Why Sun Yat-Sen Was An American Thinker: The man who ended more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China was more heavily influenced by American principles than most people realize.

American Thinker ^ | 04/12/2022 | Laura Lam

[SeekAndFind]

In modern Chinese history, Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) holds a unique place. He led the revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911; devoted his life to championing an independent and democratic China; and was a revolutionary leader and a man of vision. Sun remains the only political leader honored by both mainland China and Taiwan. What’s fascinating about Sun, but little known in America, is that his birthplace, formal education, medical training, religious faith, and political values made him a true American.

Sun’s elder brother concealed the fact that Yat-sen was an American. His family would claim that he was born in China because a Chinese identity was crucial to his mission for China’s future but contemporaneous records show that he was an American citizen by birth.

The National Archives at San Francisco verified on April 29, 1904, that Sun had US citizenship. The American Institute in Taiwan also confirms that Sun Yat-sen was born in Hawaii.

When Sun was 4 years old, his parents took him back with them to China. Then at age 12, he sailed on a British steamship back to Hawaii, to live with his elder brother. Sun received his secondary education at the ʻIolani School under the supervision of the Church of Hawai’i.

At 18, Sun wanted to convert to Christianity. He was baptized in Hong Kong by Rev. C. R. Hager, an American missionary. He began studying Western medicine at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. At 22, he joined a group of revolutionary thinkers called the Four Bandits. They founded the Furen Literary Society, which emphasized discipline, purifying the character, and learning from the West. In 1892 Sun graduated with a medical doctorate degree from the University of Hong Kong, a globally respected educational establishment

[untenured]

Sun was not born in Hawaii, although he spent much of his later childhood there and had become fluent in English by the time he went back to China.

But he was a socialist through and through. The army he headed, based near British Hong Kong (whose openness and vitality he and others benefited from) helped overthrow the last emperor, a child, but he was out of office within months and China fell into graft and civil war, and well after he died finally into the catastrophe of Maoism.

He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things.

Like the left everywhere, he took the present for granted and wanted to hammer it into something better, never giving any though to how it came to be.

[untenured]

Sun Yat Sen was not a power hungry man and in fact, ceded his presidency to a warlord named Yuan Shi Kai in order to avoid civil war.

Not true, or at best incomplete. He needed Yuan’s support to overthrow the monarchy, and agreed in advance to turn the presidency over to him after the emperor was gone, to be followed by free elections. The latter never happened, and indeed never have subsequently in China.

[untenured]

He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things.

Oops! Sorry for cutting off the sentence. Should read: He was a naive fool, obsessed with the idea that foreigners and foreign capital, having brought technology and the ideas of human rights, women’s rights more generally, the scientific method, industrialization and social change to a society, though with a very long civilization magnificent in some ways compared to others, that had never known any of these things, was responsible for all of China’s problems.

[ckilmer]

Its generally recognized that he was a naturalized american citizen. what’s under contention is as to whether he was born in the USA.

Are there any birth certificates for him?

[ckilmer]

can you point to the american birth certificate?

[Lurkinanloomin]

Hawaiian birth certificate, Hawaii was not part of the US at the time.

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/certificate-of-hawaiian-birth/

[ckilmer]

Is there a sun yat sen birth certificate?

[ckilmer]

Do both taiwan and the PRC acknowledge that sun yat sen held an american citizenship but deny that he was born in Hawaii?