Statue of Sun Yat-sen (San Francisco)

The statue of Sun Yat-sen in Saint Marys Square stands as a tribute to the revolutionary leader who frequented this very location while in exile. During the early twentieth century, Sun Yat-sen visited San Francisco seven times to raise funds and rally support for the movement that eventually overthrew the Qing Dynasty. He often used this spot to address the local community, encouraging them to finance his revolution by selling Chinese goods to visitors. The sculptor Beniamino Bufano created this fourteen-foot-tall monument from red granite and stainless steel in nineteen thirty-seven. Bufano had befriended Sun Yat-sen during his own travels in China and used techniques he learned from local porcelain glazers to craft the statue. The work commemorates the substantial financial backing Sun received from the Chinese American community, which reached upwards of four hundred thousand dollars at the time. Today, the statue remains a fixture of the square, offering a quiet space for reflection on the historical ties between San Francisco and the founding of the Republic of China.