倫敦奧林匹克體育場 位於倫敦東部的斯特拉特福（Stratford），因外形上闊下窄，又被稱為「倫敦碗」，預計可容納8萬人，分為兩層，上層是55000個臨時座位在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後將拆除，只剩下25000個固定座位，成為一作中型社區體育場，本場地除了北邊是陸地，其他三面是環水，被戲稱體育場島，除了原始屋頂，設計者還將使用一種用紡織品做成的遮陽棚，紡織品上畫馬賽克和與奧運會相關圖像在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後，遮陽棚將被拆下，做成袋子出售
Friday 1 June 2012
2012 London 伦敦奥运会 Olympic Games
2012 London Olympic Games
第三十屆奧林匹克運動會，又稱為2012年倫敦奧運，將於2012年7月27日至8月12日在英國倫敦舉行[1]。2005年7月6日，國際奥委會在新加坡舉行的第117次國際奧委會會議上宣布，由倫敦主辦此屆奧運會，亦是繼1908年和1948年後，倫敦第三次取得夏季奧運舉辦權，也使倫敦成為至今舉辦最多次奧運會的城市。
倫敦奧林匹克體育場 位於倫敦東部的斯特拉特福（Stratford），因外形上闊下窄，又被稱為「倫敦碗」，預計可容納8萬人，分為兩層，上層是55000個臨時座位在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後將拆除，只剩下25000個固定座位，成為一作中型社區體育場，本場地除了北邊是陸地，其他三面是環水，被戲稱體育場島，除了原始屋頂，設計者還將使用一種用紡織品做成的遮陽棚，紡織品上畫馬賽克和與奧運會相關圖像在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後，遮陽棚將被拆下，做成袋子出售
倫敦奧林匹克體育場 位於倫敦東部的斯特拉特福（Stratford），因外形上闊下窄，又被稱為「倫敦碗」，預計可容納8萬人，分為兩層，上層是55000個臨時座位在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後將拆除，只剩下25000個固定座位，成為一作中型社區體育場，本場地除了北邊是陸地，其他三面是環水，被戲稱體育場島，除了原始屋頂，設計者還將使用一種用紡織品做成的遮陽棚，紡織品上畫馬賽克和與奧運會相關圖像在2012年倫敦奧運和2012年夏季帕運會結束之後，遮陽棚將被拆下，做成袋子出售
Sunday 27 September 2009
Dr Sun Yatsen - An Icon of A Republic 1911
The late Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum 1929.6.1" introduces the organisation of Dr Sun's funeral including the construction of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the removal of Dr Sun's coffin from Beijing to Nanjing. The exhibition also explores the implicit messages conveyed by the Mausoleum and the funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen.
In October 1924, Feng Yuxiang invited Dr Sun to Beijing to discuss national affairs. He fell ill on reaching Tianjin and, after arriving in Beijing, was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital on December 31. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and although both Western and Chinese medical treatment was administered Dr Sun passed away on March 12th 1925 at his residence in Tieshizi Alley in Beijing.
On March 19th his coffin was moved from the hospital to Beijing's Central Park for a public memorial service. Records show that from March 24th to April 1st over 740,000 visitors and 1,254 organisations came to pay tribute to him. At the same time memorial services were held all over China and in other countries. On April 2nd Dr Sun’s coffin was moved to Biyun Temple in Xiangshan, Beijing where it stayed until his grand funeral in 1929. In July 1928 when the Northern Warlords had surrendered and China was reunited, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) decided to transport Dr Sun's coffin to Nanjing for interment.
Dr Sun had expressed his wish to be buried in Nanjing as early as March 1912 while out hunting on Mount Zijin and he reiterated his wish before he passed away: "After I die, please bury me among the ranges of Mount Zijin in Nanjing. As the Provisional Government was founded in Nanjing, let it be remembered as the home of the 1911 Revolution." The Preparatory Office for the Funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen was set up to organise his interment and to oversee the construction of the mausoleum. The office selected a location and sought submissions from architects and artists across the globe for a design. Lu Yanzhi, a 33-year-old architect, won the competition with his bell-shaped design.
The Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was constructed in three phases. Begun in 1926 and completed in late 1931 the entire construction process lasted six years and cost HK$2.2 million. June 1st 1929 was set as the date for the funeral. In order to educate the people of China on the significance of the event the government organised a train to move Dr Sun's coffin from Beijing to Nanjing and to conduct promotional work in places along the route.
On May 26th 1929 Dr Sun's coffin left Biyun Temple reaching Nanjing on May 28. From May 29th to 31st a three-day public vigil was held at the Nationalist Party’s headquarters. At 4am on June 1st Dr Sun's coffin began its journey from the headquarters, passing in front of hundreds of thousands of Nanjing citizens who lined the route to bid farewell to him. The funeral procession reached Mount Zijin at 8am and the hearse arrived at the plaza of the mausoleum at 9.20am. The coffin was placed under a large coffin cover and then lifted up at 9.45am. At 10.08am, the coffin reached the burial platform. The grand funeral ceremony was then held in the sacrificial hall, finishing at noon. Dr Sun had finally been laid to rest according to his wishes on Mount Zijin in Nanjing.
The significance of Dr Sun Yat-sen's grand funeral has rekindled academic interest in recent years. Scholars recognise that the funeral has far-reaching historical implications beyond its function as a ritual. The construction of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, culminating in the grand funeral held on June 1st 1929 is the central focus of discussions, while the mausoleum's siting in Nanjing, its architecture and the funeral rites are all endowed with rich symbolism.
In October 1924, Feng Yuxiang invited Dr Sun to Beijing to discuss national affairs. He fell ill on reaching Tianjin and, after arriving in Beijing, was admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital on December 31. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and although both Western and Chinese medical treatment was administered Dr Sun passed away on March 12th 1925 at his residence in Tieshizi Alley in Beijing.
On March 19th his coffin was moved from the hospital to Beijing's Central Park for a public memorial service. Records show that from March 24th to April 1st over 740,000 visitors and 1,254 organisations came to pay tribute to him. At the same time memorial services were held all over China and in other countries. On April 2nd Dr Sun’s coffin was moved to Biyun Temple in Xiangshan, Beijing where it stayed until his grand funeral in 1929. In July 1928 when the Northern Warlords had surrendered and China was reunited, the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) decided to transport Dr Sun's coffin to Nanjing for interment.
Dr Sun had expressed his wish to be buried in Nanjing as early as March 1912 while out hunting on Mount Zijin and he reiterated his wish before he passed away: "After I die, please bury me among the ranges of Mount Zijin in Nanjing. As the Provisional Government was founded in Nanjing, let it be remembered as the home of the 1911 Revolution." The Preparatory Office for the Funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen was set up to organise his interment and to oversee the construction of the mausoleum. The office selected a location and sought submissions from architects and artists across the globe for a design. Lu Yanzhi, a 33-year-old architect, won the competition with his bell-shaped design.
The Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was constructed in three phases. Begun in 1926 and completed in late 1931 the entire construction process lasted six years and cost HK$2.2 million. June 1st 1929 was set as the date for the funeral. In order to educate the people of China on the significance of the event the government organised a train to move Dr Sun's coffin from Beijing to Nanjing and to conduct promotional work in places along the route.
On May 26th 1929 Dr Sun's coffin left Biyun Temple reaching Nanjing on May 28. From May 29th to 31st a three-day public vigil was held at the Nationalist Party’s headquarters. At 4am on June 1st Dr Sun's coffin began its journey from the headquarters, passing in front of hundreds of thousands of Nanjing citizens who lined the route to bid farewell to him. The funeral procession reached Mount Zijin at 8am and the hearse arrived at the plaza of the mausoleum at 9.20am. The coffin was placed under a large coffin cover and then lifted up at 9.45am. At 10.08am, the coffin reached the burial platform. The grand funeral ceremony was then held in the sacrificial hall, finishing at noon. Dr Sun had finally been laid to rest according to his wishes on Mount Zijin in Nanjing.
