The Martyr Wife

Behind every successful man is a woman. How true is this phrase. I read a newspaper article today about the life of Chen Cuifen, the “mistress” of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern Republican China. The tag “mistress” is actually misleading. It is a western description of the relationship between Madame Chen and Dr. Sun. In reality, pre – republican Chinese men practices polygamy and Chinese law allows concubinage for reasons of propagation of offspring. In essence, mdm Chen is but Dr. Sun’s concubine and not a mistress. The reasons I took interest in her life story is because as a historian, I’m fascinated with her unheralded importance to the cause of the Chinese revolution that led to the overthrow of the Imperial regime and also because as a romantic, I can’t help but praise her devotion to her man in helping him achieve his goal and at the same time, felt indignant and betrayed over her obscure fate and unfair treatment. I couldn’t accept that how could a man of Dr. Sun’s stature would “leave” a woman who he profess to love and who has helped him so much, once he came to power. I guess it is but the expediency of realpolitik. Chen Cuifen was born on September 29, 1874 in Hong Kong. The fourth child of a poor traditional Chinese doctor, she was orphaned at a young age and as a result, wasn’t able to attend schooling and was illiterate throughout her entire life. She first met Sun when she was 19 through a common friend inside a church. Sun then was still finishing his medical studies and was already married by then but the two later on eloped. By the time Sun graduated, he began organizing a revolutionary association and traveled to America and other countries to solicit aid from overseas Chinese. Mdm Chen accompanied him in all his travels. Eventually, both returned to China where Sun started his practice while secretly plot to overthrow the regime while she became his nurse at his clinic as well as his secretary and confidante. She also helped Sun in smuggling guns to the various revolutionary groups all over the country for the eventual uprising since women were considered politically harmless at that time. When the uprising failed, she embarked with her husband to foreign exile, soliciting overseas Chinese support and organizing revolutionary groups. One time, while in London, Dr. Sun was kidnapped by the Chinese consul and was detained for treason. She was the one who went to see her husband’s friends and compatriots in order to appeal the British government to pressure the imperial regime to release Dr. Sun. She succeeded. Soon thereafter, the couple settled in Japan and there she became the gracious hostess to the numerous patriots who flee from persecution and seek her husband’s leadership. While the men plot, she was the one who cook for them, wash their clothes, arrange their accommodation. She even helped print the pamphlets, and organized secret communications. Untiring, patient and never to complain, she is also unassuming. Once, people praised her for her invaluable effort and she is said to reply that she didn’t do much but simply cooks and washes clothes. And what a cook she is, for in later uprisings, she risks her own life to ensure that the patriots are well fed and supported in the battlefield. When the regime was overthrown and her husband came to power, she disappeared from the limelight having left for Malaysia in a voluntary exile. Her husband had divorced his first wife and had just married the eldest daughter of the wealthy Soong family. The Soong sisters, of which the famous Soong Meiling, the wife generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek belongs, are not only wealthy, young, and beautiful but they are also American educated and politically well – connected. They are the things that a new fragile regime would seek. In contrast, mdm Chen is illiterate and doesn’t have a strong political backing. Years later, when somebody protested about her shabby treatment, she is said to have defended her husband saying that she is the one who left him and not the other way around for she is not fit to be his “wife” or more aptly, a public wife because she is illiterate and ignorant of the ways of the world. During her “exile” in Malaysia, the local Chinese took care of her since she was the revered “wife” of the great Sun Yat Sen. Having no child of her own, she adopted a daughter and named her Sun Rong in memory of the precious time she has with her husband. In 1924, upon hearing the news of the death of her husband, mdm Chen broke down in tears and mourned his passing deeply until her demise. Later on in her life, she was brought to Hong Kong and taken care of by Dr. Sun’s son by his first wife. She died in 1960 in Hong Kong in obscurity. I felt ashamed after reading her story because as a historian I should have known better. It is people like her that deserve to be written in the annals, to be praised in the history books, to be a role model for generations to come. But alas, her memory was obscured because of the fame of Dr. Sun’s third wife and because of her lowly status. Lucky bastard (Dr. Sun Yat Sen)! Some guys do have all the luck. If I were Sun, I wouldn’t give her up even for political expediency. I would have kept her at my side and announce to the whole wide world that what a great woman she is. But then again, I’m not him and everything is already history. Behind every successful man is a woman. How true, how true!