Sun Yat-sen was the founding father of the Republic of China and its first provisional president.  He was a Chinese physician, writer, philosopher, calligrapher and revolutionary.  He played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty (the last imperial dynasty of China).  He later founded the Nationalist Party of China, serving as its first leader.  Sun was a uniting figure in post-Imperial China and is widely revered among people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Although Sun is considered to be one of the greatest leaders of modern China, his political life was one of constant struggles and frequent exiles.

His chief legacy is in developing what is known as the Three Principles of the People:  nationalism (independence from imperialist domination), rights of the people, and the people’s livelihood (just society).