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© Provided by National Post A 1910 photo of Sun Yat-sen taken by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Soon after this photo was taken, Sun would embark on a secret fundraising trip through the Chinatowns of Western Canada.
While you were busy memorizing interminable details about Responsible Government or Laura Secord, you missed out on some of the best parts of our national story. Hopefully we can rectify things somewhat in our occasional series, The Secret History of Canada, documenting the little-known (and often R-rated) parts you missed. Today, the time an influential Chinese revolutionary travelled in secret through Canada’s early 20th Century Chinatowns.
To the non-Chinese British Columbians who spotted him in their midst, he would have seemed like just another Chinese person; no different than the millions of others the federal government of the era was actively trying to keep out.
He dressed well, spoke English perfectly and — particularly rare for a Chinese national of the era — was a Christian. He was also a wanted man who faced immediate arrest and deportation if any official ever figured out that he wasn’t the Japanese or American he claimed to be.
But the non-Chinese coal miners and fishermen of early 20th Century Canada never did place the mysterious figure, and would never know they had rubbed elbows with a revolutionary who would shape the course of future events like few others.
While you were busy memorizing interminable details about Responsible Government or Laura Secord, you missed out on some of the best parts of our national story. Hopefully we can rectify things somewhat in our occasional series, The Secret History of Canada, documenting the little-known (and often R-rated) parts you missed. Today, the time an influential Chinese revolutionary travelled in secret through Canada’s early 20th Century Chinatowns.
To the non-Chinese British Columbians who spotted him in their midst, he would have seemed like just another Chinese person; no different than the millions of others the federal government of the era was actively trying to keep out.
He dressed well, spoke English perfectly and — particularly rare for a Chinese national of the era — was a Christian. He was also a wanted man who faced immediate arrest and deportation if any official ever figured out that he wasn’t the Japanese or American he claimed to be.
But the non-Chinese coal miners and fishermen of early 20th Century Canada never did place the mysterious figure, and would never know they had rubbed elbows with a revolutionary who would shape the course of future events like few others.
Sun Yat-sen in 1924, just before his death.
Sun Yat-sen took a weak, divided and economically stagnated China and set it on the course to becoming the economic juggernaut it is today. And he did it in part with clandestine Canadian support.
Born in 1866 to a poor rural family in Guangdong province, Sun was educated by British missionaries in Hawaii, which was then an independent kingdom. Upon his return to China, Sun initially set out to train as a physician, but soon came to believe that his semi-colonized homeland needed to embrace Western thought and technology to end decades of military and economic defeats.
China at the time was ruled by the Qing Dynasty, which had been in power since the 17th Century. While the rest of the world was feverishly building railroads, China under the Qing saw them as an encumbrance that would harm agriculture and obstruct feng shui. Government corruption was rampant, and Qing bureaucracy never accounted for China’s growing population. Overwhelmed officials completely failed to respond to an 1876 famine that killed at least nine million people.
Sun Yat-sen took a weak, divided and economically stagnated China and set it on the course to becoming the economic juggernaut it is today. And he did it in part with clandestine Canadian support.
Born in 1866 to a poor rural family in Guangdong province, Sun was educated by British missionaries in Hawaii, which was then an independent kingdom. Upon his return to China, Sun initially set out to train as a physician, but soon came to believe that his semi-colonized homeland needed to embrace Western thought and technology to end decades of military and economic defeats.
China at the time was ruled by the Qing Dynasty, which had been in power since the 17th Century. While the rest of the world was feverishly building railroads, China under the Qing saw them as an encumbrance that would harm agriculture and obstruct feng shui. Government corruption was rampant, and Qing bureaucracy never accounted for China’s growing population. Overwhelmed officials completely failed to respond to an 1876 famine that killed at least nine million people.
Part of the ruined Old Summer Palace in Beijing, China, circa 1860. The Palace, formerly the residence of emperors of the Qing Dynasty, was destroyed by British and French forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. The conflict was one of several that became emblematic of the weakness of China’s Qing rulers.
In 1894, Sun wrote a lengthy letter to his provincial governor suggesting ways China could modernize. When it was callously dismissed, Sun returned to Hawaii and founded the Revive China Society, an underground revolutionary society that drew from the disaffected lower class.
In 1895, China was decisively defeated by Japan in the first Sino-Japanese War. After inflicting Chinese casualties that were up to 30 times higher than their own, Japan won control of Taiwan, the Korean peninsula and parts of eastern China — all of which it would control until the end of the Second World War.
The humiliation convinced Sun that reform of the existing dynasty was impossible. With the help of revolutionary contacts in Hong Kong, Sun launched an uprising in Guangzhou, just up the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong.
