SUN YAT-SEN: LIFE, CAREER AND REPUBLICAN CHINA

SUN YAT-SEN

Sun Yat-sen in 1924

The main figure in the revolutionary movement that overthrew imperial rule and created the Republic of China was Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), who, along with other republican political leaders, endeavored to establish a parliamentary democracy. They were thwarted by warlords with imperial and quasi-democratic pretensions who resorted to assassination, rebellion, civil war, and collusion with foreign powers (especially Japan) in their efforts to gain control.

According to Columbia University’s Asia for Educators: “By 1900 the leading revolutionary in China was Sun Yatsen (1866-1925), a man very different from previous Chinese reformers. Born to a peasant family in the Guangzhou region, Sun was educated in missionary schools in Hawaii and Hong Kong and developed a world view as much Western as Confucian. In 1894 he founded his first revolutionary organization, and by 1905 he was made head of the Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui) in Japan by representatives from Chinese secret societies, overseas Chinese groups, and Chinese students abroad. After sixteen years of traveling, planning, writing and organizing, his dreams were realized when the revolution of 1911 led to the end of the Qing dynasty. He gave up the presidency in favor of General Yuan Shikai, whose death in 1916 led to an era of local warlord rule. Sun died in 1925. His "three principles of revolution" were first articulated for the Revolutionary League and later formed the foundation for the Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party. [Source: Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

Ignored by the Western powers and in charge of a southern military government with its capital in Guangzhou, Sun Yatsen eventually turned to the new Soviet Union for inspiration and assistance. The Soviets obliged Sun and his Guomindang (Nationalist Party). Soviet advisers helped the Guomindang establish political and military training activities. But Moscow also supported the new Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was founded by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and others in Shanghai in 1921. The Soviets hoped for consolidation of the Guomindang and the CCP but were prepared for either side to emerge victorious. The struggle for power in China began between the Guomindang and the CCP as both parties also sought the unification of China.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen was a the reformer and revolutionary who spent his life trying to bring down the corrupt Qing dynasty and replace it with a democratic government. He is revered by both Communist mainlanders and Nationalist Taiwanese as the father of 20th century China. Sun Yat-sen's picture is on Chinese banknotes.

Sun, whose original name was Sun Wen, advocated "the Three Principles of the People: nationalism, democracy and the people's livelihood." Regarding nationalism, Sun aimed to guarantee people's political rights, including the right to vote, establish parliamentary democracy and ensure the separation of administrative, legislative and judicial powers.

Early 20th Century China : John Fairbank Memorial Chinese History Virtual Library cnd.org/fairbank offers links to sites related to modern Chinese history (Qing, Republic, PRC) and has good pictures; Sun Yat-sen Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; May 4th Movement Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Chiang Kai-shek Wikipedia article Wikipedia

Sun Yat-sen's Early Life

17-year-old Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen was born in Guangdong province on November 12, 1866 into a farming family. He studied for a few years in Chinese schools. At the age of 13 he moved to Hawaii, where his elder brother had emigrated. He studied there at a boarding school run by the Anglican Church. Sun Yat-sen later moved to Hong Kong. He spent more than a decade there, was baptized as a Christian and graduated from the the Hong Kong College of Medicine in 1892. He practiced medicine briefly in 1893.

Sun was guided partly by his Christian beliefs. As a teenager he spoke out against China’s slavery, ancestor worship and idolatry. In a speech in 1912 he said "the essence" of the revolution "could be found largely in the teachings of the church." Sun was a patriot who wanted to make China strong and self reliant using both modern technology and China’s human and natural resources. He was also a great admirers of rebels who formed secret societies and risked their life fighting against the Qing dynasty.

In 1905, Sun developed a coherent guiding philosophy that became the guiding ideology for the secret society through which he carried out his activities. The "Three Principals of the People" combined elements of nationalism, socialism and democracy and asserted that government should be "of the People, by the People and for the People." His goals were first to end the Qing dynasty, kick out the foreign occupiers and develop a government with a strong central leadership based on socialist principals. Democracy would emerge, he believed, when China was ready for it.

