LATE DR, SUN YET-SEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 199, 22 August 1929, Page 11

LATE DR, SUN YET-SEN

LONG-DELAYED FUNERAL EAST AND WEST MINGLE EMBLEM OF UNIFICATION The solemn interment of the body of Dr Sun Yat-sen, organiser of the Kuomintang and “father” of the Chinese revolution, in June last, was a remarkable mixture of Eastern, and Western ceremonial, according to a description by the Shanghai correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Nineteen foreign diplomats visited Nanking for the funeral, and were received by General Chiang Kai-shek, president of the State Council, and Dr C. T. Wang, Minister of Foreign Affairs. In full regalia they paid their respects to the remains of the dead leader, standing about the bronze casket in a semicircle while the Netherlands Minister made a brief address. The Ministers then filed past the casket and observed the face, which still retained its likeness, although it was considerably darker than when the body was embalmed fefur years ago. A Memorial Highway The funeral parade to the memorial hall and mausoleum which has been constructed on the side of Purple Mountain, about 15 miles from the banks of the Yangtse, proceeded by the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Highway, which has just been completed for the occasion, and is probably the best road of its length in the entire Chinese Republic. One odd feature on the route was high bamboo fences completely screen ing off the eyesore of a beggar village, which the State Council intends to replace with a model settlement later on. The officials were ashamed of its appearance, and felt that the proceedings would be marred if it were allowed to be seen as the procession passed through. For those who observed the funeral procession, chief interest centred on the widow, Mme. Sun Yat-sen, who had just returned to China from a self-imposed exile of nearly two years, most of which time she has spent in Berlin and Moscow. Mrs Sun appeared much thinner and somewhat older than when she departed from China in 1917, shortly following the collnpse of the Wu-han Government. She marched in the parade with head bowed, wearing a black Chinese gown of cheap cotton cloth, with black stockings and shoes. Gunboat as Ferry Mrs Sun’s future plans have not yet : been disclosed, but the Chinese newsi papers have stated that she intends to ( reside in the old Sun Yat-sen residence lin the Shanghai French Concession, j She has given but one interview since j her arrival, and that appeared in a Russian newspaper in Harbin shortly i after she passed through that city on her way to Peking. In this interview Mrs Sun declared that she had not I changed her views regarding the Chini ese revolution, and still considers Rusi sia the best friend of China and “all I oppressed peoples.”

j The funeral train from Peking airived at Pukow, opposite Nanking. Here the coffin was removed to a shrine on the station platform and a ceremony held which was participated in by all of the higher officials of the

Government who had crossed the Yangtse for the purpose. The coffin was then taken aboard a Chinese gunboat, which was covered with funeral decorations and transported across the river. As the boat reached the centre of the stream all of the foreign warcraft in the harbour fired salutes of 21 guns, and the Chinese battery on Lion Hill, overlooking the harbour, boomed a salute of 101 guns. When the gunboat bearing the casket reached the Nanking side the casket was removed to a catafalque, and, followed by members of the family and officials of the Government and Kuomintang, the cortege proceeded to the central party headquarters, where the casket was placed and lay in state. Many Rehearsals The funeral provided a curious contrast to the old and new in Chinese life. First there is the modern memorial highway with electric lights stretching down the centre. Then there was a modern black motorhearse, a recent purchase from America, but when the procession reached the foot of the grand stairway leading up the mountain-side to the mausoleum the casket was removed to an ancient Chinese-style catafalque and was carried up the stairway by a large number of Chinese pall-bearers in special uniforms. These pall-bearers had been conducting practice marches up the stairway W’ith a dummy casket for several weeks in order to avoid any mishap on the day of the funeral. Another purely Chinese custom was the carrying in the parade of Dr Sun’s picture, a picture of the deceased being carried in every Chinese funeral. There was also a special band, which played a funeral march ’written for the occasion. There were other curious contrasts. The Chinese mourning colour is white, b»ut on this occasion all members of the family, as well as the Government and party, wore black. The foreign Diplomatic Corps, curiously, were dressed in white summer uniforms, the white being appropriate for a Chinese funeral. Firecrackers Dispensed Witn There was an obvious effort to discard most purely Chinese symbolism, this now being regarded as “superstition”; hence there were no firecrackers, which usually accompany funerals in China for the purpose of frightening away evil spirits. However, it was not possible entirely to banish superstition, for a week before the services a heavy wind in Nanking blew down all of the pailos, or aches, which had been constructed along the highway. This was interpreted as a bad omen, especially by the supporters of Feng Yu-hsiang and other enemies of the Government. The State funeral services, includ ing the memorial highway and mauso leum, must have cost a great deal of money. It is known that Feng Yuhsiang opposed and made political capital out of the expensibe funeral, and every time the matter of appropriating funds for the funeral came up in the committee when he was in Nanking he brought up the matter of the Kuomintang certainly intended the State funeral to mark the culmination of the revolution and to syn> bolise the final political unification oT the country as well as the supremacy of the Kuomintang. The defection of Feng Yu-hsiang, at this particular time, cast a cloud, over the ceremonies that it was impossible to eradicate. Everybody was talking about it and speculating upon “what Feng will do.”