On top of Guangzhou's Yellow Flower Mound

During my recent lecture tour in Guangzhou, I also visited the equally memorable and meaningful Yellow Flower Mound or Huanghuagang at which the Tomb of 72 Martyrs of the failed Huanghuagang Uprising on 27 April, 1911, is located. The uprising was first secretly planned at Penang's No.120, Armenian Street in the presence of Dr. Sun Yat Sen (left).

In his years of exile, Dr. Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925) toured many places in the world, including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, Malacca, Seremban, Kuala Pilah, Taiping, Kuala Kangsar, Sungai Siput, Gopeng and Jelapang * which were then effectively under the colonial rule, direct as well as indirect, of the British Empire.

Despite his untimely death in 1925 and unfinished struggle that left a transitional China continued to be the 'Sick Man of East Asia' for the next 24 years, the 1911 Revolution inspired by him set in motion a revolutionary process of far-reaching repercussions not only in politics but also culture, lifestyles, philosophy of life, worldview and mentality among the Chinese.

Dr. Sun, a Christian and an US graduate in medicine, is respected by the Chinese people across the political spectrum as the Father of Modern China although his dream for a unified, independent and sovereign nation with a collective sense of self-worth and self-respect was only realised with establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) or New China in 1949.