Sun's political philosophy was conceptualized in 1897, first enunciated in Tokyo in 1905, and modified through the early 1920s. It centered on the Three Principles of the People (san min zhuyi): "nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood." The principle of nationalism called for overthrowing the Manchus and ending foreign hegemony over China. The second principle, democracy, was used to describe Sun's goal of a popularly elected republican form of government. People's livelihood, often referred to as socialism, was aimed at helping the common people through regulation of the ownership of the means of production and land. [Source: The Library of Congress]

Soong Sisters

Sun's family

Sun Yat-Sen married one of the Soong Sisters. Zhang Kun wrote in the China Daily: “There has never been a trio of sisters more famous in China than the Soongs, The three women - Ai-ling (1888-1973), Ching-ling (1893-1981) and Mei-ling (1898-2003) - are well-known for their key roles in China's political scene throughout the 20th century. Two were once the first ladies of China - Ching-ling married Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), also known as the Father of Modern China while Mei-ling wedded Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), the former leader of the Kuomintang government and president of the Republic of China. The eldest sibling, Ai-ling, was married to Kung Xiang-hsi (1881-1967), the richest man in China in the early 1900s. [Source: Zhang Kun, China Daily, June 3, 2016]

“While Mei-ling and Ai-ling were ardent supporters of the Kuomintang, Ching-ling was steadfast in her Communist beliefs. Despite their differences in ideology, the three sisters nonetheless joined hands to lend vital support to war relief efforts in the fight against Japanese invaders. “In 1940, when the Japanese occupied the capital city of Nanjing, the three reunited in Chongqing and established the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives. The three sisters provided aid to numerous schools, hospitals, air raid shelters and war-torn communities.

It was said of Soong sisters: “One loved money; one loved power; and one loved China.” Madame Chiang Kai-shek was the one who loved power. Soong Ching-ling, the wife of Sun Yat-sen. was the one who loved China. The third sister Soong Ai-ling, who married the banker H.H. Kung, a scion in one of China’s wealthiest banking families, was the one who loved money. The sister’s brother T.V. was an influential politician, serving as the Kuomintang finance minister and prime minister at various times.

Sun Yat-sen's Early Political Activity

Sun and some early political friends

Sun operated out of Hong Kong, then a center of revolutionary activity against the imperial government. He led his first insurrection against the Qing dynasty in 1895 in southeast China. It failed and at the request of the government, Sun was kicked out of Hong Kong by the British. He sought refuge in Japan.

Sun Yat-sen organized a secret revolutionary society and led or inspired periodic uprisings in southern China, all of which failed due to poor planning and lack of weapons. Sun himself narrowly avoided capture and certain execution several times.

Sun spent much of his life in exile — in Hawaii, Japan and Southeast Asia — with a big price on his head. He traveled widely in Europe and the United States trying to secure money and drum up support for his cause and his uprisings. Sun was very persuasive and committed to his goals. He was able to raise large amount of money, mostly from overseas Chinese in North America and Southeast Asia.

“Three Stages of Revolution" (1918) by Sun Yat-sen

According to Columbia University’s Asia for Educators: “Sun Yat-sen hoped to make his Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, into a strong organization that could bring coherence, unity, and effective government back to China. In doing so, Sun prepared statements of his ideology and goals. A Program of National Reconstruction, published in 1918, was part of that project. This document drew on statements of Sun’s revolutionary thought going back to the period before the 1911 Revolution. Thus, some of the rhetoric addresses issues (such as the need to overthrow the Manchus) that had been resolved by 1918. [Source:Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

In “Selections from A Program of National Reconstruction: “The Three Stages of Revolution” (1918) Sun Yat-sen wrote: “The Three Phases of National Reconstruction As for the work of revolutionary reconstruction, I have based my ideas on the current of world progress and followed the precedents in other countries. I have studied their respective advantages and disadvantages, their accomplishments and failures. It is only after mature deliberation and thorough preparation that I have decided upon the Program of Revolution and defined the procedure of the revolution in three stages. The first is the period of military government; the second, the period of political tutelage; and the third, the period of constitutional government. [Source: “Selections from A Program of National Reconstruction: “The Three Stages of Revolution” (1918) By Sun Yat-sen, from “Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century”, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 328-330; Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

Sun in Japan in 1900

“The first stage is the period of destruction. During this period martial law is to be enforced. The revolutionary army undertakes to overthrow the Manchu tyranny, to eradicate the corruption of officialdom, to eliminate depraved customs, to exterminate the system of slave girls, to wipe out the scourge of opium, superstitious beliefs, and geomancy, to abolish the obstructive likin trade tax and so forth.