His plan to seize the city was leaked, leading to the arrest of dozens of Society members and the execution of Lu Haodong, best known as the designer of the blue sky and white sun emblem which still adorns the Taiwan flag. The uprising was a spectacular failure that forced Sun into exile, pursued by the vengeful agents of the Qing Empress.
In 1894, Sun wrote a lengthy letter to his provincial governor suggesting ways China could modernize. When it was callously dismissed, Sun returned to Hawaii and founded the Revive China Society, an underground revolutionary society that drew from the disaffected lower class.
In 1895, China was decisively defeated by Japan in the first Sino-Japanese War. After inflicting Chinese casualties that were up to 30 times higher than their own, Japan won control of Taiwan, the Korean peninsula and parts of eastern China — all of which it would control until the end of the Second World War.
The humiliation convinced Sun that reform of the existing dynasty was impossible. With the help of revolutionary contacts in Hong Kong, Sun launched an uprising in Guangzhou, just up the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong.
His plan to seize the city was leaked, leading to the arrest of dozens of Society members and the execution of Lu Haodong, best known as the designer of the blue sky and white sun emblem which still adorns the Taiwan flag. The uprising was a spectacular failure that forced Sun into exile, pursued by the vengeful agents of the Qing Empress.
SSun Yat-sen, centre, with members of the Tong Meng Hui Nationalist Movement in Vancouver, February, 1911.
An 1896 stop in London saw Sun detained by Qing secret service , where deportation and execution seemed certain until a British media campaign and friends in the U.K. government stepped in. The Foreign Office successfully pressured the Qing embassy to release Sun, and the incident left him a sudden celebrity.
An 1896 stop in London saw Sun detained by Qing secret service , where deportation and execution seemed certain until a British media campaign and friends in the U.K. government stepped in. The Foreign Office successfully pressured the Qing embassy to release Sun, and the incident left him a sudden celebrity.
Sun’s first trip to Canada , in 1897, was a layover between Europe and Japan. Trailed by Qing agents from Montreal to Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Victoria, he could do little more than take in the sights. But when he returned in 1911, he would be in the Chinatowns of the West Coast preaching revolution.
The 1899 Boxer Rebellion saw disaffected Chinese peasants push the Qing into a failed attempt to oust Western influence and missionaries. Its failure at the hands of a multi-nation alliance had further destabilized China.
In the meantime, Sun had orchestrated multiple uprisings, including an attempt to seize a military fort on the Vietnam border and a rebellion in the city of Huizhou, where the revolutionaries defeated the Qing in several skirmishes before being put down.
An Edmonton militia of Sun supporters. It was founded in 1915, and more than 500 people applied for membership. Edmontonians Ma Ziang and Huang Huilong, who would later travel to China to serve as Sun’s bodyguards, were members.
His world travels had made him an experienced speaker and fundraiser with legions of fans and powerful enemies. He’d also become wanted by the same country that saved him from the chopping block in 1896.
Sun’s rabble-rousing was clashing with Britain’s business interests in China, and the U.K. now warmed to the idea of deporting him to the Qing. If Canadian authorities identified him, he would be arrested on the spot and deported to meet his likely demise.
In 1911, Sun entered Vancouver with false papers, and he sometimes pretended he was Japanese. But the Chinese-Canadians he spoke to knew exactly who he was.
In Victoria alone Sun raised $12,000 dollars for the revolution, which is about $289,000 today. Sun didn’t just promise to oust the Qing and establish a republic in China; he told eager crowds of more than 1,000 people that, when he was in charge, China would negotiate better treatment for Canada’s Chinese population.
His world travels had made him an experienced speaker and fundraiser with legions of fans and powerful enemies. He’d also become wanted by the same country that saved him from the chopping block in 1896.
Sun’s rabble-rousing was clashing with Britain’s business interests in China, and the U.K. now warmed to the idea of deporting him to the Qing. If Canadian authorities identified him, he would be arrested on the spot and deported to meet his likely demise.
In 1911, Sun entered Vancouver with false papers, and he sometimes pretended he was Japanese. But the Chinese-Canadians he spoke to knew exactly who he was.
In Victoria alone Sun raised $12,000 dollars for the revolution, which is about $289,000 today. Sun didn’t just promise to oust the Qing and establish a republic in China; he told eager crowds of more than 1,000 people that, when he was in charge, China would negotiate better treatment for Canada’s Chinese population.
© Cumberland Museum and Archives A 1910 photo of the massive, self-contained Chinatown in the Vancouver Island mining town of Cumberland. Sun Yat-sen secretly spoke here during his 1911 tour.
At the time, Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Canada had to pay a punitive $500 head tax . They also couldn’t vote, and had been declared “obnoxious to a free community and dangerous to the state” by a 1902 government commission .
