#204 Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen): A Nation of Citizens?​

Check for understanding.

Opening question:

• If you had lived in China in the first decade of the twentieth century, would you have supported gradual reform efforts under the Qing or a republican revolution to overthrow the dynasty? Why? (Note: try to stick with what someone at the time would know—you can’t see into the future!)

Discussion questions:

• After more than two thousand years under some version of the imperial system, Sun Zhongshan re-imagined China as a republic. What is a republic? How do you recognize one when you see it? What are its distinguishing features—what, in other words binds together the American republic, France, and the People’s Republic of China as a common form of government?
• What are the “radical” and “conservative” elements of Sun Zhongshan’s thought?
• Three People's Principles (Sanmin zhuyi 三民主义):
  • Nationalism (minzhu zuyi 民主主义). What is the “ethnicity” or the “race” that Sun might have had in mind?
  • People’s rights (minquan zhuyi 民权主义). Sun said the “aims of the Chinese Revolution are different . . . methods we must use must also be different.” If he did not have in mind “the kind of natural or God-given rights that Enlightenment thinkers viewed as the birthright of all human beings,” then what did he have in mind?
  • People’s livelihood (minsheng zhuyi 民生主义). Sun’s socio-economic vision for China. How does this compare to “socialism”? Where would he be on the left-right political spectrum in the nation grew up in?

• Why might Sun be one of the few major political figures in modern China celebrated in both the Mainland and on Taiwan?

Wrap up activity:

By the 1890s Sun had worked to organize a series of revolutionary associations—eventually culminating in the Guomindang as a formal political party in the aftermath of the Xinhai Revolution. Naturally, he did not have access to social media during this time. If he did, describe an image-driven meme or tweet (140 character limit) that he might have used to promote one or more of his ideas.