Episode Details

Sun Yat-sen is the only political figure revered as a founding father by both Communist China and Nationalist Taiwan — two governments that agree on almost nothing else. The man who overthrew the last Chinese dynasty and proclaimed a republic is claimed by both sides of the Taiwan Strait, each interpreting his legacy to suit their own political narrative.

This episode traces Sun's journey from a village in Guangdong to revolutionary exile, from the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty to the chaotic early Republic, and explores how his Three Principles of the People became flexible enough for both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek to claim as their own.

• Sun Yat-sen's Western education and his radicalization against the Qing Dynasty
• The decade of failed uprisings that finally toppled imperial China in 1911
• The Three Principles of the People and why both Chinas interpret them differently
• Sun's alliance with the Soviet Union and the seeds of the Chinese Civil War