The significance of Dr Sun Yat-sen's grand funeral has rekindled academic interest in recent years. Scholars recognise that the funeral has far-reaching historical implications beyond its function as a ritual. The construction of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, culminating in the grand funeral held on June 1st 1929 is the central focus of discussions, while the mausoleum's siting in Nanjing, its architecture and the funeral rites are all endowed with rich symbolism.
Sunday 21 June 2009
Dr Sun Yatsen - Memorial in Nanjing, China
中华民国军政府大元帅孙中山
Her foreigner friend Israel Epstein, who wrote a biography of her, described her as an outstanding woman of the 20th century. The subtitles of the exhibition, ‘In the Same Boat’, ‘Patriotic Sentiments’ and ‘Moments in Everyday Life’, as well as the valuable collection on loan from the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, will help visitors understand the spirit and virtue of this extraordinary woman,” Mr Tsang said.
After graduating from Wesleyan College in the US in 1913, Madam Soong reunited with her family in Japan and later took over from her sister Soong Ailing as Dr Sun Yat-sen’s secretary. Despite fierce opposition from her family, she married Dr Sun in Japan on October 25, 1915. She stood by Dr Sun through thick and thin and for better or worse throughout the revolutionary years. She was not only Dr Sun’s most reliable assistant, but also a faithful companion and a comrade-in-arms. Dr Sun died of illness in Beijing on March 12, 1925, 10 years after their marriage.
After Dr Sun Yat-sen’s death, Madam Soong insisted on carrying out her late husband’s “Three Principles of the People” and the three cardinal policies of “allying with the USSR, allying with (Chinese) Communists, and helping peasants and workers.” In 1926, she helped plan the relocation of the capital from Guangzhou to Wuhan. In 1927, she publicly denounced some members of the Kuomintang for abandoning Dr Sun’s political ideas. From 1927 to 1931, Madam Soong lived in the Soviet Union and Europe, where she spent her time conducting research and exploring possible directions for China’s revolutionary future.
When Japan invaded China in 1930s, Madam Soong called for the establishment of an anti-Japanese national united front. In 1938, she founded the China Defence League in Hong Kong and garnered international support for China’s war against Japanese invasion. She was also active in raising funds for wartime relief. After the war, Madam Soong renamed the China Defence League the China Welfare Institute and conducted pioneering work on cultural education and social services for the women and children of China.
我們國父，首創革命，革命血如花，推翻了專制，建設了共和，產生了民主中華。民國新成，國事如麻，國父詳加 計劃，重新改革中華。三民主義，五權憲法，真理細推求，一世的辛勞，半生的奔走，為國家犧牲奮鬥。國父精神 ，永垂不朽，如同青天白日，千秋萬世長留。民生凋敝，國步艱難，禍患猶未已；莫散了團體，休灰了志氣，大家 要互相勉勵。國父遺言，不要忘記，革命尚未成功，同志仍須努力
1924年6月16日，孙中山主持黄埔军校开学典礼
7th anniversary of the victory of the October Revolution in Russia.
1924年11月7日，孙中山出席广州庆祝苏联十月革命胜利七周年大会
Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Mme Soong Ching Ling headed for Beijing in November 1924.
1924年11月孙中山与宋庆龄在北上途中
1、Dr. Sun Yat-sen inspected troops in Guangdong.
孙中山巡视广东各军
2、On December 31, 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was greeted by Beijing citizens in front of the Tiananmen Gate.
1924年12月31日，北京民众在天安门前欢迎孙中山
1、Dr. Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer in Beijing on March 12, 1925.
1925年3月12日，孙中山在北京逝世
2、Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s will.
孙中山遗嘱
1、Mme Soong Ching Ling and Sun Ke in the mourning hall (Sun Ke, son of Dr. Sun, October 20, 1891 – September 13, 1973).
宋庆龄与孙科在孙中山行辕灵堂 （孙科，孙中山之子，1891年10月20日——1973年9月13日）
2、The masses mourned the loss of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in front of the Union Hospital.
北京民众在协和医院门前哀悼孙中山
On April 2 1925, Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s coffin was moved to the Biyun Temple for temporary rest. Hundreds of thousands of people stood along the streets to pay their respect while the coffin was moved through the Xidan Archway.
1925年4月2日，北京民众哀送孙中山灵柩移往碧云寺暂厝途中经过西单牌楼时情形
Upon the death of Dr. Sun, the KMT flew its flag at half-mast on the Altar to the God of Land and Grain, central park, Beijing.
国民党在北京中央公园社稷坛为孙中山降半旗致哀
Mdme Soong Ching Ling kept vigil beside Dr. Sun’s coffin in the Biyun Temple.
宋庆龄在北京碧云寺为孙中山守灵
1、Memorial services for Dr. Sun held by overseas Chinese and American friends in New York City.
纽约华侨与美国友人悼念孙中山
2、On June 1, 1929, Dr. Su Yat-sen’s coffin was moved into Zhongshan Mausoleum in Nanjing.
1929年6月1日，孙中山灵柩移入南京中山陵
1、In March 1938, Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893—September 9, 1976) addressed the meeting in commemoration of the 13th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s death in Yan’an.
1938年3月，毛泽东等在延安纪念孙中山逝世十三周年大会上（毛泽东，1893.12.26——1976.9.9）
2、A meeting on the occasion of the 90th birthday of Dr. Sun Yat-sen was held in Beijing in November 1956.
1956年11月，北京举行孙中山诞辰九十周年纪念大会
1、Zhou Enlai (March 5, 1898—January 8, 1976), He Xiangning (July 16, 1879—September 1, 1972), Shen Junru (January 2, 1875—June 11, 1963) and many others paid their respects to Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the Zhongshan Memorial Hall of the Biyun Temple in Beijing.
周恩来、何香凝、沈钧儒等参谒北京碧云寺中山纪念堂
（周恩来，1898.3.5——1976.1.8 、沈钧儒，1875.1.2——1963.6.11、何香凝，1879.7.16――1972.9.1）
2、Zhou Enlai delivered a speech at the celebration on the 100th anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s birthday.
周恩来在孙中山诞辰一百周年纪念大会上讲话
Sun Yat-sen was born in Cui-heng Village, Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, China on November 12, 1866. He was brought up in a culture of a Guangdong peasant village where he acquired only a rudimentary education. Before the age of thirteen, he was taken to join his emigrant elder brother, Sun Mei, in Hawaii, where he attended missionary schools and developed interests in both government and medicine, and most importantly, his feeling for Christianity. Four years later, when he returned to his hometown, he shocked his family and the entire village by deliberately desecrating the wooden image of the local deity.
In 1883, when he was seventeen, he went to Hong Kong to continue his education in English, and his feeling for Christianity grew even stronger. In 1884 at the age of eighteen, he decided to formally embrace Christianity. He was baptized in Hong Kong by Dr Charles Hager, an American Congregationalist missionary.
During 1894 to 1896, he organized the Hsing Chun Hui in Honolulu, attempted his first revolutionary uprising in Guangdong, and, as a consequence of these activities, became a fugitive on three continents. However, he gained international notoriety from the attempt by the Chinese legation in London to kidnap him.
In the dramatic kidnapping episode in London, Sun reported praying constantly for God's help. In his letter to Pastor Chu he wrote,
"I was saved by God now I believe in God more than ever I am like the prodigal son and the lost sheep: I owe everything to the great favor of God. Through the Way of God I hope to enter into the Political Way. I hope you will not cease to write to me about the Way of God."
Most importantly, the kidnapping episode and the twelve-day imprisonment strengthened Sun Yat-sen's self-confidence and sense of dedication. It convinced him that God has forestalled his enemies to preserve him for some high purpose. He was thus transformed from a comparatively insignificant Cantonese rebel into a well publicized and extremely confident enemy of the Manchu regime.
