Dr. Sun Yat Sen is called the Founding Father of the Chinese Republic. But which Chinese Republic? There are two.There is the older but smaller Republic of China (Zhong Hua Min Guo) and the more recent "Republic" called the People's Republic of China (Zhong Hua Ren Min Gong He Guo).
Ostensibly Sun is the father of both. But the PRC holds Mao Zedong in greater esteem as the father of the country. On the other hand the ROC still holds Sun as the father of the country and has his picture hanging everywhere. The picture on the main Impasse and Integration page of this The Ms TKG Chinese Politics site shows the current President of the Republic of China, Lee Teng-hui speaking in front of a giant portrait of Dr. Sun.
Sun Yat Sen was one of the original revoltionaries against the Qing Dynasty. He grew up in the south of china and lived for some years with his older brother in Hawaii. He became a Christian and began some of his revolutionary activities by destroying the idols at a local temple. He was educated and became a medical doctor, hoping to help China with his knowledge. He did try to join the civil service as it was but was rebuffed.
So he didn't come by his revolution for the sake of revolution but did try and "work through the system" as it was. He began to call for the overthrow of Manchu rule and organized rebellions. He also along the way teamed up with another fellow who had lived for many years in the US as well, Charlie Soong.
Soong made a lot of money selling Bibles (he too was a Christian) and helped to support Sun. The Soong family plays a big role in early 20th century Chinese history. Sun Yat Sen later married Soong's daughter Qing-ling (despite being much older than her) and later, after Dr. Sun's death, Chiang Kai-shek proposed to Dr. Sun's widow Qiing-ling but was turned down. Later Chiang was not turned down by one of Soong's other daughters Mei-ling. She became known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Soong Mei-ling is still alive at 99 years of age and is living in New York. To my knowledge she has not been invited to next weeks ceremonies for Hong Kong. She is still quite hated by the CCP and they still seem to be scared of her as is attested by how they censored a new movie called The Soong Sisters that is shortly to be released. Here is an article describing the censorship of this film demanded by the Beijing authorities before they would allow it to be shown. Basically anything depicting Soong Mei-ling or Chiang Kai-shek in a way that good be considered positive was ordered removed.
During the time before the revolution of 1911 when the Qing dynasty fell Sun was often either on the run from the Imperial authorities who would have cut him to pieces or trying to organize rebellions. In his sojourns outside china to avoid the wrath of the Manchu government he raised funds and proselytized against the Qing. He collected lot's of money from Chinese in America. He in fact was in Denver when the Qing did finally fall in October 1911.
Another adventure in his pre-revolution sojourn was the time he was in England drumming up support. He felt rather bold apparently and went to the Chinese Embassy to talk with his fellow countrymen. He was recognized and kept under house arrest until he escaped. This event was one that was well publicized and brought him a fair amount of recognition in the western press.
Dr. Sun's most concrete legacy is probably his Three Principle's of the People.
These are Nationalism
Democracy
and Social Welfare
These principles are essentially the conditions that the ROC says it wants for the mainland before they will unify with the mainland when Lee Teng-hui states "Specifically, Taiwan, the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau must be united under the principles of democracy, freedom and equitable prosperity."
The above is a very perfunctory biography of Dr. Sun, not meant to be detailed or inclusive at all. The main thing I wanted to talk about was Dr. Sun as the Father of the Country and how the CCP under Jiang Zemin seems to want to embrace his legacy now.
This most recent May Day came with not crowds of PRC citizens parading with pictures of Marx and Engels and Stalin but with picures of Sun Yat Sen. Here is a photo of Beijing this last May day with a big picture of Dr. Sun.
An interesting article was written about this last May day and the direction that Jiang's CCP may be trying to take to address their legitimacy as the only ruling party. Here is the text.One comment by an anonymous lecturer at Beijing University was:
``Placing Sun in Tiananmen Square for May 1 is an appeal to nationalism and unity for Chinese everywhere, regardless of political outlook,'' the lecturer says.And another quote from Anne Thurston, a China scholar based in Washington who is also identified as the co-author of the book "The Private Life of Mao Zedong". Perhaps they mean translator because I thought that this book was written by Mao's personal physician. Here is a reference to this book at Amazon. Her quote was intriguing:``It could be part of the party's drive to replace communist ideology with a more neutral authoritarianism based on traditional Chinese values and national pride,'' he adds.
"Sun Yat-sen may eventually replace Mao's portrait above the Gate of Heavenly Peace, but it's nearly impossible to predict the contours of 21st-century China"I was happy to hear this quote. A year or so ago I had the same idea and made up a little picture showing this. I've had it up as the main photo of the MS TKG Chinese Politics Site for the past month or so. Here it is:
the future look of TianAnMen
July 10, 1997
