Review | Musical about modern China’s ‘founding father’ Sun Yat-sen, starring Ling Man-lung, showcases impressive Hong Kong talent – too bad it’s such a bro fest

Yat-sen, about Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen as a young man, impresses with great acting and singing, but downplays the role of women in the 1911 revolution

Actresses appear in peripheral roles as concubines or peasants, and comments from the director after the premiere added to the production’s chauvinistic feel

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A scene from Yat-sen featuring the “Four Bandits” influential in the 1911 Chinese revolution. The musical showcases impressive Hong Kong talent, but is tainted by its chauvinistic interpretation of history. Photo: Carmen So

Published: 5:45pm, 6 Mar 2023

Yat-sen, a musical, was originally commissioned for the 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2022, but ended up being pushed back one year because of venue closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. All that extra rehearsal time showed in the slick production about Sun Yat-sen, the “founding father” of modern China, as a young man.

It is a tale of clashes between conservatism and progression, of hot-headed youth battling authoritarianism, of hard choices and unforeseeable sacrifices.

If those references are not obvious enough echoes of 21st-century protests in Hong Kong, the musical features a scene recalling how British supporters of Sun demanded his release after he was detained by the Chinese in 1896.

The festival deserves commending for the boldness of this commission given the current political climate. After all, Sun and his fellow revolutionaries did manage to topple the incumbent Chinese regime in 1911.

A scene from Yat-sen, with Ling Man-lung (centre) in the starring role. The musical premiered on March 2, 2023 at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Photo: Carmen So

Artistically, the liberally dramatised depiction of the birth of revolutionary ideas, from the initial, inchoate anger of a teenager sent home to the backwater of Guangdong province after living in Hawaii for years with an elder brother, is certainly a refreshing take on the creation story of modern China.