This is Dr. Sun Wen's memorial. There is a huge statue of Dr. Sun right inside the building. I did take a picture, but it was too dark. Judging from the shape and size, I would say that the artist had Lincoln memorial in mind when he designed the statue. Modern China produced four national leaders (plus hundreds of petty war-lords). They are, in chronological order, Dr. Sun, Chang Kai-shek, Mao Tzer-tong and Deng Xiao-ping. Of the four, Chang had everything after WWII and lost it all within 4 years and had to escape to Taiwan in 1949, so by all definition, he was a big loser (note if I had said this 10 years ago here in Taiwan, I would go to jail). Mao was a true zonk. He had absolute control over China from 1949 to 1976 and turned it into an Orwellian society with one political purge after another that ended with a disastrous cultural revolution. Deng Xiao-ping was a devout communist for most of his life. Then at the age of 70, he saw the failure of communism and began a reform. As Lee Kuan-yew, the senior minister of Singapore, once said that it takes a great and original mind to make such a conceptual leap and great courage to carry out the reform, let alone at the age of 70. The jury is still out on China, but no one can fail to see the tremendous difference between 1980 (when I left China) and now.

But this is the story of Dr. Sun who lead a revolution that toppled the imperial system in China and founded a republic in its place for the first time in Chinese history. He was a Washington figure except he had a few thousand years of historical and cultural baggage to overcome.

Between 1885 and 1911, he lead one failed revolt after another, often barely escaped with his live. One has to admire his tenacity and doggedness. His devotion to the cause was positively Wagnerian. The imperial dynasty finally ended in 1911. At that time, China was divided into two political groups. The northern group, led by a general Yuan, consisted of the remnants of the imperial dynasty and southern part by the newly founded Republic of China with Dr. Sun as its first president. To avoid bloodshed and to establish a precedent, Dr. Sun did a Washington and relinquished power to Yuan under the condition that Yuan would swear to protect the constitution of the Republic of China. Once established power, Yuan suspended the constitution and declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty.

Dr. Sun went back to his failed revolution routines again (as you can see this guy never quit). The new dynasty proved to be short lived. After Yuan, the political scene in China became chaotic with many semi-autonomous regions ruled by major and minor war-lords fighting each other. By that time, Dr. Sun was of such prestige that everyone acknowledged him as the president of China although none paid any attention to what he had to say and wanted for China. For a while, Sun turned to the various war-lords, appealing to their sense of patriotism and decency, with the aim of uniting the country and ending the pointless and destructive mini-civil wars that were going on at dozens of places at any given time.

Eventually all the war-lords he relied upon turned against him. After nearly 40 years of failure, Sun reluctantly came to the conclusion that republic institutions and democracy did not work with the kind of historical baggage China had at that moment. So he decided that the revolution needed to go through three stages. First he would establish a military government with himself as the head (a kind of "enlightened despot" a la Friederich the great) to unite the country by force. After that, the government would become a semi-paternalistic institution whose task would be to educate the population on democracy and its institutions. Finally, at the last stage, there would be a genuine constitution government with general elections. Regardless of how practical this plan was, nobody had any better ideas (There were plenty of bad ideas, the commies' for example. In some sense, they still don't have the right one even today). The important thing was that he immediately set out to accomplish it with the same doggedness and tenacity. By then, he was already in his 50's. For a military government, he needed a modern army. So he went to the province of Canton (where he was born) in the deep south, away from the major power centers to found the now famous Huang-pu military academy and appointed Chang Kai-shek as the first commandant (so here comes the big loser Chang. Chang did have his moments though. At one point he led his poorly armed cadets against an army 10 times its size and completely destroyed it). Sun died of cancer in 1925 at the age of 59 before he could form his army.

Shortly after Sun died, Chang started the long planned military campaign (the famous northern expedition) to unite China. The expedition was followed by the war against the communists and the Japanese invasion, so between 1927 and 1945, the main concern of China and her government was war and Chang emerged as the supreme leader. 

The memorial was surrounded with parks and this is one of them. There are three statues of Dr. Sun here and you can see two of them in the picture. 

Behind the center statue are traditional engravings that commemorate the many followers of Sun. The front view of these engravings is in the previous photo. Each contains a short biography and a poem dedicated to these individuals. About half of them died in battles or were executed after being captured, including a woman. I once saw a picture of her holding a small dagger. She was beautiful, graceful, delicate and fragile, not at all the fierce type one associates with revolutionary leaders. After the birth of the Republic, Dr. Sun himself lead a delegate to pay tribute to her on her burial ground. 

Another view of the engravings, this time from the left. 

Ain't he cute? My friend Bob Hoffman once told me that in the old days, people didn't realize that proportionally, kids have much larger heads (hence the cute factor) than adults, so the kids in old renaissance paintings all look like little adults. This one is obviously modern. It is also in the park surrounding the memorial. 

Another cute statue. Notice both are statues with kids reading, instead of playing baseball or soccer. Many statues in public parks are about kids learning from adults or from books. Here is one with both. 

Yet another cute one with an adult teaching a bunch of kids. 

Finally a not so cute one. This guy was also a follower of Dr. Sun, probably one of the biggies, so he has his own in the park. 

This is right at the memorial. You may wonder why I am taking this ordinary picture. This is because it is quintessential Chinese. One of my fond childhood memory is going to city parks and watching people play Chinese chess on park benches. This together with tai-chi (a kind of breathing exercise) is the most common scene in any Chinese park.

In the center of Taipei, there is a small Japanese garden. Dr. Sun spent much time in Japan and this garden has a traditional Japanese house with the furniture he used while in Japan. You need to take off your shoes to get in and photographs are not allowed. This gazebo like structure is at a corner of the garden.

According to Eug,

1. Dr. Sun was
The great founding father
The big loser
The true zonk
The great reformer

2. Chang Kai-shek was
The great founding father
The big loser
The true zonk
The great reformer

3. Mao Tzer-tong was
The great founding father
The big loser
The true zonk
The great reformer

4. Deng Xiao-ping was
The great founding father
The big loser
The true zonk
The great reformer

A correct answer to which of the above questions will land you in jail?
#1
#2
#3
#4