Escape of Sun Yat Sen and Soong Ching Ling from Canton by Ship

May’s Photo Studio, Escape of Sun Yat Sen and Soong Ching Ling from Canton by Ship, c. 1920s, Wylie Wong Collection of May’s Studio at Stanford Libraries.

Sun Yat Sen was a Chinese revolutionary leader involved in the 1911 overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. Earlier, he had visited San Francisco during fundraising campaigns, so would have been known to many locally. He was named first Provisional president of the Republic of China and leader of the Kuomintang party. In 1915, he married his third wife, Shanghai born but American educated Soong Ching Ling, who had been his secretary. In 1922, she helped him escape a revolt led by Chen Jiongming which targeted Sun’s residence in Guangzhou. Because Sun died in 1925, the year of the Great China Theater’s opening, this production was likely staged to bolster Soong’s reputation as she continued to play an active role in the Kuomintang. The classic silent film Battleship Potemkin was also released in 1925 and may also have helped inspire the staging.