“The second stage is a transitional period. It is planned that the provisional constitution will be promulgated and local self-government promoted to encourage the exercise of political rights by the people. The xian, or district, will be made the basic unit of local self-government and is to be divided into villages and rural districts — all under the jurisdiction of the district government.

“The third phase is the period of the completion of reconstruction. During this period constitutional government is to be introduced, and the self-governing body in a district will enable the people directly to exercise their political rights. In regard to the district government the people are entitled to the rights of election, initiative, referendum, and recall. In regard to the national government, the people exercise the rights of suffrage, while the other rights are delegated to the representatives to the National Assembly. The period of constitutional government will mark the completion of reconstruction and the success of the revolution. This is the gist of the Revolutionary Program.

Sun Yat-sen and the End of the Qing Dynasty

The Nationalist Revolution of 1911, which included the Wuchang Uprising and Railway Protection Movement, toppled the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty collapsed mainly due to weakness from within Qing government. Even though Sun wasn't in China when the Qing dynasty collapsed he played a part in the revolution by inspiring revolutionaries with his philosophy and putting pressure on the Qing government with the rebellion he inspired.

On October 10, 1911, seventeen provinces formed a provisional government in Nanjing. Sun was selected as its provisional leader. Realizing he needed military support Sun formed an alliance with the military leader Li Yuanhong. On January 1, 1912 Sun was sworn in as the President of the newly formed Republic of China. He established a government based on the "Three People's Principle"

Amidst the anarchy that followed the collapse of Qing Dynasty, Sun made the bold decision of transforming his revolutionary society into a mainstream political party. The result: the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), which emerged as the dominant political party in China. The Kuomintang won in China's first ever national elections in 1913 but didn’t hold on to power for long. The republic that Sun Yat-sen and his associates envisioned evolved slowly. The revolutionists lacked an army, and the power of Yuan Shikai began to outstrip that of parliament. Yuan revised the constitution at will and became dictatorial.

Sun Yat-sen Loses Power to the Warlords

Sun's power and charisma unfortunately was not enough to overcome the military muscle of China's divided warlords and the remnants of the Manchu army and forge China into a true nation. With the preservation of the republic taking precedence over his own ambitions, Sun relinquished power after only three months to Gen. Yuan Shikai, a commander in the Manchu Army who promised to get the Manchu's to surrender and install a republican government. Yuan Shikai had helped Sun's Nationalists to force the Manchu abdication. Once in power Yuan reneged on his promise and set about shoring up his power by murdering political opponents, ignoring the new constitution, ruthlessly putting down local uprisings and later named himself emperor of a new dynasty.

Article by Sun Yat-sen

After the death of the Empress Dowager in 1908 and the abdication of Puyi in 1912, China descended into an anarchy in which a weak republican government fought for control of the country against local warlords. The predecessors of the Communist party that existed at this time consisted of discussion groups at Beijing University who argued over points in the Communist Manifesto.

In August 1912 a new political party was founded by Song Jiaoren (1882-1913), one of Sun's associates. The party, the Kuomintang (Guomindang or KMT — the National People's Party, frequently referred to as the Nationalist Party), was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Tongmeng Hui. In the national elections held in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned against the Yuan administration, and his party won a majority of seats. Yuan had Song assassinated in March; he had already arranged the assassination of several pro-revolutionist generals. Animosity toward Yuan grew. In the summer of 1913 seven southern provinces rebelled against Yuan. When the rebellion was suppressed, Sun and other instigators fled to Japan. In October 1913 an intimidated parliament formally elected Yuan president of the Republic of China, and the major powers extended recognition to his government. To achieve international recognition, Yuan Shikai had to agree to autonomy for Outer Mongolia and Xizang. China was still to be suzerain, but it would have to allow Russia a free hand in Outer Mongolia and Britain continuance of its influence in Xizang. [Source: The Library of Congress]

