Dr Sun Yat-sen

I heard his name when we studied History in secondary school. I never liked history, so my sister dictated history throughout my school days, and I learnt history that way. I never quite understood what history was about and why we needed to even study it in school. Now that I'm writing on history, I understand some bits and pieces of history.

I was walking around in the E&O Hotel, exploring all nooks and corners, doors and hallways. I stumbled across two unusual looking cabinets full of photographs. I wondered why the E&O kept photographs in the cabinets. So I took a closer look. And to my surprise, the cabinets contained portraits of important people in history. I saw Tunku Abdul Rahman, Dr Sun Yat-sen, Charlie Chaplin, and some others. I was about to leave the cabinets alone when I thought to take a second look at the photos. I looked at the portrait of Dr Sun Yat-sen. I don't know him except by name. My sister would love to hear about him as he was one of those she loved to tell about when I was a student. So I snapped a photo of Dr Sun Yat-sen for her. Unfortunately, when I got back to our late mother's house (now my sister's house), I forgot altogether to tell her about the Dr Sun Yat-sen portrait I saw in a cabinet at the E&O Hotel. That's the problem with short memory span - things slip easily.

Anyway, I worked all morning on the portrait to improve it a bit, so I can upload a better portrait of Dr Sun Yat-sen. The original one I took had me in the background as a glassy image with my name tag (not good). Below is the improved image I made of the famous Chinese leader.

I attended the Penang Story Lecture on "Penang and the Hajj 2013" for 2 days, 17-18 August 2013 at the  E&O Hotel in Penang. I went on a tour organised by the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT). The President, Khoo Salma Nasution was our tour guide. We visited the 'Dr Sun Yat-sen Penang Base' at 120 Armenian Street, Penang. I took some pictures after we were allowed to do so by Salma. This was where Dr Sun Yat-sen and his followers had discussed plans for the revolution which then took place in China. You can read up further about the Chinese Revolution. 

My medical students covered this topic when they presented on Chinese Traditional & Complimentary Medicine, under History of Medicine, for the General Block (Foundation Block) in Year 1 Medicine. This is the first lecture & student presentation that all medical students have to attend, learn together and do together. Input of this type is a very good eye opener to link present medical studies to our past history, and history of our region and people (Asia and Asiatic people). Even though we live and learn modern medicine in Kelantan, we also learn about ancient Chinese history of mainland China! That is what I call internationalization of learning, or global learning. Medical students seem to like and enjoy this particular mode of learning. It does require a lot of effort on my part to search for good resources for my medical students, in order to make 'history come alive' for them.