The Origins of an Heroic Image: Sun Yatsen in London, 1896-1897.

Abstract

Sun Yat-sen's life was one of contradictions. His kidnapping by the Chinese Legation in London in 1896 was amongst the earliest of such examples. While in London, he vowed that he had been kidnapped. Afterwards, his closest associates testified that he had claimed to have walked fearlessly into the lion's den. During the great sensation of the kidnapping, he was full of praise for his British friends. But while he was still in London, he became very close to a Japanese Pan-Asian extremist. He also declared later that he had formulated his Three Principles of the People during hs two-year sojourn in Europe, while in fact he spent only nine months in London, much of that time in the British Museum. All these claims may be interpreted as attempts to create and project an heroic image. Upon this image has since been built a tremendous legend, part of which this book hopes to unravel by going back to the origins of an heroic image.