Sun Yat-sens: Contested Images of a Political Icon

Abstract

This thesis explores the afterlives of the Chinese revolutionary icon Sun Yat-sen and their relevant contexts, arguing that these contexts have given rise to different images of the same figure. It serves as a gallery in which these different images are put into conversation with one another, revealing new insights into each. Key to the discussion, Sun is first introduced in a short biography. Then, the thesis moves to his different afterlives: Sun and the fight for his posthumous approval in the Republic of China before 1949; Sun and his usage in Chinese Communist political rhetoric from 1956 through 2016; Sun and his changing image in the ROC-Taiwan, a change that reflects the contentious political environment of an increasingly bentu Taiwan; Sun and two of his images among the overseas Chinese of Hawaii and Penang. Through this exploration, the thesis shows that there is no one Sun Yat-sen.