And then there is Sun Yat-sen. Few historical figures can be more interesting than the man who is considered to be the father of modem China. He left his footprints not only in China, mainly in Shanghai, but in Singapore and San Francisco as well. He has the distinction of being the only political figure revered by both Taiwan and the Mainland Chinese. The Kuomintang party that he established in 1905 sought to replace the ailing Qing dynasty with democratic leadership, and finally succeeded in 1911.
Born in 1866 to a peasant family in Guangzhou, Sun, at age thirteen, went to live with his elder brother, a prosperous merchant, in Honolulu and here he got his early education. He became a citizen of the United States and was issued an American passport. After graduation from the prestigious Iolani School in 1882, Sun enrolled in Oahu College for further studies. Upon graduation his brother sent him back to China. His American experience was to be of lasting influence.
Back home, he became greatly troubled by what he saw as a backward China. He continued his studies that included medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital. He became a medical doctor and practiced medicine in that city briefly in 1893. After the Qing Dynasty rebellion, he became a leader in the Tiandihui revolutionary party. His protégé, Chiang Kai Shek, was also a member.
In 1906 Dr Sun Yat-sen traveled to Singapore to drum up support for his nationalist cause among the Nanyang (overseas Chinese) and was given a villa for his use. It was here that he plotted the overthrow of the 267-year-old Manchu Qing Dynasty in China. Soon, the bungalow became known as the Sun Yat Sen Villa.
In 1910, Sun went from Singapore to San Francisco. He lived in Chinatown briefly and published a radical newspaper there. He then returned to China and took up residence in Shanghai. In 1915 he married Soong Ching Ling, one of the three famous Soong sisters. They were the daughters of the wealthy businessman and missionary Charlie Soong who made a fortune selling Bibles in China. Two dauaghters attended Motyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and graduated from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, United States. Ching Ling's parents greatly opposed the match, as Dr. Sun was 26 years her senior. Her younger sister, May-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek.
All three residences of Sun Yat-sen are worth a visit and give us a vivid perspective of the great Chinese leader. In Singapore it’s called the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial, a lovely two-storey Victorian-style bungalow with open verandahs at the front and sides. In front of the building, in the centre of the garden, is a seated statue of Sun Yat-sen. Originally built in the 1880s by a wealthy merchant, Boey Chuan Poh, for his wife, the bungalow occupied a site that was part of a sugar plantation owned by John Balestier, the first American consul appointed to Singapore in 1837. It was eventually bought by an overseas Chinese, rubber magnate Teo Eng Hock, a supporter of the Chinese revolutionary cause. The villa was then known as Wan Qing Yuan, which means "a haven of peace in the twilight years".
At present, and until August this year, the former residence will be closed to allow repairs to be carried out, an $800.000 endeavor. The villa was gazetted as a national monument in 1994, and underwent a four-year, $8 million restoration back then before opening as a memorial hall and museum in 2001.
After the successful revolution in China in 1911, the villa fell into disrepair. It was sold to an Indian merchant who left it unoccupied. Then, in 1938, a group of philanthropists bought the building with the purpose of preserving it. In 1942, their plans came to a halt when World War II erupted. Throughout the war the Japanese used the villa as a communications centre. In 1945, it became the headquarters of the Singapore Branch of the Kuomintang. After the end of Kuomintang activities in Singapore, the villa was handed over to the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce to manage.
In San Francisco there are half a dozen places that boast that “Sun Yat-sen lived here.” But there is no mistaking the impressive 14-ft (4-metre) granite statue that stands at the northeast corner of St Mary's Square in Chinatown and bears his name. The sculpture in his honor was commissioned by the federally funded Works Progress Administration and was placed there in 1938. Its well-known sculptor, Benjamin Bufano, also created several other sculptures around the city, often of whimsical animals.
Finally we come to his residence in Shanghai. Located at No. 7 Xiangshan Road, Sun lived here in this Edwardian-era house with his wife Soong Ching Ling from 1918-24. Among the plush Chinese carpets, artwork and gleaming black wood furniture—all supposedly originals despite the house having been looted by the Japanese—is a 1924 picture of Sun and Ching Ling in front of the first aeroplane in China.
It is quite surprising how simply Sun and his wife lived. Visitors are given plastic bags to fit over their shoes and can walk around the two-storey house at will, although the rooms are roped off and entry is not permitted. The house displays include Sun's library of 2,700 books, the popular uniform he designed, his medical instruments, writing brushes and ink stone, various maps and a display of photographs, among them one of him and Ching Ling in Guangzhou.
Sun's books are shelved behind locked glass doors; the titles depict the man he was—“The Monroe Doctrine,” “Problems in the Pacific,” “Democracy and the Empire,” “The history of Old Japan,” “The Imperialist,” “The Problems of Local Government.”
Also a landmark in Shanghai is Soong Ching Ling's house at 1843 Huahai Zhong where she lived after the death of her husband. It too is a museum and is open to the public.
Sun Yat-sen died in 1925. The three Soong sisters became China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century. Each, in her own way, ultimately changed the course of Chinese history. Throughout their lifetimes, each sister followed her own belief in terms of supporting the Nationalist or the Communist Party of China. In the 1930s, Soong Ai-Ling and Mei-Ling were the two richest women in China.
When the Second Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937, all three got together after a 10 year separation to unite against the Imperial Japanese army. When the Japanese occupied Nanjing, the three sisters moved to Hong Kong.
Soong Ching Ling became the Vice Chairman of the People's Republic of China. On May 16, 1981, two weeks before her death, she was admitted to the Communist Party and was named Honorary President of the People's Republic of China. She is the only person ever to hold this title.
Although Ching Ling remained in Mainland China while Soong Mei-Ling, or Madame Chiang Kai-shek, her younger sister fled to Taiwan with her husband Chiang Kai-shek, both are today quite beloved and memorialised by the public in the mainland for their unique charismas and contribution.
Wednesday 17 June 2009
Three Soong Sisters and Charlie Soong
The first “Soong” in America
A quarter of a century earlier, her father, Charlie Soong, had also left China for America – but under vastly different circumstances. Then a Hainan merchant’s son known as Han Chiao-shun, Charlie left an apprenticeship in the East Indies to join his uncle on a voyage to the West. During a few months in Boston, employed in his uncle’s tea shop, Charlie set his sights on obtaining an education in America.
The shopkeeper’s life did not appeal to Charlie, and in January 1879 he shipped aboard a Coast Guard cutter plying the Eastern seaboard. The ship’s captain, a staunch Methodist, took the boy under his tutelage, and Charlie learned the precepts of Christianity. It was also under Captain Gabrielson’s influence, Sterling Seagrave surmises, that “Chiao-shun” was transmuted to “Charles Sun.”
In the Coast Guard’s service, Charlie followed Gabrielson to Wilmington, North Carolina. There, in November 1880, Charlie attended revival services at the Fifth Street Methodist Church. It was a fateful occasion – for Charlie professed his faith in Christ as savior. The Wilmington Star carried the unusual news: “This morning the ordinance of Baptism will be administered... a Chinese convert will be one of the subjects of the solemn right [sic], being probably the first ‘Celestial’ that has ever submitted to the ordinance of Baptism in North Carolina” (quoted in Seagrave, 27).
Charlie found a new life and a new identity: Upon baptism, his name was anglicized to Charles Jones Soon (the “g” was added later). He announced his wish to be trained in the Christian tradition so that he could return to his native country as a missionary. Both Charlie and the church could see the advantages: Charlie would get an American education, and the Methodists would gain a powerful witness among the Chinese people they were fervently seeking to convert.
The Wilmington Methodists helped Charlie gain admission to Trinity College (later Duke University) and introduced him to tobacco and textile magnate Julian S. Carr. “General” Carr underwrote Charlie’s education at Duke and Vanderbilt. He remained a lifelong friend and supporter even after Charlie’s return to China.
