Dr. Sun Yat Sen – The Father of China

November 12 is Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s birthday. In China it is a big problem. He was the first democratically elected leader of China. Sen (1866-1925) was one of the organizers of the revolution that overthrew the last imperial ruler of China. Although he failed to unite China and spent much of his political career in exile in Hawaii and Japan, he is unique in that he is revered by almost everyone of China’s modern leaders. Unlike Mao Zedong, who has to answer for the crippling Cultural Revolution, and Deng Xiaoping, who can never fully experience the Tiananmen Square incident, Sun Yat-Sen died before he could commit a grand deception that could tarnish his reputation.

Dr. Sen is buried in the Chinese city of Nanjing, but there are monuments to him all over the country. Any place where he lived or worked has been turned into a museum. Taiwan and China have had a difficult relationship for almost 60 years, but even in Taiwan the great doctor is honored. The image of him is on Taiwanese coins. I visited Kaohsiung city in Taiwan and there is a university named after Dr. Sun Yat-Sen there.

The political reformer is known for many achievements, but perhaps one of the most progressive things he did in China was to ban women’s footbinding. Apparently his mother was never able to walk without a cane because her feet were bound. He was horrified to see the bound feet of his own sisters and begged his mother not to do it. Criminalizing footbinding was one of the first things he did after becoming president.

I toured Sen’s home on the island of Macau, where he practiced medicine, lived with his first wife, and raised his children. I was at his home in Shanghai, where he took up residence with his second wife and entertained many of the world’s political leaders. I recently visited the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum which opened in Hong Kong in 2006. Sen finished high school and studied medicine in Hong Kong. He also attended a Christian church in the city and was baptized. Since Hong Kong was under British rule, he could live there safely while he organized his revolution because the British had passed a bill prohibiting the extradition of Chinese political dissidents.

His museum in Hong Kong is housed in a hundred-year-old mansion that has been painstakingly restored to its original state after serving as a Mormon church for several decades. It contains letters the president wrote, his son’s diary, pieces of his clothing, and exhibits that educate visitors about his life and work. Cartoon movies and interactive computer games bring his story to life for children, and documentaries and artifacts inform adults.

I visited the museum on a Sunday afternoon and it was a busy place, packed with tourists from many different countries eager to pay their respects to China’s first president and learn more about him.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen is to China what George Washington is to the United States or Gandhi to India. For many he is the Father of China.