Sun Yat-Sen - changing China from Penang

Although Sun Yat-Sen's fleeting presence in Penang arguably made little impact to the state's history, it did however change the history of China forever. The man often referred to as "The Father of modern China" is a highly revered figure among Penang Chinese and not without good reason.

After nine unsuccessful uprisings, Sun arrived in Penang on Nov 1910 and thereafter held several meetings, including the epoch-making Penang Conference at 120 Armenian Street, which eventually led to the Wuchang Uprising, the Xinhai Revolution, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China.

Large scale efforts to preserve the legacy of Sun are in the works. Back in 2002, the Penang Philomathic Union (founded by Dr. Sun) started the Sun Yat-Sen Research Centre in Lorong Susu, off Macalister Road. Come 2005, a spectacular museum will be opened, where the Philomathic Union mansion stands on Macalister Road, to preserve, commemorate and perpetuate the memory of this famous revolutionary who is considered by many to be the most important figure in Chinese history of the 20th century.

The date targeted for the completion of the museum, 2005, is an auspicious date, for it was exactly a century ago that Dr. Sun organised a revolutionary league, the T'ung Meng Hui. It was also during this time that he set on perfecting his political conceptions, which were based on the Three People's Principles: nationalism (that is a Chinese government administered by none other than the Chinese), democracy (that the government should be republican and democratically elected), and the people's livelihood (fair distribution of wealth and nationalisation of land).

Dr. Sun's greatest triumph was the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912, with him installed as president. Sadly, after his death in 1924, feuding warlords devastated his beloved country and left it in ruins. But great men and noble ideas never die, and his convictions and opinions lived on to become the basis of the future Nationalist government established by Chiang Kai-shek in 1928, and eventually the China that we know today.

According to sources, the soon-to-be opened museum will include a café set in the style of the 1900s serving Chinese cuisine and Penang delicacies; a souvenir boutique stocking a wide variety of books and other materials not available elsewhere; a multi-media time tunnel journey that will take the visitor through the various stages of the Chinese uprisings; re-enactment of the Penang Conference; theatrette for musicals, dances and other performances, and the Memorial Garden which will house a "Three People" sculpture showing Dr. Sun and his two most impassioned Penangite disciples -- Goh Say Eng and Ooi Kim Kheng.

In the meantime, the Sun Yat-Sen Research Centre, at 26 Lorong Susu, is open to the public by appointment only. Call 04-2296118 for further information.

To complete the historical journey, Sun aficionados and history buffs might also want to visit the former Tung Meng Hooi central office at 120 Armenian Street where the aforementioned Penang Conference took place.

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