I stumbled across 国父’s speech on 大亚细亚主义 (Pan-Asianism) this evening. Really an interesting read! I was not previously aware that 中山公园’s name came from Dr Sun Yat Sen (his given name is “中山”…) most mainland chinese cities have a large street or park by this name. Shanghai certainly does! (Zhongshan Park if you prefer pinyin…)

Anyway, if you haven’t read 国父’s speech, I highly recommend you take a look. And while you are looking replace references to The Imperial Western Powers with The United States, and see if it changes your outlook on the future of the US economy… Very interesting.

If you’re behind the Great Firewall, you read the english version here. Otherwise, just go directly to the wikipedia page. en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sun_Yat_Sen%27s_speech_on_Pan-Asianism

Gentlemen: I highly appreciate this cordial reception with which you are honoring me today. The topic of the day is “Pan-Asianism,” but before we touch upon the subject, we must first have a clear conception of Asia’s place in the world. Asia, in my opinion, is the cradle of the world’s oldest civilization. Several thousand years ago, its peoples had already attained an advanced civilization; even the ancient civilizations of the West, of Greece and Rome, had their origins on Asiatic soil. In Ancient Asia we had a philosophic, religious, logical and industrial civilization. The origins of the various civilizations of the modern world can be traced back to Asia’s ancient civilization. It is only during the last few centuries that the countries and races of Asia have gradually degenerated and become weak, while the European countries have gradually developed their resources and become powerful. After the latter had fully developed their strength, they turned their attention to, and penetrated into, East Asia, where they either destroyed or pressed hard upon each and every one of the Asiatic nations, so that thirty years ago there existed, so to speak, no independent country in the whole of Asia. With this, we may say, the low water mark had been reached.