Heritage | Sun Yat Sen memorialized in Macau and China, neglected in HK

The honoring of Sun Yat Sen, the revered 20th-century Chinese revolutionary who spent some time living in Portuguese-administered Macau, has been the motivation behind the preservation of numerous buildings, monuments and relics across the greater China area for almost a century.

Some of these, such as the statue outside Macau’s Kiang Wu hospital or the Memorial Hall in central Guangzhou, were constructed to protect the memory of the early modern Chinese leader. Others – used, lived or worked in by Sun – have been revamped and opened to the public in a bid to preserve the memory of the revolutionary, considered by Beijing to be the “forerunner of democratic revolution” and a prototype for the communist insurgents of the early 20th century.

However, while authorities in Macau, mainland China and Taiwan have dedicated significant resources to commemorating Sun, neighboring Hong Kong has fallen into disrepute over its authorities’ handling of Sun Yat Sen heritage sites.

Earlier this month, the South China Morning Post reported that an old building in Hong Kong’s Tuen Mun, allegedly used as a secret revolutionary base for Sun and his followers, had narrowly “escaped the wrecking ball.”

The so-called Red House, built between 1905 and 1910, was formerly designated a “grade one heritage site”, meaning that it was not legally protected from demolition. Hong Kong’s heritage grading system ranges from one to three, with the higher numbers denoting a more imperative need for preservation.

Earlier this month, however, Hong Kong’s Development Bureau declared the Red House a “proposed monument”, though not before some of the building’s windows were dismantled and the site’s outer walls torn down.

The latest declaration does not guarantee that the building will be protected, but it does prevent it from being demolished and altered during a grace period of one year. This, according to Hong Kong authorities, will allow the government to negotiate how to preserve the historic site with the building’s current owner.

The decision was welcomed by Hong Kong residents, who were alarmed and concerned for the fate of the heritage site, after a video depicting its alteration was released online.

However, the last-minute decision by Hong Kong authorities prompts comparisons between the approach to Sun Yat Sen heritage in the neighboring SAR and in the rest of the greater China area.

In Macau, a memorial house of the revolutionary leader has been converted into a museum that exhibits relics of Sun’s life (pictured above). This was complemented late last year with the opening of a newly-renovated clinic in the territory, thought to have been used in the 1890s by Sun to treat patients using both Western and Chinese medicine, and was advertised and promoted by cultural authorities in the city seeking to emphasize its importance as a historical site.

Joao Guedes, a journalist and writer who is knowledgeable about Macau’s history, explains the differing efforts to preserve the memory of Sun in the two SARs as the natural result of the particularly strong ties the revolutionary – and his family – had with Macau.

“Macau is the birthplace of the Sun Yat Sen family,” he said. “So Sun is very much connected with Macau.”

“[Some people] say that he had a connection with Hong Kong, but the link is not so strong. [Sun] was actually afraid to live in Hong Kong because he was frightened of suppression… he was a leftist [left-wing],” explained Guedes.

The respect for the revolutionary Chinese leader is not limited to Macau, however.

In most major Chinese cities, at least one of the major streets is named after Sun, as well as frequently parks, schools, universities and various geographical features. His hometown in Guangdong Province was renamed “Zhongshan” in his honor.

Meanwhile, in Guangzhou, there is a large monument-
park dedicated to his memory. Known as the Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and constructed between 1929 and 1931, the museum houses many memorabilia of Sun and his family.

Taiwan, whose opposition ‘nationalist’ party, the Kuomintang, was founded by Sun Yat Sen, arguably harbors the deepest links with the revolutionary leader. Broadly considered by the Taiwanese as the “National Father of the Republic of China,” the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, is also home to a memorial hall for Sun.

The connection is so profound on the island-state that when Taiwan’s Ministry of Education and several lawmakers proposed in 2004 that Sun was not the “National Father”, but a foreigner from mainland China, a 70-year-old retired soldier committed suicide at a Sun Yat Sen statue in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung.

This connection is perhaps the underlying reason why Taiwanese flags were flown at the site of Hong Kong’s Red House this month in response to the government’s decision to – at least temporarily – protect the site.

Taiwanese flags also adorn the interior of the Sun Yat Sen’s memorial house in Macau; a rare oddity for a semi-autonomous territory of mainland China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has made public displays of the flag illegal in the People’s Republic of China.

“In Macau, after [the riots of] 1966, the Taiwanese flags were not allowed anymore,” Guedes told the Times, “only the symbols of the People’s Republic of China [were allowed].”

“The memorial house is the only place that is allowed to have them – not by law, but by consensus… the Communists don’t say anything,” he continued. “This was by the agreement with the [former] Portuguese administration and was the only way to keep the house open after 1966, otherwise it would have been turned into a communist party base. […] The Communists think it is not a good idea to prevent the flags [from being hoisted].”

Sun Yat Sen was a Chinese physician, writer and revolutionary who rose up against the late Qing dynasty in the years leading up to the 1911 Chinese Revolution. Although he later become China’s first president of the republic, Sun struggled throughout his political life to balance the various warlord factions in early 20th century China and did not live to see the Chinese nationalist party consolidate its power over the country.

He remains an influential figure in the greater China region for his modernizing influence on the country and the legacy of his philosophical writings embodying three key principles; non-ethnic Chinese nationalism, modern government and the betterment of the people’s livelihood.