1. Sun Yatsen: The Unlikely Father of a Nation
Roderick Wilson
Department of History
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

2. 1949 Communist Revolution “Father of the revolution” Republic of China
People’s Republic of China
“Father of the revolution”
Qing Empire
1911 Xinhai Revolution
Era of warlordism
War with Japan
Civil war
1949 Communist Revolution
Republic of China
(Taiwan)
Sun Yatsen ( )
“Father of the Republic”

3. The Ubiquitous Father of the Nation (国父)
Sun Yatsen University, Guangzhou (Canton)
National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taiwan
Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum, Hong Kong
Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing (PRC)

5. Sun Yatsen as an Overseas Chinese
1866: Born in Guangzhou (Canton)
: Kingdom of Hawaii
: Hong Kong (British colony)
: Britain, Japan, Canada, and the United States
Sun at Hong Kong College of Medicine
Sun with family

6. Sun as an Overseas Revolutionary, 1895-1911
Qing Dynasty ( )
Most powerful and prosperous dynasty in Chinese history
Ruled by foreign Manchus
Governing ideology was Confucianism (looked to the past for guidance in governing)
Western Imperialism
Began with Opium War
Treaty ports, spheres of influence
Sun Yatsen
: 10 attempted coup d'états
1905: Formed Revolutionary Alliance in Tokyo, Japan
Issues his Three Principles of the People
Nationalism
Democracy
Livelihood
Empress Dowager Cixi

8. Sun as President (for a few months)
Yuan Shikai ( )
10/10/1911
Uprising in Wuhan
11/13/1911
Yuan Shikai becomes prime minister
1/1/1912
Sun Yatsen became president of new republic
2/12/1912
Manchu abdicate
3/10/1912
Yuan becomes president
Sun Yatsen ( )

9. Sun as Leader of Nationalist Party (Goumindang GMD)
China needs national unity
Need a strong political party
Need a strong national army
Two enemies of China
Regional warlords
Western and Japanese imperialists
1917 Russian Revolution
Sun transformed Nationalist Party into a centrally controlled Leninist party
Formed National Revolutionary Army
Whampoa Military
Academy, 1924
“Europeans rebelled and fought for liberty because they had had too little liberty. But we, because we have had too much liberty without any unity and resisting power, because we have become a sheet of loose sand and so have been invaded by foreign imperialism and oppressed by the economic control and trade wars of the Powers, without being able to resist, must break down individual liberty and become pressed together into an unyielding body like the firm rock …” –Sun Yatsen, 1924

10. Sun as Father of the Nation
Portrait of Sun Yatsen at Tiananmen Square
Portrait of Mao Zedong
at Tiananmen Square