The souvenir shop at the ancestral home of Sun Yat-sen in Guangdong's Cuiheng village sells commemorative plates of him and of the young Mao Zedong; you can also buy a statue of Mao for 9,800 yuan (HK$11,243) - but not of Sun.
'For those of us educated on the mainland, Mao and the first generation of Communist leaders are the great men,' said Wang Min, a student from Zhuhai visiting the museum. 'Sun is a secondary figure. The films and television series are about Mao, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and the wars with Japan and the Kuomintang, not the 1911 revolution.'
Next year marks the centenary of the Xinhai revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty, in which Sun played a central role. This will be celebrated on the mainland, in Taiwan and by the Chinese diaspora around the world.
But Sun means different things to different people. People on both sides of the strait call him 'Guofu' (Father of the Nation). In Taiwan, they mean 'Father of the Republic of China'. On the mainland, they mean the man who helped bring down the Qing, a pre-condition for the Communist state founded in 1949; the father of 'New China' is Mao.
These differences have torpedoed joint commemorations next year.
On May 15, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said the island would not take part in events organised by Beijing. 'We will celebrate the occasion separately because the revolution made possible the establishment of the Republic of China,' he said. 'It has been 100 years since our country was founded, which is what matters most to us.
