He persuaded the last emperor to abdicate, was the first prime minister of the Republic of China, negotiated to keep the British out of Tibet and was a personal friend of two US presidents. Tang Shaoyi is the pride of the small township of Tangjiawan (the bay of the Tang family), on the outskirts of Zhuhai , and one of the main reasons why earlier this year it earned the title of a township famous for its history and culture, one of only 20 on the mainland. It has been inhabited for almost 700 years.
For a township with a pre-war population of only 20,000, it boasts a remarkable lineup of famous men - most of them called Tang - men who founded Qinghua University in Beijing, the Chinese Lawyers' Association, the Hua Mei bank in Hawaii, two of Shanghai's biggest tea companies, and one of the most famous performers of Cantonese opera. Sun Yat-sen came from the neighbouring county.
Its fame has much to do with the fact that of the 120 secondary students sent by the Qing dynasty to study in the US at the end of the 19th century, 13 came from the township. This gave them a head start over their countrymen in the command of English and the secrets of the advanced industrial world.
Tong Oi-chun, 75, who left the township in 1949 and purchased a unit in one of the new residential compounds in 2001, said what made Tangjiawan special was its overseas links. 'People from this area were among the first in China to go abroad, to Southeast Asia, Hawaii and the US. Those who went abroad kept their links with their families at home, sending back money and providing opportunities for education and business that were unavailable to other Chinese. So there was money to build nice new buildings and in a style that contained foreign elements, making the township different,' he said.
'Many of the men who went abroad insisted on taking a wife from the township, even though they had been abroad for a long time.'
This area of Guangdong has sent more migrants overseas than any other part of the mainland, giving Tangjiawan access to capital, knowledge and connections from overseas.