“In November Yuan Shikai, legally president, ordered the Kuomintang dissolved and its members removed from parliament. Within a few months, he suspended parliament and the provincial assemblies and forced the promulgation of a new constitution, which, in effect, made him president for life. Yuan's ambitions still were not satisfied, and, by the end of 1915, it was announced that he would reestablish the monarchy. Widespread rebellions ensued, and numerous provinces declared independence. With opposition at every quarter and the nation breaking up into warlord factions, Yuan Shikai died of natural causes in June 1916, deserted by his lieutenants. After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916 the country once deteriorated into anarchy as fragmented states ruled by warlords fought for control.

Sun Yat-sen, the Kuomintang and the Communists

After his ouster, Sun attempted to build a stronger political and military base. In 1914, while in Japan, he married his personal secretary, the American-educated Soong Ching-ling. She was 21 and he was 50. She held radical political views and was one of the Soong Sisters. See Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

By 1923, Sun established himself in Canton with the backing of local military and political leaders and created the National Revolutionary Army, which welcomed both Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists. He served again briefly as the president of China and desperately sought help from the Western powers who turned their backs on him because they were preoccupied with the aftermath of World War I. The Russian Bolsheviks were only willing to help out though and they infiltrated China with Communists.

Sun and Chiang Kai-shek at the creation of Whampoa Academy

Sun made a deal with Communist leader Adolfe Joffe at the Communist International on January 26, 1923 that allowed the Chinese Communist party to join the Kuomintang if they abandoned their Marxist goals and worked under Nationalist leadership. In accordance with the deal Communist party members were allowed to keep their Communist party membership and their weapons.

The Communist party at this time was relatively small. Sun reasoned he could use the Communists to help him mobilize the Chinese masses in the countryside. Sun was convinced that he could keep the Communists in line with his organization. The Soviet Union agreed to secretly supply the Kuomintang with military advisers, arms, ammunition and political advisors that helped him strengthen the Kuomintang. They also helped Sun found the Whampoa Military Academy with Chiang Kai-shek as its superintendent.

According to Columbia University’s Asia for Educators: “The Republic of China was in a shambles in 1924. The national government in Beijing was a virtually powerless prize over which warlords fought; it had no real authority over the country, which was administered (more or less) in a patchwork fashion by hundreds of independent warlords. Sun Yat-sen was in Guangzhou, working, with Soviet assistance, to turn his Kuomintang or Nationalist Party into a tightly organized Leninist political party in command of an army strong enough to defeat the warlords and reunite China. [Source: Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

Whampoa Academy

Edward Wong wrote in the New York Times, “It was 1926, not long after the fall of the Qing dynasty, and much of China had been divided among warlords. In the south, leaders of the young Kuomintang mustered an army. At its head rode Chiang Kai-shek, who called to his side officers he had helped train, and together they marched north to take down the warlords, one by one. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, December 27, 2012 +++]

“The Northern Expedition was one of the first major tests for graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy, founded just two years earlier on quiet Changzhou Island, about 10 miles east of central Guangzhou, then known to the West as Canton. Mr. Chiang was the academy’s first commandant, appointed by Sun Yat-sen, the idealistic firebrand who wanted to build an army that would unite China. +++

“When Sun Yat-sen founded the Whampoa academy, his goal was to unite China and to revive China as a nation, which is exactly the same mission that Secretary Xi is on,” said Zeng Qingliu, a historian with the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences who wrote a television script for a drama series on Whampoa. “Under that goal and that mission, Chinese people from all over the world and across the country were attracted to Whampoa.” +++

“The first class at Whampoa had 600 students, 100 Communists among them, Mr. Zeng said. Prominent Russian advisers worked at the school. Zhou Enlai was the political director, and other famous Communists held posts or trained there. But the school was never under the party’s control. +++

