Song Qingling's former residence reopened to public after being renovated

On June 1, in the newly-built cultural relic museum in the Former Residence of Song Qingling, a student was viewing the ZIS sedan that Stalin gave Song as a present in the 1950s.

The renovated and rebuilt Former Residence of Song Qingling formally opened to the public on June 1. A new cultural relic museum was built in the residence, and the re-arranged contents of the exhibition focus more on the heritage of the Song family and the love between Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Song Qingling.

The cultural relic museum stored over 20,000 cultural relics.

Before the renovation, all the exhibits of the Former Residence of Song Qingling were displayed in the living room of the residence, and the former site of the current cultural relic museum was originally the nursery maid’s room. In order to improve conditions of exhibition, the renovation project of the cultural relic museum was approved as a national key project in March of 2008.

Covering an area of 3,543 square meters, the new cultural relic museum is located in the western part of the original residence, where the architecture was built in ancient styles. The exhibition hall is located on the first floor, where historical pictures, important documents and valuable cultural relics from different periods in Song’s life are exhibited. The storeroom of cultural relics is located in the basement, where over 20,000 historical cultural relics pertaining to Sun Yat-sen and Song Qingling are stored.

The map that Dr. Sun Yat-sen used during the Eastward Expedition is exhibited for the first time

The Exhibition of Song Qingling’s Life was also formally opened on June 1. The new exhibition line is 1.6 times longer than the previous line and reaches 196.6 meters. The area of exhibition hall was expanded, doubling the original size.

Shen Bin, who works for the social education department, explained that half of the cultural relics exhibited are new additions, such as the map that Dr. Sun Yat-sen used during the Eastward Expedition, the hat that he wore in 1924 in Tianjin during his journey to the north, and the turquoise bronze hair stick that Song’s grandmother left to her.

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Sun gave Song a pistol as a wedding gift

In the Exhibition of Song Qingling’s Life, the articles and original quotes of historical figures were added while keeping the summaries and comments formerly exhibited. The newspaper and manuscripts are also exhibited in hard copies, instead of photographs, allowing visitors to understand Song in a more direct and personal way.

Engraved on a new display board are Song Qingling’s words, “I was not in love with him at first and it was mainly respect to a hero. It was only a romantic thought for me as a young girl to secretly leave my family and assist his work. But that is a good idea because I want to make my contribution to save China and Dr. Sun is the one able to do that. Therefore, I want to help him.”

The wedding presents that Dr. Sun Yat-sen gave to Song Qingling were displayed for the first time. They were a Mauser pistol and a specially customized Japanese-style dressing gown, which show Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s “tender side of a hero” and that even in the grim situation for the revolution, Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Song Qingling were confident in their marriage.

Their life was not solely filled with revolution and work. A drawing of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s hands illustrates this. Song Qingling carefully drew a sketch of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s hands in a letter when asking someone to buy a pair of suitable gloves for him.

Translated by LOTO