In 1886, Charlie returned to China to begin missionary work, spending some time in Shanghai and rural Kunshan under the direction of pioneer Methodist missionary Dr. Young J. Allen. It was during Charlie Soong’s days of missionary service and teaching that he met Ni Kwei-tseng, the daughter of a Chinese Episcopalian family. Miss Ni herself was educated in the Western tradition in Shanghai. She was an excellent counterpart to Charlie, whose Americanized speech and mannerisms made him an anomaly in his native country. Her marriage to Soong brought him status within the community and opened up to him new possibilities for accomplishing his dreams for the “new China.”
During the late 1880s, Charlie grew more influential in his ministerial role as well as more prosperous in a business sideline he had launched: the selling and printing of Bibles in Chinese. Charlie devised ways of publishing Bibles, using local materials, at an even lower cost than they could be supplied by the American Bible Society. Before long, he was taking on job printing as well and was amassing a good profit.
And none too soon – for Charlie and Kwei-tseng had started their family. Their first child was born in 1890. They named her Ai-ling (“pleasant mood”), but she was also known by the Christian name Nancy, after General Carr’s wife. A second daughter, Ching-ling (“happy mood”) was born in 1892 and was called Rosamond – after the daughter of the Wilmington minister.
Charlie’s business ventures prospered as his family grew. Son Tse-ven (styled T.V. in the Western form) was born in 1894; third daughter May-ling (“beautiful mood”) was born in 1897. Two more boys followed, Tse-liang (T.L.) and Tse-an (T.A.). The daughters began their education at Shanghai’s exclusive McTyeire School for Girls, founded in 1892 by Dr. Allen and an 1864 Wesleyan alumna, Laura Haygood. Ai-ling started school at age five and Ching-ling at seven.
By the turn of the century, Charlie had become extremely wealthy. He had also begun a surreptitious involvement with the revolutionary movement spurred by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Revolutionary sentiment was growing against the old dynastic rule, and Charlie was right in the midst of it.
A Ten-Thousand-Mile Journey To School
The political climate in China became increasingly dangerous following the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Charlie foresaw the need to send his children to safety as well as to provide for their higher education. He asked the advice of his missionary friend William Burke for an appropriate college for Ai-ling. Burke, whose family had connections to Macon’s Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, highly recommended Wesleyan College, where his friend Judge DuPont Guerry was then president. Charlie arranged for Ai-ling to enroll as a sub-freshman in 1904.
One loved money, one loved power, and one loved ChinaThroughout the remainder of the twentieth century, the three Soong sisters exerted increasing influence alongside their husbands or, in Ching-ling’s case, carrying on her late husband’s work. Ai-ling and May-ling supported the right-wing politics that emerged with the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, while Ching-ling continued to serve as the voice of the left. Their differing political views kept them estranged throughout most of their lives.
That summer, Ai-ling, for safety reasons traveling under a Portuguese passport, undertook the long Pacific crossing under the protection of William and Addie Burke. But Mrs. Burke became fatally ill with typhoid, and the couple left Ai-ling in the care of another missionary, Anna Lanius, to see her safely to America. When the ship arrived in San Francisco, Ai-ling was detained for nineteen days until she could obtain clearance to make the rest of the trip by train to Georgia.
Ai-ling was described as precocious, a serious and determined student who was clever with finances and business. Ching-ling and May-ling joined their older sister at Wesleyan in the fall of 1908 – Ching-ling because she was college-age, and May-ling because, the story has it, she insisted she have her way and be allowed to accompany her older sister though she was only ten. (Mounting tension in China, too, probably had a good deal to do with Charlie’s decision to allow her wish.) During the summer before their arrival at Wesleyan, Ching-ling and May-ling spent time being tutored in missionary families in Summit, New Jersey, and Demorest, Georgia (at Piedmont College).
Upon coming to Macon, May-ling was entrusted to the care of President W. N. Ainsworth’s household, while Ching-ling enrolled as a regular college student. The 1908 school term marked the only year that all three sisters were at Wesleyan at the same time. Their signatures – in English – appear together in the college’s Matriculation Book for 1908–09.
May-ling was privately tutored by two older Wesleyan students: “Miss Margie” Burks, daughter of Wesleyan’s professor of English, and “Miss Lucy” Lester. Whereas Ching-ling was quiet and profound, May-ling had the reputation for being mischievous and sharp-witted.
May-ling’s quick quips are often recounted, as in this Seagrave passage:
“In a day when lipstick and rouge were regarded as shameful, [May-ling] was once caught wearing Chinese flour makeup and lip rouge.
‘Why, May-ling,’ exclaimed an older student, ‘I believe your face is painted!’
‘Yes,’ snapped May-ling, ‘China painted.’ ’’ (114).
On another occasion, one of May-ling’s tutors asked her to recount a history lesson on Sherman’s march through Georgia. The teacher was quite unprepared for her response: “Pardon me, I am a southerner, and that subject is very painful to me. May I omit it?’”
May-ling’s repartee was undimmed upon her visit to campus in 1943. Miss Jennie Loyall, it is said, told Madame Chiang that the college was keeping a Soong scrapbook.
“Oh, you must scrap it soon,” she shot back (Wesleyan Alumnae Magazine, November 1965).
Ching-ling, however, is remembered for her wholehearted devotion to her country. When dynastic control of China was finally overthrown in 1911, Ching-ling tore down the old banner of the Chinese dragon from her wall and vehemently replaced it with the new flag her father had sent her. Ching-ling wrote several impassioned essays for the student magazine on the subject of the Chinese Revolution.
Ai-ling received her A.B. in the Wesleyan class of 1909 and promptly returned to Shanghai, where she secured a post as secretary to Sun Yat-sen. Ching-ling graduated in 1913 and returned to China as well. When Ai-ling resigned her position with Sun in 1914 to marry future finance minister H. H. Kung, Ching-ling took over Ai-ling’s job. “Ching-ling believed as did no one else in [Sun’s] revolution,” wrote Seagrave (136). Defying her father’s orders, Ching-ling eloped with Sun in October 1915. Charlie Soong viewed the marriage between his old friend and his young daughter as a betrayal, and the union remained a source of contention in the Soong family.
May-ling’s only remaining sibling in the United States after Ching-ling’s departure was her brother T.V. at Harvard. After spending her freshman year, 1912–13, at Wesleyan, May-ling transferred to Wellesley College, to be closer to T.V. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley in 1917.
Upon May-ling’s return to China, she met Chiang Kai-shek, a rising star in China’s military. Though already married, Chiang proposed marriage to May-ling. He persisted in his suit, eventually winning Mrs. Soong’s blessing for marriage to her daughter, on the conditions that he divorce his present wife – and that he convert to Christianity.
Soong Ai-ling is best remembered for her shrewdness in financial matters. Ching-ling the mother of China; Jay Chang writes that she was the first consort of a political leader anywhere in the world to act as ‘first lady’ (37). May-ling was best known as ambassador for China (and later, Taiwan) to the Western world. May-ling, who died in October of 2004 at the age of 105 had lived in New York City.
Continuing ties with Wesleyan
Over the years, Wesleyan and its most famous alumnae have kept in contact. The Soong sisters corresponded with many of their Wesleyan friends, including Margie Burks, Jenny Daughtry, Jennie Loyall (Manget), Mary Gray Munroe Cobey, and Freda Nadler. One letter from Ching-ling to Professor of English Margaret Hall Hazard survives in Wesleyan’s archives because Hazard just happened to have the letter in her purse at the time her Macon home burned!
Many Wesleyan alumnae have memories of their famous sisters. Wesleyan assistant dean and registrar Pat Hardeman ’68 is one of many to have traveled to the Shanghai home of Madame Sun (now maintained as a historic site). “I felt a thrill – a chill down my spine – to see the photographs of old Wesleyan there in Ching-ling’s Shanghai house,” said Hardeman.
