In his studio, Hoy’s go-to cloth backdrop was festooned with chrysanthemums, a late-blooming flower that represented the overcoming of adversity in Chinese culture. This image also includes banners for the Republican Political Party in China that state “by 1912 we swear to eliminate the barbarians,” and “after 1914 we push out ———” (this phrase is obscured by the man’s shoulder). Smaller writing on the right and left of the banners reads, “To all comrades of the Republican Party” and “your brother Chew inscribes.” The banners would have been made by the Chih Kung T’ang, a Chinese secret society that later became the Chinese Freemasons.