Remembering the revolutionary pioneers, overseas Chinese continue to carry forward the spirit of Sun Yat-sen

China News Service, Beijing, November 12 (Reporter Liu Yang) November 12 is the 160th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Many overseas Chinese accepted online interviews from China News Service reporters to recall the past of their ancestors and talk about the overseas inheritance of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary spirit.

In San Francisco, USA, Huang Yizhuang, the granddaughter of Huang Xing, the founder of the 1911 Revolution, placed fruits and melons in front of the portraits of Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing at home to pay homage to their ancestors.

In 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded the China Revival Society in Honolulu, USA, and pioneered the "revitalization of China." Since then, he has traveled to and from the United States many times, going deep into overseas Chinese communities to spread revolutionary ideas and gather people with lofty ideals. Huang Yizhuang said that his grandfather Huang Xing and Sun Yat-sen were like-minded revolutionary partners, and they both had a common vision of expelling the Tartars, restoring China, and overthrowing the imperial system. Sun Yat-sen traveled overseas to raise revolutionary forces, while Huang Xing followed his plan in China and led troops to organize an uprising. The two worked side by side and treated each other with sincerity, opening up new prospects towards the republican ideal.

Huang Yizhuang lamented that China has gone from poverty and weakness to prosperity and strength, and its construction achievements have already surpassed Sun Yat-sen's vision in the "National Founding Strategy". In her view, if the new generation of Chinese Americans does not understand the struggle history of their ancestors, they will be like water without a source or a tree without roots, and the baton of inheriting history will eventually be handed over to them.

Huang Yizhuang said that in different historical stages, overseas Chinese have different missions. When the motherland was plunged into internal and external troubles, the overseas Chinese contributed money and effort to support the motherland's revolution. The ideal of "the world is for the common good" has inspired countless overseas Chinese. Back then, workers who made a living selling bean sprouts and carrying water squeezed out money from their meager incomes to fund the revolutionary cause. Today, the overseas Chinese community in the United States firmly safeguards the reunification of the motherland, promotes national unity, continues to build bridges for people-to-people exchanges between China and foreign countries, and inherits the feelings of the ancestors for their country and homeland by organizing historical commemorative events, conducting Chinese language education, and promoting economic and trade exchanges.

This promotion of the revolutionary pioneer spirit has been continued from generation to generation in the American overseas community. Fang Li Bangqin, a well-known American overseas Chinese leader, once edited "Sun Yat-sen and "Young China"", which chronicled Sun Yat-sen's ideals and struggles. Fang Li Bangqin’s grandson Fang Shubin said that his grandparents have promoted friendly exchanges between the two countries for decades, and now he is deeply involved in it, promoting American students to study in China and experience the development and changes of Chinese culture and society.

In the practice of relay cross-cultural communication, Fang Shubin realized the connotation of openness and self-improvement in Sun Yat-sen’s ideal of “revitalizing China”. For the new generation of Chinese Americans, they must first see a developing and changing China, then promote equal exchanges among multiple ethnic groups, eliminate misunderstandings, and build cooperation channels in education, science and technology, humanities and other fields.

Sun Yat-sen advocated "fraternity" and "the world is for the common good" throughout his life, and longed for a harmonious world. He once inscribed "fraternity" and presented it to the Overseas Chinese Association of Du Province in South Africa, commending the association for helping orphans and widows, performing charitable deeds, and supporting the domestic revolution. In 2007, Ye Beiyang, then chairman of the Chinese Association of Du Province in South Africa, donated this calligraphy treasure to the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China.

Ye Beiyang said that for more than a hundred years, the spirit of "fraternity" has continued uninterrupted in the South African overseas Chinese community. The overseas Chinese groups help each other in need, support the weak, solve problems for overseas Chinese, donate funds to establish schools in their hometowns and localities, and convey goodwill to local people of all ethnic groups. Today, overseas Chinese communities still practice this concept and win respect with friendship and responsibility.