From: Historical Record of Chinese Americans 美华史记
This is a genuine copy of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's Hawaiian birth certificate which was signed in 1904 and cites him as a U.S. Citizen. Although he did spend 4 years growing up in Maui, Sun Yat-Sen had much in common with the Chinese American paper sons who sometimes had false documents to land American citizenship in the early 1900s. One can then controversially call Dr. Sun Yat-Sen the world's most famous early Chinese American although it was clear he was born in China and this below document is a proven fake. Although no less a Chinese American than the paper sons/daughters who later became proud Americans, this document was forged for him back then for a clear purpose.
It was created because Sun Yat-Sen often travelled to North America from Asia to ask for financial support from Overseas Chinese in Canada and the United states. These Chinese Americans and Canadians would often give him aid in his revolutionary cause to topple the corrupt Qing Dynasty. This forged birth certificate allowed him to travel to the U.S. and Canada under the status of a Chinese American with greater ease because of complications from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which still existed in force at that time.
As today is the 110th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution that ushered China into the modern age from Imperial Dynasty to Republic, this unique document highlights how it is interesting that a prominent Chinese American(on paper) had much to do with that. Regardless of the debates over Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's national status, he has stated the importance of Chinese North Americans in helping to bring China into the modern era stating: "Overseas Chinese are the Mother of the Revolution."
It was clear that Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's western upbringing had a profound affect on him which would later translate to change in China as he would say in 1910: "This is my Hawai‘i … here I was brought up and educated, and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean." If you would like to learn more about this interesting document of the Father of modern China you can read more about it in these articles below:
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