Begrudgingly tolerated only as a source of cheap labour, laws banned Asians from many professions, and land covenants barred them from living in most neighbourhoods. Just a few years prior to Sun’s arrival, two days of spontaneous anti-Asian rioting in Vancouver had seen Japanese and Chinese neighbourhoods terrorized by rampaging white mobs.
At the time, Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Canada had to pay a punitive $500 head tax . They also couldn’t vote, and had been declared “obnoxious to a free community and dangerous to the state” by a 1902 government commission .
Begrudgingly tolerated only as a source of cheap labour, laws banned Asians from many professions, and land covenants barred them from living in most neighbourhoods. Just a few years prior to Sun’s arrival, two days of spontaneous anti-Asian rioting in Vancouver had seen Japanese and Chinese neighbourhoods terrorized by rampaging white mobs.
© Library and Archives Canada Damage to an Asian-owned store in the aftermath of a 1907 riot in Vancouver orchestrated by the Asiatic Exclusion League.
Sun’s journey was a strict secret, and no mainstream press accounts from the time noted his tour through Canada. But everywhere Sun went, the Chinese-Canadian community flocked to him. Edmontonians travelled to Calgary, Lethbridge, and Winnipeg just to hear him talk, while businesses and community groups mortgaged their property for the cause .
Sun’s passionate speeches won over everyone from socialists to Ming Dynasty revivalists, and word spread to cities Sun couldn’t reach. Some Chinese invested in bonds that Sun promised his future republic would repay, while Qing representatives on their own barnstorming tours tried to undercut Sun’s message by selling investments and official titles.
His swing through the prairies in February 1911 rustled up another $35,000 (about $845,000 today). Considering that he was a wanted criminal pulling his support from a largely impoverished underclass, Sun was collecting truly incredible sums.
Sun’s journey was a strict secret, and no mainstream press accounts from the time noted his tour through Canada. But everywhere Sun went, the Chinese-Canadian community flocked to him. Edmontonians travelled to Calgary, Lethbridge, and Winnipeg just to hear him talk, while businesses and community groups mortgaged their property for the cause .
Sun’s passionate speeches won over everyone from socialists to Ming Dynasty revivalists, and word spread to cities Sun couldn’t reach. Some Chinese invested in bonds that Sun promised his future republic would repay, while Qing representatives on their own barnstorming tours tried to undercut Sun’s message by selling investments and official titles.
His swing through the prairies in February 1911 rustled up another $35,000 (about $845,000 today). Considering that he was a wanted criminal pulling his support from a largely impoverished underclass, Sun was collecting truly incredible sums.
© B.C. Archives Part of the ruined Old Summer Palace in Beijing, China, circa 1860. The Palace, formerly the residence of emperors of the Qing Dynasty, was destroyed by British and French forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. The conflict was one of several that became emblematic of the weakness of China’s Qing rulers.
Sun was away from China when he learned about the Wuchang Uprising. Disgruntled soldiers influenced by Sun’s work were upset at a Qing plan to hand Chinese railroads over to foreign banks. They rebelled, and soon controlled all of Wuchang, which is today part of Wuhan. Inspired by their success, uprisings began breaking out across the country.
Sun was away from China when he learned about the Wuchang Uprising. Disgruntled soldiers influenced by Sun’s work were upset at a Qing plan to hand Chinese railroads over to foreign banks. They rebelled, and soon controlled all of Wuchang, which is today part of Wuhan. Inspired by their success, uprisings began breaking out across the country.
Flush with Canadian cash, Sun rushed home with dreams of creating a democratic republic from the chaos. After the military forced the resignation of the last Qing Emperor, Sun was briefly named provisional president of a government in Nanking, but was ousted by the powerful authoritarian Yuan Shikai in March 1912.
Sun was sent into exile once again as Canada and other Western governments recognized Yuan as the leader of the new Republic of China.
Sun returned to China in 1917 and attempted to halt its slide into fractured fiefdoms as former Qing generals transformed themselves into warlords. His humble Revive China Society had evolved into the powerful Kuomintang party, but Sun concluded that only a complete military conquest could allow a unified China to begin transitioning towards democracy. To that end, in the last months of his life Sun was extending an olive branch to the nascent Communist Party of China.
In 1925, Sun died of gallbladder cancer at just 58, creating a power vacuum in the Kuomintang that was eventually filled by Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang’s relationship with the Communist Party would soon fracture, throwing the country into a civil war that would not resolve until 1949 — and would simmer even through the long years of Japanese occupation during the Second World War.
© MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images Photos of Sun Yat-sen seen during a 2004 pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong.
