Saturday, September 6, 2008

The China connection(s)

Thomas Crampton is one of my many China connections...

Crampton writes about Obama’s Sun Yat Sen Connection, revealing that Obama and "the father of modern China, attended the same prep school in Hawaii" - even though they were students at Punaho School almost a hundred years apart. Most Americans probably wonder why any of this is important.

A hundred years in a culture over 7,000 years old is, much less significant than it might appear to be in a culture that is slightly more than 200 years old. The Chinese know and respect Sun Yat Sen - very much like Americans know and respect George Washington - because like Washington, Sun Yat Sen led a revolt against the monarchy, toppling the last emperor to rule China under the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

Did you know Sun Yat Sen was also an American citizen?

One of his most famous works is a publication known as the Three Principles of the People - including the principle of nationalism (minzu, 民族), democracy (minquan, 民權) and the People's Livelihood (minsheng, 民生).

TC says, there's other Obama China connection: that Obama's half-brother runs a dotcom out of Shenzhen and is married to a Chinese woman.