun Yat-sen, who was in Japan having been exiled from Hong Kong, sent a letter of condolence to Tse Tsan-tai.

The letter, in Sun Yatsen's writing, is displayed in the Pak Tsz Lane Park, close to where Yeung Ku-wan was assassinated.

After the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, former members of the Revive China Society suggested to the new republican government that the body of Yeung be exhumed and reburied in Huanghuagang Park, Guangzhou, along with the remains of the other 72 martyrs of the Guangdong uprising.

In 1927, when he was setting up the Nationalist government in Nanjing, he was preoccupied with "the elevation of our leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen to the rank of 'Father of our Chinese Republic'.

Dr. Sun worked for 40 years to lead our people in the Nationalist cause, and we cannot allow any other personality to usurp this honored position".

He asked Chen Guofu (at the time Head of the Kuomintang Department of Organisation) to purchase a photograph that had been taken in Japan in around 1895 or 1898.

[13] In particular, he hoped that the planned park at Pak Tsz Lane (see below) would be named after Yeung Ku-wan or the Furen Literary Society that met near there.

Due to his efforts, a commemorative marker has been placed near the house at 52 Gage Street, where Yeung Ku-wan was assassinated.

[20] After he had recovered, he worked for the British colonial government in Hong Kong as a secretary and married Yeung Ku-wan's mother.