The late Ann Maria Domingos ’39, a cousin of Margie Burks, had very special memories of the Soong sisters – including one she wore on occasion. May-ling gave Miss Margie two imperial jade rings, Domingos would explain as she pointed out the one she inherited from her cousin. Margie [pronounced with a hard g] was a particular friend of May-ling’s, and they corresponded and visited often after Margie went to teach Spanish at the University of Florida.
The college has hosted scores of visitors wishing to see the Soong memorabilia in the Willet Library’s Georgia Room. Wesleyan staff have also provided background information, documents, and photos for such projects as NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company)’s 1994 special The Soong Sisters: The Glamorous Family that Dominated China and a 1996 TV Ontario documentary.
Ai-ling visited Wesleyan in 1932, and May-ling came back in 1943 and 1965. In 1995, Wesleyan hosted a traveling exhibition of artifacts pertaining to the life of Soong Ching-ling, who died in 1981, having never revisited her alma mater.
On June 26, 1943, close to the end of a three-month diplomatic tour of the United States, May-ling visited Wesleyan after a long hiatus. The college presented the honorary Doctor of Laws to Madame Chiang and to her two absent sisters. On that exciting occasion, Linda Anderson Lane, Annie Gantt Anderson, and Alice Burden Domingos all assisted with arrangements; Octavia Burden Stewart handled the flowers. Actress Eugenia Rawls ’34 was among the alumnae present.
Madame Chiang had a rare opportunity to visit with her teachers Margie Burks, Lucy Lester, Newell Mason, and Margaret Hall Hazard. President Ainsworth was no longer living, but his widow had the honor of bestowing the doctoral hood on Madame Chiang. Not least among May-ling’s activities on the visit, according to the Wesleyan Alumnae Magazine of August 1943, was an impromptu trip to “the Pharm” on College Hill.
The sisters have directly or indirectly been responsible for the establishment of several scholarship funds at Wesleyan. The DuPont Guerry Scholarship, which is still awarded by Wesleyan today, was established by a gift from Ai-ling Soong herself. The May-ling Soong Chiang Scholarship, to be awarded to Chinese students, was established at Wesleyan in March 1944 by the Methodist Laymen of the South Georgia Conference. This fund has continued to the present, with scholarships being awarded to Chinese students from time to time. At the time of Madame Chiang’s 1943 visit, short-term scholarships were also given in honor of the other two sisters, but these funds do not survive to the present. And, in 1997, an anonymous $6 million gift to the college in honor and memory of the sisters is used largely for endowed scholarship support, building a stronger future for the college as well as an enduring memorial to the Soong family.
A quarter of a century earlier, her father, Charlie Soong, had also left China for America – but under vastly different circumstances. Then a Hainan merchant’s son known as Han Chiao-shun, Charlie left an apprenticeship in the East Indies to join his uncle on a voyage to the West. During a few months in Boston, employed in his uncle’s tea shop, Charlie set his sights on obtaining an education in America.
The shopkeeper’s life did not appeal to Charlie, and in January 1879 he shipped aboard a Coast Guard cutter plying the Eastern seaboard. The ship’s captain, a staunch Methodist, took the boy under his tutelage, and Charlie learned the precepts of Christianity. It was also under Captain Gabrielson’s influence, Sterling Seagrave surmises, that “Chiao-shun” was transmuted to “Charles Sun.”
In the Coast Guard’s service, Charlie followed Gabrielson to Wilmington, North Carolina. There, in November 1880, Charlie attended revival services at the Fifth Street Methodist Church. It was a fateful occasion – for Charlie professed his faith in Christ as savior. The Wilmington Star carried the unusual news: “This morning the ordinance of Baptism will be administered... a Chinese convert will be one of the subjects of the solemn right [sic], being probably the first ‘Celestial’ that has ever submitted to the ordinance of Baptism in North Carolina” (quoted in Seagrave, 27).
Charlie found a new life and a new identity: Upon baptism, his name was anglicized to Charles Jones Soon (the “g” was added later). He announced his wish to be trained in the Christian tradition so that he could return to his native country as a missionary. Both Charlie and the church could see the advantages: Charlie would get an American education, and the Methodists would gain a powerful witness among the Chinese people they were fervently seeking to convert.
The Wilmington Methodists helped Charlie gain admission to Trinity College (later Duke University) and introduced him to tobacco and textile magnate Julian S. Carr. “General” Carr underwrote Charlie’s education at Duke and Vanderbilt. He remained a lifelong friend and supporter even after Charlie’s return to China.
In 1886, Charlie returned to China to begin missionary work, spending some time in Shanghai and rural Kunshan under the direction of pioneer Methodist missionary Dr. Young J. Allen. It was during Charlie Soong’s days of missionary service and teaching that he met Ni Kwei-tseng, the daughter of a Chinese Episcopalian family. Miss Ni herself was educated in the Western tradition in Shanghai. She was an excellent counterpart to Charlie, whose Americanized speech and mannerisms made him an anomaly in his native country. Her marriage to Soong brought him status within the community and opened up to him new possibilities for accomplishing his dreams for the “new China.”
During the late 1880s, Charlie grew more influential in his ministerial role as well as more prosperous in a business sideline he had launched: the selling and printing of Bibles in Chinese. Charlie devised ways of publishing Bibles, using local materials, at an even lower cost than they could be supplied by the American Bible Society. Before long, he was taking on job printing as well and was amassing a good profit.
And none too soon – for Charlie and Kwei-tseng had started their family. Their first child was born in 1890. They named her Ai-ling (“pleasant mood”), but she was also known by the Christian name Nancy, after General Carr’s wife. A second daughter, Ching-ling (“happy mood”) was born in 1892 and was called Rosamond – after the daughter of the Wilmington minister.
Charlie’s business ventures prospered as his family grew. Son Tse-ven (styled T.V. in the Western form) was born in 1894; third daughter May-ling (“beautiful mood”) was born in 1897. Two more boys followed, Tse-liang (T.L.) and Tse-an (T.A.). The daughters began their education at Shanghai’s exclusive McTyeire School for Girls, founded in 1892 by Dr. Allen and an 1864 Wesleyan alumna, Laura Haygood. Ai-ling started school at age five and Ching-ling at seven.
By the turn of the century, Charlie had become extremely wealthy. He had also begun a surreptitious involvement with the revolutionary movement spurred by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Revolutionary sentiment was growing against the old dynastic rule, and Charlie was right in the midst of it.
A Ten-Thousand-Mile Journey To School
The political climate in China became increasingly dangerous following the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Charlie foresaw the need to send his children to safety as well as to provide for their higher education. He asked the advice of his missionary friend William Burke for an appropriate college for Ai-ling. Burke, whose family had connections to Macon’s Mulberry Street United Methodist Church, highly recommended Wesleyan College, where his friend Judge DuPont Guerry was then president. Charlie arranged for Ai-ling to enroll as a sub-freshman in 1904.
One loved money, one loved power, and one loved ChinaThroughout the remainder of the twentieth century, the three Soong sisters exerted increasing influence alongside their husbands or, in Ching-ling’s case, carrying on her late husband’s work. Ai-ling and May-ling supported the right-wing politics that emerged with the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, while Ching-ling continued to serve as the voice of the left. Their differing political views kept them estranged throughout most of their lives.
That summer, Ai-ling, for safety reasons traveling under a Portuguese passport, undertook the long Pacific crossing under the protection of William and Addie Burke. But Mrs. Burke became fatally ill with typhoid, and the couple left Ai-ling in the care of another missionary, Anna Lanius, to see her safely to America. When the ship arrived in San Francisco, Ai-ling was detained for nineteen days until she could obtain clearance to make the rest of the trip by train to Georgia.