“The Kuomintang moved it to the city of Nanjing in 1927, after a split with the Communists, and then to the southwestern city of Chengdu, after the Japanese occupied Nanjing, then known as Nanking. After the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan, they established a military academy there that they called the successor to Whampoa. But when historians speak of Whampoa, they mean the original incarnation of the school, before it moved from Guangzhou, Mr. Zeng said. Japanese bombs decimated the campus in 1938.” +++

Sun Yat-Sen Tries to Unite China and Turns to the Soviet Union for Help

Letter in English by Sun Yat-sen

The May Fourth Movement helped to rekindle the then-fading cause of republican revolution. In 1917 Sun Yat-sen had become commander-in-chief of a rival military government in Guangzhou in collaboration with southern warlords. In October 1919 Sun reestablished the Kuomintang to counter the government in Beijing. The latter, under a succession of warlords, still maintained its facade of legitimacy and its relations with the West. By 1921 Sun had become president of the southern government. He spent his remaining years trying to consolidate his regime and achieve unity with the north.

Sun’s efforts to obtain aid from the Western democracies were ignored, however, and in 1921 he turned to the Soviet Union, which had recently achieved its own revolution. The Soviets sought to befriend the Chinese revolutionists by offering scathing attacks on "Western imperialism." But for political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Soviets hoped for consolidation but were prepared for either side to emerge victorious. In this way the struggle for power in China began between the Nationalists and the Communists. [Ibid]

In another part of “Selections from A Program of National Reconstruction” Sun Yat-sen wrote: “What is meant by revolutionary reconstruction? It is extraordinary destruction and also rapid reconstruction. It differs from ordinary reconstruction, which follows the natural course of society and is affected by the trend of circumstances. In a revolution extraordinary destruction is involved, such as the extermination of the monarchical system and the overthrow of absolutism. Such destruction naturally calls for extraordinary reconstruction. [Source: “Selections from A Program of National Reconstruction: “The Three Stages of Revolution” (1918) By Sun Yat-sen, from “Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century”, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 328-330; Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

“Principle of Democracy" (1924) by Sun Yat-sen

left According to Columbia University’s Asia for Educators: “The Republic of China was in a shambles in 1924. The national government in Beijing was a virtually powerless prize over which warlords fought; it had no real authority over the country, which was administered (more or less) in a patchwork fashion by hundreds of independent warlords. Sun Yat-sen was in Guangzhou, working, with Soviet assistance, to turn his Kuomintang or Nationalist Party into a tightly organized Leninist political party in command of an army strong enough to defeat the warlords and reunite China. [Source: Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

“As a part of the rebuilding of the Kuomintang, Sun Yat-sen gave a series of lectures on the Three People’s Principles. “The Three People’s Principles (Democracy, Nationalism, and People’s Livelihood) were the ill-defined“ideology” of the Nationalist revolution. Sun had begun articulating these three principles as a revolutionary conspirator prior to the 1911 Revolution. Now, as the leader of a political party, Sun wanted to sharpen the definitions of the Three People’s Principles and fit them to the needs of the mid-1920s.”

On Separation of Sovereignty and Ability Sun Yat-sen said in his “The Principle of Democracy” lecture in 1924: “How can a government be made all.powerful? Once the government is all.powerful how can it be made responsive to the will of the people? … I have found a method to solve the problem. The method that I have thought of is a new discovery in political theory and is a fundamental solution of the whole problem. … It is the theory of the distinction between sovereignty and ability. [Source: "The Principle of Democracy" (1924) by Sun Yat-sen from “Sources of Chinese Tradition: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century”, compiled by Wm. Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 323-324; Asia for Educators, Columbia University, Primary Sources with DBQs, afe.easia.columbia.edu ]

