East China Normal University’s first campus, the one I am studying at, is located on Zhongshan North Road (中山北路) in Shanghai. One subway stop away from ECNU is Zhongshan Park (中山公园) located unsurprisingly in Shanghai along Zhongshan North Road. Literally Zhongshan translates into English as middle mountain road, but Shanghai doesn’t have any mountains. To add to the confusion, other cities who both on the mainland and on Taiwan also have streets and parks named Zhongshan, even cities without any mountains at all. So what is Zhongshan and why do half the cities in the country feel the need to have something named after it. Zhongshan isn’t an it, he was a man who is more famous in English as Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (a man who I have written a bit about previously). While Sun Yat-Sen (孙逸仙) has become the most popular transcription of his name in English, in Chinese he is better known as Sun Zhongshan (孙中山). Sun is an interesting character in Chinese history partly because of his continued importance on both Mainland China and on Taiwan. Sun and his Kunmintang Party were the people who overthrow the last Emperor of China, Puyi, and put Dr. Sun in charge as the first President of the Republic of China. Unfortunately for the new President Sun, China was in the middle of decades of political upheaval. Sun spent much of his life in exile, fighting to take back control of China from various warlords, or trying to fix the mess that was the China in his day. Despite this, history views Sun quite positively; he has the almost unique distinction of having a good reputation in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Hong Kong SAR, and the Macau SAR. Both the People’s Republic and Republic of China see Sun as a founding figure. The Republican government established by Sun still controls the Island of Taiwan and, up until the last Presidential elections there, his Kunmintang Party still controlled the government. On Mainland China Sun is seen as the “Forerunner of the Revolution” that paved the way for the Socialist Revolution of Mao and eventual perfect Communism. The result of this split reputation is that Zhongshan Parks can be found from Beijing to Taipei and Zhongshan Roads can be found from Shanghai to Macau. It is unlikely, dispute the best efforts of Beijing, that we will see the reunification of China soon, it is even less likely that we will see the complicated mess of Chinese entities adopt a common world view. Therefor it is likely that Sun Yat-Sen will keep his somewhat confusing reputation as a founder of two governments who don’t recognize each other, have different legal systems, and who claim each other’s territory.
1 Comment
Dad
3/10/2017 10:00:56 pm
Maybe one of Mr. Zhongshan's grandchildren would have enough aura to re-unify the two "China's."
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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