In the West, Sun is an obscure figure overshadowed by Chiang and Mao Zedong. But in China he remains revered. Better remembered for his tenacity than his philosophy, his relentless fundraising and ability to keep the revolutionary flames stoked saw him dubbed the Father of China in both Taiwan and the People’s Republic.
The Kuomintang is still a powerhouse in Taiwanese politics, while Beijing is known to downplay Sun’s anti-imperialism, Christianity, and democratic vision in order to emphasize his role as a proto-socialist revolutionary with an eye towards rapid modernization.
In the West, Sun is an obscure figure overshadowed by Chiang and Mao Zedong. But in China he remains revered. Better remembered for his tenacity than his philosophy, his relentless fundraising and ability to keep the revolutionary flames stoked saw him dubbed the Father of China in both Taiwan and the People’s Republic.
The Kuomintang is still a powerhouse in Taiwanese politics, while Beijing is known to downplay Sun’s anti-imperialism, Christianity, and democratic vision in order to emphasize his role as a proto-socialist revolutionary with an eye towards rapid modernization.
© AFP PHOTO/Sam YEH In this 2005 image, Taiwan opposition leader Lien Chan leads a Kuomintang delegation in a bow to a statue of Sun Yat-sen at Sun’s mausoleum outside Nanjing in the People’s Republic of China.
Signs of Sun’s legacy can be seen throughout Canada. Toronto features two statues of him , visitors to Montreal can check out Sun Yat-sen Place, and if you’re driving in Markham, Ont., you might find yourself on Sun Yat-Sen Avenue. If you’re out west, there’s another statue in Victoria , and Vancouver’s impressive Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Sun’s work strengthened ties between Chinese-Canadians and their homeland, and left the Canadian diaspora with a stronger sense of identity . Many followed his lead in cutting off their queues — distinctive long braids that were a sign of Qing subservience — which helped them better integrate into Canadian society. Hundreds of Chinese Canadians formed a militia that would travel to China to aid Sun and offer their services in the First World War.
But China’s revolutionary upheaval came to Canada, too. In 1916, Victoria’s Chinatown saw violent conflict between supporters of different would-be governments. Rival Chinatown newspapers competed to spread their version of rapidly changing events. And in 1918, a Kuomintang supporter in Victoria assassinated a visiting politician from Yuan Shikai’s government, briefly rendering association with the Kuomintang illegal in Canada.
Signs of Sun’s legacy can be seen throughout Canada. Toronto features two statues of him , visitors to Montreal can check out Sun Yat-sen Place, and if you’re driving in Markham, Ont., you might find yourself on Sun Yat-Sen Avenue. If you’re out west, there’s another statue in Victoria , and Vancouver’s impressive Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Sun’s work strengthened ties between Chinese-Canadians and their homeland, and left the Canadian diaspora with a stronger sense of identity . Many followed his lead in cutting off their queues — distinctive long braids that were a sign of Qing subservience — which helped them better integrate into Canadian society. Hundreds of Chinese Canadians formed a militia that would travel to China to aid Sun and offer their services in the First World War.
But China’s revolutionary upheaval came to Canada, too. In 1916, Victoria’s Chinatown saw violent conflict between supporters of different would-be governments. Rival Chinatown newspapers competed to spread their version of rapidly changing events. And in 1918, a Kuomintang supporter in Victoria assassinated a visiting politician from Yuan Shikai’s government, briefly rendering association with the Kuomintang illegal in Canada.
© Ryan Sharpe/Wikimedia Commons A statue of Sun Yat-sen erected just outside Victoria, B.C.’s historic Chinatown.
In 1923, just two years before Sun’s death, Canada’s head tax would be replaced with a total ban on Chinese immigration, the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act lasted until 1947, when Chinese-Canadians were finally given full citizenship, beginning the slow improvement of conditions that Sun had promised.
Contemporary China’s glass skyscrapers and high-speed rail lines could be seen as a manifestation of the modernized future Sun had hoped for his homeland, but they came without the democratic freedoms the revolutionary had so fervently championed in Canadian Chinatowns.
During a 2016 visit to Vancouver, Sun’s great-grandson suggested that his ancestor would be “quite disappointed” with modern China’s human rights record.
In 1923, just two years before Sun’s death, Canada’s head tax would be replaced with a total ban on Chinese immigration, the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act lasted until 1947, when Chinese-Canadians were finally given full citizenship, beginning the slow improvement of conditions that Sun had promised.
Contemporary China’s glass skyscrapers and high-speed rail lines could be seen as a manifestation of the modernized future Sun had hoped for his homeland, but they came without the democratic freedoms the revolutionary had so fervently championed in Canadian Chinatowns.
During a 2016 visit to Vancouver, Sun’s great-grandson suggested that his ancestor would be “quite disappointed” with modern China’s human rights record.
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