Ai-ling was described as precocious, a serious and determined student who was clever with finances and business. Ching-ling and May-ling joined their older sister at Wesleyan in the fall of 1908 – Ching-ling because she was college-age, and May-ling because, the story has it, she insisted she have her way and be allowed to accompany her older sister though she was only ten. (Mounting tension in China, too, probably had a good deal to do with Charlie’s decision to allow her wish.) During the summer before their arrival at Wesleyan, Ching-ling and May-ling spent time being tutored in missionary families in Summit, New Jersey, and Demorest, Georgia (at Piedmont College).
Upon coming to Macon, May-ling was entrusted to the care of President W. N. Ainsworth’s household, while Ching-ling enrolled as a regular college student. The 1908 school term marked the only year that all three sisters were at Wesleyan at the same time. Their signatures – in English – appear together in the college’s Matriculation Book for 1908–09.
May-ling was privately tutored by two older Wesleyan students: “Miss Margie” Burks, daughter of Wesleyan’s professor of English, and “Miss Lucy” Lester. Whereas Ching-ling was quiet and profound, May-ling had the reputation for being mischievous and sharp-witted.
May-ling’s quick quips are often recounted, as in this Seagrave passage:
“In a day when lipstick and rouge were regarded as shameful, [May-ling] was once caught wearing Chinese flour makeup and lip rouge.
‘Why, May-ling,’ exclaimed an older student, ‘I believe your face is painted!’
‘Yes,’ snapped May-ling, ‘China painted.’ ’’ (114).
On another occasion, one of May-ling’s tutors asked her to recount a history lesson on Sherman’s march through Georgia. The teacher was quite unprepared for her response: “Pardon me, I am a southerner, and that subject is very painful to me. May I omit it?’”
May-ling’s repartee was undimmed upon her visit to campus in 1943. Miss Jennie Loyall, it is said, told Madame Chiang that the college was keeping a Soong scrapbook.
“Oh, you must scrap it soon,” she shot back (Wesleyan Alumnae Magazine, November 1965).
Ching-ling, however, is remembered for her wholehearted devotion to her country. When dynastic control of China was finally overthrown in 1911, Ching-ling tore down the old banner of the Chinese dragon from her wall and vehemently replaced it with the new flag her father had sent her. Ching-ling wrote several impassioned essays for the student magazine on the subject of the Chinese Revolution.
Ai-ling received her A.B. in the Wesleyan class of 1909 and promptly returned to Shanghai, where she secured a post as secretary to Sun Yat-sen. Ching-ling graduated in 1913 and returned to China as well. When Ai-ling resigned her position with Sun in 1914 to marry future finance minister H. H. Kung, Ching-ling took over Ai-ling’s job. “Ching-ling believed as did no one else in [Sun’s] revolution,” wrote Seagrave (136). Defying her father’s orders, Ching-ling eloped with Sun in October 1915. Charlie Soong viewed the marriage between his old friend and his young daughter as a betrayal, and the union remained a source of contention in the Soong family.
May-ling’s only remaining sibling in the United States after Ching-ling’s departure was her brother T.V. at Harvard. After spending her freshman year, 1912–13, at Wesleyan, May-ling transferred to Wellesley College, to be closer to T.V. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley in 1917.
Upon May-ling’s return to China, she met Chiang Kai-shek, a rising star in China’s military. Though already married, Chiang proposed marriage to May-ling. He persisted in his suit, eventually winning Mrs. Soong’s blessing for marriage to her daughter, on the conditions that he divorce his present wife – and that he convert to Christianity.
Soong Ai-ling is best remembered for her shrewdness in financial matters. Ching-ling the mother of China; Jay Chang writes that she was the first consort of a political leader anywhere in the world to act as ‘first lady’ (37). May-ling was best known as ambassador for China (and later, Taiwan) to the Western world. May-ling, who died in October of 2004 at the age of 105 had lived in New York City.
Continuing ties with Wesleyan
Over the years, Wesleyan and its most famous alumnae have kept in contact. The Soong sisters corresponded with many of their Wesleyan friends, including Margie Burks, Jenny Daughtry, Jennie Loyall (Manget), Mary Gray Munroe Cobey, and Freda Nadler. One letter from Ching-ling to Professor of English Margaret Hall Hazard survives in Wesleyan’s archives because Hazard just happened to have the letter in her purse at the time her Macon home burned!
Many Wesleyan alumnae have memories of their famous sisters. Wesleyan assistant dean and registrar Pat Hardeman ’68 is one of many to have traveled to the Shanghai home of Madame Sun (now maintained as a historic site). “I felt a thrill – a chill down my spine – to see the photographs of old Wesleyan there in Ching-ling’s Shanghai house,” said Hardeman.
The late Ann Maria Domingos ’39, a cousin of Margie Burks, had very special memories of the Soong sisters – including one she wore on occasion. May-ling gave Miss Margie two imperial jade rings, Domingos would explain as she pointed out the one she inherited from her cousin. Margie [pronounced with a hard g] was a particular friend of May-ling’s, and they corresponded and visited often after Margie went to teach Spanish at the University of Florida.
The college has hosted scores of visitors wishing to see the Soong memorabilia in the Willet Library’s Georgia Room. Wesleyan staff have also provided background information, documents, and photos for such projects as NHK (Japan Broadcasting Company)’s 1994 special The Soong Sisters: The Glamorous Family that Dominated China and a 1996 TV Ontario documentary.
Ai-ling visited Wesleyan in 1932, and May-ling came back in 1943 and 1965. In 1995, Wesleyan hosted a traveling exhibition of artifacts pertaining to the life of Soong Ching-ling, who died in 1981, having never revisited her alma mater.
On June 26, 1943, close to the end of a three-month diplomatic tour of the United States, May-ling visited Wesleyan after a long hiatus. The college presented the honorary Doctor of Laws to Madame Chiang and to her two absent sisters. On that exciting occasion, Linda Anderson Lane, Annie Gantt Anderson, and Alice Burden Domingos all assisted with arrangements; Octavia Burden Stewart handled the flowers. Actress Eugenia Rawls ’34 was among the alumnae present.
Madame Chiang had a rare opportunity to visit with her teachers Margie Burks, Lucy Lester, Newell Mason, and Margaret Hall Hazard. President Ainsworth was no longer living, but his widow had the honor of bestowing the doctoral hood on Madame Chiang. Not least among May-ling’s activities on the visit, according to the Wesleyan Alumnae Magazine of August 1943, was an impromptu trip to “the Pharm” on College Hill.
The sisters have directly or indirectly been responsible for the establishment of several scholarship funds at Wesleyan. The DuPont Guerry Scholarship, which is still awarded by Wesleyan today, was established by a gift from Ai-ling Soong herself. The May-ling Soong Chiang Scholarship, to be awarded to Chinese students, was established at Wesleyan in March 1944 by the Methodist Laymen of the South Georgia Conference. This fund has continued to the present, with scholarships being awarded to Chinese students from time to time. At the time of Madame Chiang’s 1943 visit, short-term scholarships were also given in honor of the other two sisters, but these funds do not survive to the present. And, in 1997, an anonymous $6 million gift to the college in honor and memory of the sisters is used largely for endowed scholarship support, building a stronger future for the college as well as an enduring memorial to the Soong family.
Wednesday 3 June 2009
80 Years Anniversary - Burial of Dr Sun Yat Sen
60th Year (1949 -2009)Celebration of the formation for the People's Republic of China. After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, Madam Soong held various high positions in the government, including Vice-Chairman of the Central People’s Government, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Vice-President of the People’s Republic of China and Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. She was conferred the title of Honorary President of the People’s Republic of China on May 16, 1981.
June 1 this year-2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Sun being buried in Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing. KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung will lead a delegation to visit Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing to pay respects.
1940年，中国政府通令全国，赞扬孙氏"倡导国民革命，手创中华民国，更新政体，永 奠邦基，谋世界之大同，求国际之平等"，尊称其为"中华民国国父"。孙文被中国国民党 尊为"永远的总理"；中国共产党则称他为"革命先行者"。在中国大陆也有人称他为"现 代中国之父"，而民间普遍称他为"中国国父"。
To remember Sun's historical achievements, KMT and the Taipei-based National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall jointly organize this special exhibition, with a total of 160 photos and 60 documents put on display. Many important historical documents are exhibited for the first time.
