Sun Yat-sen museum sparks hopes for preservation revolution

The Sun Yat-sen Museum, which the government plans to open next year in the Kom Tong Hall in Mid-Levels, promises to be more than just an encounter with one of the great personalities of modern Chinese history.

Considering that the government has spent $53 million to buy the mansion, and will spend a further $91 million on renovations, the project has become a catalyst for debate about how to preserve Hong Kong's history and architecture, and how the city's arts and artefacts should be presented to the public.

The idea for the museum isn't new. 'We've been looking for a site since 1996, when a then-Urban Council member put forward the idea of building a museum for Sun,' says Joseph Ting Sun-pao, chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History. 'There were two options: to get a piece of land and construct a new building or to find an old building. The second one was much cheaper. But to find a building with the appropriate dignity is more than difficult. We'd been looking hard for a site in Central and Western District, the area where Dr Sun studied and organised the revolution. When Kom Tong Hall came up, it was just a perfect match.'

Kam Tong Hall is a stone's throw from Staunton Street, where Xing Zhong Hui (Revive China Society), the organisation Sun set up to overthrow the Qing government, was situated. It was built in 1914 by Ho Kom-tong, a Sun contemporary, philanthropist and feng shui master. It was sold after Ho's death in 1950. In 1959, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints bought it, and in 2002, decided to demolish it. This led to a campaign, led by some members of the District Council, to save the hall. A questionnaire showed that local residents wanted the hall to become a public library or a museum.

Although most of the museum will be dedicated to Sun, there'll be a room set aside for the colourful history of the mansion itself. One of the first structures in the territory to have been built with a steel frame and in-wall electrical wiring, the hall has beautiful fireplaces, art nouveau-style stained-glass windows, a winding staircase and classic feng shui design elements.

It also has links to Sun. 'Soong Ching-ling, the wife of Sun, once lived in 20 Seymour Road, next to the hall,' says Ting. 'Ho Kam-tong studied in the Government Central School and had been a schoolmate of Sun's.'

The book Ho Kam Tong, a Man for All Seasons mentions that one of Ho's concubines might have participated in Sun's 1911 revolution and Ho may have been a veiled participant, as well.