Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Centre

Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (4 June 2006)




Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Centre (GPS: 5.41591, 100.32443) is located at Macalister Road, George Town. It is housed within the Penang Philomatic Union building.

The Philomatic Union was a reading club started by the Tung Meng Hooi (Chinese Revolutionary Alliance), a political party started in Tokyo in 1905 with the intention of turning imperial China into a republic. The Penang branch of the Philomatic Union was established through the efforts of Goh Say Eng, who also founded the Penang branch of Tung Meng Hooi. It was originally housed at the Li Teik Seah Building at 152 Carnarvon Street.

The building it is occupying was originally the Sio Lan Teng, a Chinese merchant's club. It was here that Dr Sun Yat-Sen delivered his first speech in Penang. At that time, the Penang audience took to his speech with yawning indifference, little knowing that this English-educated physician will one day bring down imperial China.

The reason for their indifference was that the Chinese community in Penang was torn between the idea of setting up a constitutional monarchy and the establishment of a republic. The Canton Uprising of 1911 gravitated them to a single decision, which was, to support the revolutionaries for a republic.

In addition to its part in Dr Sun Yat-Sen's movement, the Penang Philomatic Union was at one time used as the premises of the Chung Ling High School as well as the Fukien Girls' School - the precursor of today's Penang Chinese Girls' High School. These schools were founded by followers of Dr Sun Yat-Sen, namely Tan Sin Cheng and other key members of Tung Meng Hooi in Penang.

The Penang Philomatic Union was renovated in 2002 to house the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Centre. This includes a museum to preserve and commemorate the activities that happened in Penang that was so significant to the history of China in the beginning of the 20th Century. On the grounds of the memorial centre are the recently erected statues of Dr Sun Yat-Sen and two of his devoteed Penang followers, Goh Say Eng and Ooi Kim Kheng.

On 20 November 2010, the Sun Yat Sen Penang Base hosted delegates of the 22nd Joint Conference of the Sun Yat Sen & Soong Ching Ling Memorials, which was held in Penang in conjunction with the International Centennial Celebrations of Sun Yat Sen's 1910 "Penang Conference".


Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (4 June 2006)


Statue of the Three Patriots at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (4 June 2006)

How to reach Sun Yat Sun Memorial Hall

Take Rapid Penang Bus 10, 101 or 104. The place is at the junction of Lorong Susu with Macalister Road.

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall is at the Penang Sun Yat Sen Centre, which is on the Map of Macalister Road, Penang

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Centre, Penang, is on the Map of Sun Yat Sen sites

List of Categories of Sights in Asia; Museums in Penang and Museums in Malaysia