"Icon of an Era: the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum 1929.6.1" introduces the organisation of Dr Sun's funeral including the construction of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the removal of Dr Sun's coffin from Beijing to Nanjing. The exhibition also explores the implicit messages conveyed by the Mausoleum and the funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen.
When Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou recalled Dr. Sun Yat-sen's profound relations with Taiwan when attending the special exhibition in remembrance of Sun organized by the Kuomintang (KMT) on May 21, he sobbed a couple of times and even became too emotional to speak. Aside from sentimentality, Ma showed his humorous side, saying the US President Barack Obama is Sun's "underclassman" at school, Ma said the high school Sun had studied in Honolulu is the exact same one Obama went to (Punahou School). "They were classmates in different years." As soon as Ma finished, a round of laughter burst out among the audience.
Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum - For more of the funniest videos, click here
Dr Sun Yatsen Museum Kom Tong Hall, Hong Kong
Built in 1914, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is located in the Kom Tong Hall, originally the residence of Ho Kom-tong, the younger brother of the Hong Kong's magnate Robert Hotung. Being a typical Edwardian Classical building, this four-storey building has the facade surrounded by the Greek-style granite columns. Inside the premises are preserved the stained-glass windows, balcony wall tiles and staircase railings in good condition. The Kom Tong Hall is among the best-preserved buildings dating back to the early 20th century Hong Kong.
Apart from its majestic appearance, Kom Tong Hall was among the earliest residential buildings constructed with reinforced concrete structure and fitted with concealed electrical wiring in Hong Kong. It sets an important milestone in the development of building construction.
清菊雅石 2009 Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
[展覽] 清菊雅石—宋慶齡文物珍品展 (3月20日- 7月15日)
宋慶齡(1893-1981)為孫中山夫人，亦是中華人民共和國名譽主席。她傳奇的一生，與中國近百年歷史緊密相連。為増進香港市民對這位二十世紀傑出女性的瞭解，康樂及文化事務署與中國宋慶齡基金會合作舉辦是次展覽，通過70多件文物及相關的歷史圖片，勾勒出孫中山與宋慶齡風雨同舟的深厚感情，展現了宋慶齡的愛國情懷及其生活點滴。
展品包括宋慶齡母親所送的結婚禮物，孫中山簽署遺囑所用的筆，宋慶齡在抗戰時期常穿的旗袍和她所穿的最後一件睡衣，當中不少展品為宋慶齡生前的私人珍品，更是首次外借展覽，難得一見。
A selection of valuable artefacts and photographs, which not only demonstrate the celebrated love between Madam Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) and Dr Sun Yat-sen and her love for China, but also provide a glimpse of the intimate details of her life, will be on display at the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum from tomorrow (March 20) until July 15 2009.
A Sketch of Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) was Dr Sun Yat-sen’s wife and the Honorary Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Her legendary life was inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past one hundred years. To enhance Hong Kong citizens’ understanding of this remarkable lady of the 20th century, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation jointly present this exhibition, which features over 70 pieces of artefacts and photographs. These valuable exhibits, including a wedding gift from Soong Ching Ling’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will, a qipao Soong often wore during the Sino-Japanese War and the last pyjamas she ever wore, demonstrate the celebrated love between Soong Ching Ling and Dr Sun as well as Soong’s love for China. They also tell heart-warming stories about her life. Many of the items on display have come from Soong Ching Ling’s personal collection, and are on loan to outsider institute for the first time. This exhibition is thus a rare opportunity for us to look into the intimate details of Soong’s life.
孫中山紀念館的館址「甘棠第」於1914年建成，原為香港殷商何東胞弟何甘棠的住宅，樓高四層。整座大樓的建築屬英皇愛德華時期的古典風格，弧形陽台有希臘式巨柱承托。內部裝修瑰麗堂皇，色彩斑斕的玻璃窗、陽台牆身的瓷磚，以及柚木樓梯的欄杆至今依然保存 良好，是香港現存有數的二十世紀初建築物。
甘棠第不單在外觀上美輪美奐，亦是香港其中一座最早以鋼筋構建，並有供電線路舖設的私 人住宅，堪稱香港建築史上的里程碑。
The 70 exhibits on display are on loan from the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and shown in Hong Kong for the first time. They include the wedding gift from Madam Soong’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will and Dr Sun’s family testaments, the wedding gift given by Dr Sun to Madam Soong, the clothes worn by Madam Soong during her exile and during the Sino-Japanese War as well as the last pyjamas that she wore. These artefacts will be displayed along with a number of historical pictures.
Officiating at the exhibition’s opening ceremony today (March 19) were the Former Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China and the Special Adviser to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, Ms He Luli; the Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Wang Zhimin; the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing; the Vice Director of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation Research Centre, Mr He Dazhang; the Deputy Director of the Department of International Relations of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, Ms Chen Aimin; and the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Thomas Chow.
A Sketch of Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) was Dr Sun Yat-sen’s wife and the Honorary Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Her legendary life was inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past one hundred years. To enhance Hong Kong citizens’ understanding of this remarkable lady of the 20th century, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation jointly present this exhibition, which features over 70 pieces of artefacts and photographs. These valuable exhibits, including a wedding gift from Soong Ching Ling’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will, a qipao Soong often wore during the Sino-Japanese War and the last pyjamas she ever wore, demonstrate the celebrated love between Soong Ching Ling and Dr Sun as well as Soong’s love for China. They also tell heart-warming stories about her life. Many of the items on display have come from Soong Ching Ling’s personal collection, and are on loan to outsider institute for the first time. This exhibition is thus a rare opportunity for us to look into the intimate details of Soong’s life.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Tsang Tak-sing noted since she married Dr Sun Yat-sen in 1915, Madam Soong had been inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past 100 years. After Dr Sun’s death, Madam Soong followed in his footsteps and faithfully devoted herself to promoting peace, independence and self-determination for China.
Historical Background
On 10 October 1911, a military uprising at Wuchang in which Sun had no direct involvement (at that moment Sun was still in exile and Huang Xing was in charge of the revolution), began a process that ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. When he learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor from press reports, Sun immediately returned to China from the United States. Later, on 29 December 1911 a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanking elected Sun as the provisional President of the Republic of China and set 1 January 1912 as the first day of the First Year of the Republic. This republic calendar system is still used in Taiwan today.
The official history of the Kuomintang (and for that matter, the Communist Party of China) emphasizes Sun's role as the first provisional President, but many historians now question the importance of Sun's role in the 1911 revolution and point out that he had no direct role in the Wuchang uprising and was in fact out of the country at the time. In this interpretation, his naming as the first provisional President was precisely because he was a respected but rather unimportant figure and therefore served as an ideal compromise candidate between the revolutionaries and the conservative gentry.
However, Sun is credited for the funding of the revolutions and for keeping the spirit of revolution alive, even after a series of failed uprisings. Also, as mentioned, he successfully merged minor revolutionary groups to a single larger party, providing a better base for all those who shared the same ideals.
Sun is highly regarded as the National Father of modern China. His political philosophy, known as the Three Principles of People, was proclaimed in August 1905. In his Methods and Strategies of Establishing the Country completed in 1919, he suggested using his Principles to establish ultimate peace, freedom, and equality in the country. He devoted all efforts throughout his whole lifetime until his death for a strong and prosperous China and the well being of its people.
June 1 this year-2009 marks the 80th anniversary of Sun being buried in Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing. KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung will lead a delegation to visit Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing to pay respects.
