Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), better known within the Chinese-speaking world as Sun Zhongshan, is one of the central figures in the transnational history of 20th century China. On both sides of the Taiwan Strait (and among communities of overseas Chinese), Sun has been honored as the founding father (guofu) of the Chinese Republic as well as a visionary and pioneer of China’s “national rejuvenation” (fuxing) based on international economic relations.
2025 is the 100th year following his death on March 12, 1925. On the occasion of this centenary, our conference will explore the various dimensions of Sun’s contested legacy as linked to Chinese political, economic, and social developments from the Republican era until today. We seek proposals for presentations (20-25 minutes) that (re)consider Sun Yatsen’s significance
- as an intellectual pioneer projecting China’s future socio-economic order as perceived in mainland China and Taiwan;
- as a visionary of Chinese future realities;
- in terms of his political legacy for Mao Zedong and Xi Jinping;
- from a transnational perspective, as compared to other contemporary “founding fathers” such as Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin (1870–1924), Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) or Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938).
While the focus of this conference is on historical scholarship, we warmly welcome submissions from other/ neighboring disciplines. Contributions focusing on Sun’s proposals for China’s national rejuvenation from a long-term perspective will receive priority consideration.