Zhongshan, Guangdong |中山广东
Day 10 | 第十天
After our visit to the Wuyi Overseas Chinese Museum we stopped for lunch in Zhongshan, Guangdong | 中山广东. There was a stand set up outside of the restaurant that sold local snacks. I ended up buying several boxes of Zhongshan almond cookies, even though I didn’t know what the cookies tasted like, mainly because the vendors told me that Zhongshan was known for these cookies. After snacking on the cookies, I understood why Zhongshan is known for them.
Someone in our group mentioned that being at the stand felt just like shopping in chinatown—except we were the chinatown since our group was the only one crowded around the stand.
With close to fifty people, our group purchased almost all the cookies.
Former Residence of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Cuiheng | 孙中山故居 翠亨村
We then drove to Cuiheng | 翠亨村, a village in the town of Nanlang, Zhongshan, Guangdong on the west bank of the Pearl River, where we visited the childhood home of Sun Yat-sen | 孫中山. Zhongshan is one of the few cities in China named after a person: Sun Yat-sen is known as Sun Zhongshan in Mandarin.
Sun Yat-sen (11/12/1866- 3/12/1925) was a Chinese revolutionary, doctor, and political leader, and was frequently referred to as the founder of modern China. Dr. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China, in October 1911. He served as the first provisional president when the Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1912.
Images of Dr. Sun Yat-sen were the first representation of a renowned person of Chinese descent I remember seeing as a young child. I didn’t know who he was at the time but could tell he was important. Every time I entered the building where I attended Chinese language school as a four year old, I had to walk by a larger-than-life portrait and sculptural bust of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He seemed almost mythological.
Later, I would learn of Dr. Sun’s connection to NYC when he had an office on Mott street where he fundraised for China’s independence. While Dr. Sun was developing his revolutionary plan, he frequently visited New York’s Chinatown and gained the support of overseas Chinese Americans in the years leading up to the end of dynastic rule in China. He delivered a pivotal speech in New York City to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) in March 1911 that galvanized a strong network of Chinese Americans who supported his revolutionary ideals. I didn’t think much of Dr. Sun’s connection to NYC until I started teaching about Chinese American /chinatown history; learning about his presence in NYC made me think deeply about the role that chinatowns have played within geopolitics.
The museum featured exhibits about Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s childhood in Cuiheng as well as his career and family. His former residence is a two-story building made with a combination of eastern and western elements, seemingly representing the confluence of his experiences within the architecture itself. ■
A lion dance performance commemorating the 153rd anniversary of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s birth (11/12/1866).