Do you have a building or road, park, arch, association, library, Chinese school named Yat Sen, Chung Shan or Zhongshan in your city? Dr Sun Yat Sen must be the most “named after” Chinese in the world. He is a giant, the only figure who held a supreme position in the heart of Chinese and respected by both the conflicting political parties in Mainland China and Taiwan — he is one of the very few beliefs that they share.
Dr Sun Yat Sen led China to break through from 4,000 years of autocratic monarchy in 1911 and guided the country to a baby’s first step towards democracy. In this time and era, we know no hero is flawless and people have discussed Dr Sun’s several decisions in relation to today’s divided China. But he remains the courageous hero who took up a job no Chinese had even dreamt of in those days and set the scene for modern China, his 140th birthday was honored by many Chinese communities yesterday.
This photo was taken at the University of Hong Kong where Dr Sun studied medicine and the quote on the banner is from a speech he made at the university in 1923.
Links: a close-up of the sculpture, wiki page on Dr Sun, a HKU pdf document with historical photos.
Yay for Dr. Sun and HKU!
November 13th, 2006, at 10:14 pm #Thank you for sharing this. I was in Nanking this summer and our guide took us to his mausoleum. Very impressive site.
November 14th, 2006, at 1:27 am #Bel hommage et la statue est tres belle. nous avons a Evry aussi des espaces en hommages aux grands hommes : un espace brel - brassens (avec des sculptures sur Brel (bientot sur mon blog) ). Je ne connaissais pas Dr Sun, merci pour ce post.
November 14th, 2006, at 1:29 am #Beautiful homage and the statue is very beautiful. we have has Evry also spaces in homages to the great men: a space brel - brassens (with sculptures on Brel (soon on my blog)). I did not know Dr. Sun, thank you for this post.
I don’t believe we do in Melbourne, nice to hear of his work though. Thanks.
November 14th, 2006, at 10:40 am #Can’t say as I’ve heard of him either Lisi…but he’s obviously very popular there…nice shot! =)
November 14th, 2006, at 12:31 pm #Just read thru the pdf pamphlet on Dr.Sun’s speech at HKU in 1923 on why he became a revolutionist. It turned out that HK was his inspiration! Although trained as a medical doctor, he realized the moral health of the country (china) was in far worse shape than the health of the individuals. He decided there and then that he had to do something. He sacrificed his profession and changed the course Chinese history. A very touching human story. A great man indeed! Thanks Lisi for showing us this bit of Chinese history.
November 14th, 2006, at 12:32 pm #i vaguely remember studying 孙中山先生…that’s about it
November 14th, 2006, at 5:58 pm #OK, so maybe most of the things named after him are within Chinatown or Chinese communities…I know there’s a garden in Vancouver and a Chinese school in San Diego and definitely something in San Francisco Chinatown…
Anywaz, thanks for dropping by on this “a bit heavy” post and w, I’m glad you read through the story, he really was a great man, pity that he died too young…China might be quite different if he had lived longer…
November 14th, 2006, at 6:50 pm #