“After China has established a powerful government, we must not be afraid, as Western people are, that the government will become too strong and that we will be unable to control it. For it is our plan that the political power of the reconstructed state will be divided into two parts. One is the power over the government; that great power will be placed entirely in the hands of the people, who will have a full degree of sovereignty and will be able to control directly the affairs of state — this political power is popular sovereignty. The other power is the governing power; that great power will be placed in the hands of the government organs, which will be powerful and will manage all the nation’s business — this governing power is the power of the government. If the people have a full measure of political sovereignty and the methods for exercising popular control over the government are well worked out, we need not fear that the government will become too strong and uncontrollable. Let the people in thinking about government distinguish between sovereignty and ability. Let the great political force of the state be divided into two: the power of the government and the power of the people. Such a division will make the government the machinery and the people the engineer. The attitude of the people toward the government will then resemble the attitude of the engineer toward his machine. The construction of machinery has made such advances nowadays that not only men with mechanical knowledge but even children without any knowledge of machinery are able to control it.

Sun Yat-sen's Death

Sun's funeral

Sun's plan was to expand out of Canton and link up with supporters in northern China and unify China. In 1924, he was invited by northern military leaders for discussions in Beijing on the reunification of China. Sun was very ill when he arrived in Beijing. Doctors discovered he had malignant liver cancer. He died on March 12, 1925 at the age of 59 and his efforts to form a lasting democratic China were nipped at the bud.

Sun's body was used as a political symbol. It was preserved and kept in a temple just outside Beijing. Loudspeakers played recordings of his speeches and images of Sun were flashed on a screen as crowds came to look at the body.

After he became head of the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek ordered construction of an immense mausoleum for Sun in the new capital of Nanjing and transported his body there with great fanfare. Sun's philosophy became the guiding ideology of the Kuomintang and later Taiwan.

Whampoa Today as a Symbol of Unity Between Taiwan and China

Reporting from Guangzhou, Edward Wong wrote in the New York Times, “The academy, now a collection of two-story white buildings near an active naval yard, stands as one of the most potent symbols of the nationalist movement led by Mr. Sun, which has strong contemporary echoes in the rallying cry that Xi Jinping made to his fellow Chinese after taking over in November as general secretary of the Communist Party. Mr. Xi has spoken of a “great revival of the Chinese nation,” apparently to be accomplished through further opening the economy, tackling official corruption and building up the military. This month, on his first trip outside Beijing, Mr. Xi traveled to several cities here in Guangdong Province; the tour included visits with senior officers of the People’s Liberation Army and a photo opportunity on a naval destroyer. Though he did not visit the Whampoa academy, the message Mr. Xi was telegraphing was the same one Mr. Sun had relayed a century ago. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, December 27, 2012 +++]

Whampoa emblem

“In fits and starts since the end of the Mao era, the Communists and the Kuomintang, who decamped to Taiwan after losing the civil war in 1949, have been engaging in rapprochement. The Whampoa academy represents an era when the two sides cooperated for a greater good, and recent exhibitions organized there by a museum portray the Kuomintang in a relatively conciliatory light. That, too, has resonance with Mr. Xi’s clarion call, which is meant to inspire all Chinese, even those outside the mainland, including in Taiwan, to take part in the Communist-led project of reviving the motherland. Whampoa was not rebuilt until after 1984, when plans were made to establish a museum. The white buildings interlaced with thick wooden beams are recreations of the originals. A statue of Mr. Sun overlooks the site from a hill. +++

“Military enthusiasts, history buffs and other tourists reach the museum by a 10-minute ferry ride from a quiet pier on the east side of Guangzhou. On a recent afternoon, a young woman guided a handful of soldiers. They walked along a balcony on the second floor and peered into the recreated rooms, including a dormitory with dozens of simple beds on wooden floorboards, a dining room and Mr. Sun’s office. Outside the main gate, not far from a black wall inscribed with the names of fallen soldiers, tour groups posed for photographs. Then they walked slowly through the gallery rooms to gaze at the black-and-white photos and paintings that showed, from a party-approved perspective, the history of China’s 20th-century wars. +++

Image Sources: 1) Sun Yat-sen, Ohio State University; 2) Sun Yat-sen, Columbia University; 3) Cutting queue,and 4) May 4th, Ohio State University; 5) Whampoa, Wikipedia Text Sources: Asia for Educators, Columbia University afe.easia.columbia.edu; New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2021