The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Hong Kong, after undergoing renovations, reopened recently with changes that have sparked controversy among netizens. The words “judicial independence” and “freedom” have been removed, and descriptions related to revolutionaries facing political persecution have also been deleted, while the mention of “Kang Youwei’s Royalist Society” has been added. This alteration has raised questions from the public.
Located in Mid-Levels, Central Hong Kong, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall reopened on November 7th last year following more than a year of repair and improvement works.
According to a report by the Hong Kong online media outlet “Civilization Society” on February 4th, the explanatory texts in display cases on the second floor of the Memorial Hall depicting “Hong Kong during Sun Yat-sen’s era” have been reduced and modified. The original exhibit titled “Freedom of Movement under Judicial Independence” has been renamed to “Activity Space under Hong Kong’s Judicial System”. The English title has also been simplified from “Freedom of Movement under Judicial Independence” to “Movement under Judicial Independence”, with words such as “freedom” completely disappearing.
Additionally, descriptions regarding Hong Kong’s status as a “leased territory” under British governance, as well as references to revolutionaries facing “political persecution”, have also been eliminated. The previous mention of “both royalists and revolutionaries using Hong Kong as a political base” has been replaced with “Kang Youwei’s Royalist Society also using Hong Kong as headquarters”.
The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is situated at the historic “Gan Tang Dik”, a building completed in 1914 which originally served as the private residence of businessman He Gantang.
According to the official website of the Hong Kong Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Sun Yat-sen received his secondary and university education in Hong Kong, nurturing revolutionary thoughts and planning uprising activities here. The Hong Kong Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was opened to the public in 2006, featuring two permanent exhibition halls displaying numerous historical artifacts.
In response to inquiries from “Civilization Society”, the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department stated that during the closure period, adjustments were made to texts and exhibits aiming to streamline and amplify explanations to enhance the visitor experience. The department emphasized that museums would refer to relevant historical, scientific, and artistic materials to review and update exhibition content in a timely manner but did not directly address the criteria for the deletion of specific terms.
The revision of the exhibition texts has sparked discussions on social media platforms. Some netizens believe that the related changes represent the Memorial Hall’s “manipulation of history” and reflect Hong Kong’s loss of freedom:
“They are admitting that Hong Kong will not have freedom under judicial independence.”
“Freedom, judicial independence, they find it very eye-catching.”
“This fully reflects the current reality in Hong Kong: no judicial independence, no freedom!”
“A dictatorship will definitely manipulate history.”
“Self-castration.”
Some netizens point out that this reflects a process of “renaming” or redefining historical narratives in the current political environment.
Since the crackdown on the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement and the implementation of the National Security Law by the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, the city has been gradually moving towards mainlandization in various aspects, while the CCP has consistently opposed and resisted Western constitutionalism, the “separation of powers”, and “judicial independence”.