1940年，中国政府通令全国，赞扬孙氏"倡导国民革命，手创中华民国，更新政体，永 奠邦基，谋世界之大同，求国际之平等"，尊称其为"中华民国国父"。孙文被中国国民党 尊为"永远的总理"；中国共产党则称他为"革命先行者"。在中国大陆也有人称他为"现 代中国之父"，而民间普遍称他为"中国国父"。
To remember Sun's historical achievements, KMT and the Taipei-based National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall jointly organize this special exhibition, with a total of 160 photos and 60 documents put on display. Many important historical documents are exhibited for the first time.
"Icon of an Era: the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum 1929.6.1" introduces the organisation of Dr Sun's funeral including the construction of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the removal of Dr Sun's coffin from Beijing to Nanjing. The exhibition also explores the implicit messages conveyed by the Mausoleum and the funeral of Dr Sun Yat-sen.
When Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou recalled Dr. Sun Yat-sen's profound relations with Taiwan when attending the special exhibition in remembrance of Sun organized by the Kuomintang (KMT) on May 21, he sobbed a couple of times and even became too emotional to speak. Aside from sentimentality, Ma showed his humorous side, saying the US President Barack Obama is Sun's "underclassman" at school, Ma said the high school Sun had studied in Honolulu is the exact same one Obama went to (Punahou School). "They were classmates in different years." As soon as Ma finished, a round of laughter burst out among the audience.
Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum - For more of the funniest videos, click here
Dr Sun Yatsen Museum Kom Tong Hall, Hong Kong
Built in 1914, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is located in the Kom Tong Hall, originally the residence of Ho Kom-tong, the younger brother of the Hong Kong's magnate Robert Hotung. Being a typical Edwardian Classical building, this four-storey building has the facade surrounded by the Greek-style granite columns. Inside the premises are preserved the stained-glass windows, balcony wall tiles and staircase railings in good condition. The Kom Tong Hall is among the best-preserved buildings dating back to the early 20th century Hong Kong.
Apart from its majestic appearance, Kom Tong Hall was among the earliest residential buildings constructed with reinforced concrete structure and fitted with concealed electrical wiring in Hong Kong. It sets an important milestone in the development of building construction.
清菊雅石 2009 Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
[展覽] 清菊雅石—宋慶齡文物珍品展 (3月20日- 7月15日)
宋慶齡(1893-1981)為孫中山夫人，亦是中華人民共和國名譽主席。她傳奇的一生，與中國近百年歷史緊密相連。為増進香港市民對這位二十世紀傑出女性的瞭解，康樂及文化事務署與中國宋慶齡基金會合作舉辦是次展覽，通過70多件文物及相關的歷史圖片，勾勒出孫中山與宋慶齡風雨同舟的深厚感情，展現了宋慶齡的愛國情懷及其生活點滴。
展品包括宋慶齡母親所送的結婚禮物，孫中山簽署遺囑所用的筆，宋慶齡在抗戰時期常穿的旗袍和她所穿的最後一件睡衣，當中不少展品為宋慶齡生前的私人珍品，更是首次外借展覽，難得一見。
A selection of valuable artefacts and photographs, which not only demonstrate the celebrated love between Madam Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) and Dr Sun Yat-sen and her love for China, but also provide a glimpse of the intimate details of her life, will be on display at the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum from tomorrow (March 20) until July 15 2009.
A Sketch of Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) was Dr Sun Yat-sen’s wife and the Honorary Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Her legendary life was inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past one hundred years. To enhance Hong Kong citizens’ understanding of this remarkable lady of the 20th century, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation jointly present this exhibition, which features over 70 pieces of artefacts and photographs. These valuable exhibits, including a wedding gift from Soong Ching Ling’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will, a qipao Soong often wore during the Sino-Japanese War and the last pyjamas she ever wore, demonstrate the celebrated love between Soong Ching Ling and Dr Sun as well as Soong’s love for China. They also tell heart-warming stories about her life. Many of the items on display have come from Soong Ching Ling’s personal collection, and are on loan to outsider institute for the first time. This exhibition is thus a rare opportunity for us to look into the intimate details of Soong’s life.
孫中山紀念館的館址「甘棠第」於1914年建成，原為香港殷商何東胞弟何甘棠的住宅，樓高四層。整座大樓的建築屬英皇愛德華時期的古典風格，弧形陽台有希臘式巨柱承托。內部裝修瑰麗堂皇，色彩斑斕的玻璃窗、陽台牆身的瓷磚，以及柚木樓梯的欄杆至今依然保存 良好，是香港現存有數的二十世紀初建築物。
甘棠第不單在外觀上美輪美奐，亦是香港其中一座最早以鋼筋構建，並有供電線路舖設的私 人住宅，堪稱香港建築史上的里程碑。
The 70 exhibits on display are on loan from the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and shown in Hong Kong for the first time. They include the wedding gift from Madam Soong’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will and Dr Sun’s family testaments, the wedding gift given by Dr Sun to Madam Soong, the clothes worn by Madam Soong during her exile and during the Sino-Japanese War as well as the last pyjamas that she wore. These artefacts will be displayed along with a number of historical pictures.
Officiating at the exhibition’s opening ceremony today (March 19) were the Former Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China and the Special Adviser to the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, Ms He Luli; the Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mr Wang Zhimin; the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing; the Vice Director of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation Research Centre, Mr He Dazhang; the Deputy Director of the Department of International Relations of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, Ms Chen Aimin; and the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Thomas Chow.
A Sketch of Soong Ching Ling and Her Artefacts
Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) was Dr Sun Yat-sen’s wife and the Honorary Chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Her legendary life was inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past one hundred years. To enhance Hong Kong citizens’ understanding of this remarkable lady of the 20th century, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and China Soong Ching Ling Foundation jointly present this exhibition, which features over 70 pieces of artefacts and photographs. These valuable exhibits, including a wedding gift from Soong Ching Ling’s mother, the pen Dr Sun used to sign his will, a qipao Soong often wore during the Sino-Japanese War and the last pyjamas she ever wore, demonstrate the celebrated love between Soong Ching Ling and Dr Sun as well as Soong’s love for China. They also tell heart-warming stories about her life. Many of the items on display have come from Soong Ching Ling’s personal collection, and are on loan to outsider institute for the first time. This exhibition is thus a rare opportunity for us to look into the intimate details of Soong’s life.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Tsang Tak-sing noted since she married Dr Sun Yat-sen in 1915, Madam Soong had been inextricably intertwined with China’s history in the past 100 years. After Dr Sun’s death, Madam Soong followed in his footsteps and faithfully devoted herself to promoting peace, independence and self-determination for China.
Historical Background
On 10 October 1911, a military uprising at Wuchang in which Sun had no direct involvement (at that moment Sun was still in exile and Huang Xing was in charge of the revolution), began a process that ended over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. When he learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor from press reports, Sun immediately returned to China from the United States. Later, on 29 December 1911 a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanking elected Sun as the provisional President of the Republic of China and set 1 January 1912 as the first day of the First Year of the Republic. This republic calendar system is still used in Taiwan today.
The official history of the Kuomintang (and for that matter, the Communist Party of China) emphasizes Sun's role as the first provisional President, but many historians now question the importance of Sun's role in the 1911 revolution and point out that he had no direct role in the Wuchang uprising and was in fact out of the country at the time. In this interpretation, his naming as the first provisional President was precisely because he was a respected but rather unimportant figure and therefore served as an ideal compromise candidate between the revolutionaries and the conservative gentry.
However, Sun is credited for the funding of the revolutions and for keeping the spirit of revolution alive, even after a series of failed uprisings. Also, as mentioned, he successfully merged minor revolutionary groups to a single larger party, providing a better base for all those who shared the same ideals.
Sun is highly regarded as the National Father of modern China. His political philosophy, known as the Three Principles of People, was proclaimed in August 1905. In his Methods and Strategies of Establishing the Country completed in 1919, he suggested using his Principles to establish ultimate peace, freedom, and equality in the country. He devoted all efforts throughout his whole lifetime until his death for a strong and prosperous China and the well being of its people.
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