‘A Hawaiian son’: Honolulu honours Sun Yat-sen as his landmarks vanish
Eddie Flores pressed the button at a pedestrian crossing on King Street, then pointed across the road. In the spring of 1910, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen lodged over there, on the second floor of a shop owned by a friend and fellow party member. “It’s no longer there,” said Flores, chairman of the restaurant chain L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. “But we can more or less point out where the building…
Honolulu has begun honoring revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen as many of his landmarks in the city have been demolished or altered over time. Eddie Flores, chairman of L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, pointed out where a shop owned by a friend and fellow party member once stood, where Sun lodged in 1910. Other significant sites, such as the church where he worshipped and the theatre where he called for the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, no longer exist.
Instead, they have been replaced with a market and a car park. On November 24, 1894, Sun and about 20 men met secretly in two houses on Emma Lane to form the Hsing Chung Hui, or Revive China Society. They pledged to overthrow the Qing dynasty, with Sun serving as their leader. His birth certificate, which proved he was born in Hawaii, enabled him to travel to the United States in 1904 under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Although the Act was repealed in 1943, Hawaii's support for Sun was not always uniform. Historians note that the community initially supported him wholeheartedly but that his cause nearly collapsed in 1900 when a rival reformer, Liang Qichao, arrived in town. Today, Honolulu is marking the 160th anniversary of Sun's birth with a series of events, including walking tours, a lei-draping at a statue of Sun as a 13-year-old, and a banquet hosted by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
